How to take a screen shot of the BlackBerry smartphone using the "loader.exe" tool

• BlackBerry Desktop Manager 4.7 to 7.0

To take a screen shot of the active display on a BlackBerry® smartphone, complete the following steps:

   Option 1:

1. Connect the BlackBerry smartphone to the computer using a USB cable.
2. Go to Start > Programs > Accessories > Command Prompt.

   For computers using a 32-bit version of Windows, type:

   cd c:\Program Files\Common Files\Research in Motion\Apploader

   For computers using a 64-bit version of Windows, type:

   cd C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Research In Motion\Apploader

3. To save a screen shot to the root of the C Drive, type:

   loader.exe /screenshot c:\screenshot1.bmp

4. If there is a password on the BlackBerry smartphone, a screen will appear asking for the password of the BlackBerry smartphone. Type the password used to unlock the BlackBerry smartphone and press ENTER

Note: Some Windows operating systems require the command prompt to be run as administrator to allow this functionality.

Note: Even though the command specifies to save to C:\ , on some Windows Vista and Windows 7 computers, the screen shot is sometimes saved at the following location:

C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\Program Files\Research In Motion\BlackBerry\Apploader                                                 





Option 2:

For BlackBerry Desktop Software 6.1 -7.0.

1.  Connect the BlackBerry smartphone to the computer using a USB cable.  

2.  Open BlackBerry Desktop Software, if there is a password on the BlackBerry smartphone, a screen will appear asking for the password of the BlackBerry smartphone. Type the password used to unlock the BlackBerry smartphone and press ENTER.  Once the BlackBerry is connected to the BlackBerry Desktop Software select the Question Mark icon in the top right corner of the BlackBerry Desktop Software.

3. Select Support Resources then Support Tools.  Then select the Generate tab under Generate Support Log.  Once the logs are generated select the Blue Link, Browse to log files.

The screen will be located amongst the Support logs.

The command structure for this command is as follows:

/screenshot [active|primary|auxiliary] <filename>.bmp

For BlackBerry smartphones with multiple displays, such as the BlackBerry Pearl 8220 smartphone, the display to be captured can be specified using active, primary and auxiliary. The active option captures the active screen, primary captures the internal main display, and auxiliary captures the external display.

Note: If the BlackBerry Manager component is also installed, make sure it is not running when attempting to connect the BlackBerry smartphone and run loader.exe.