An error shown inside a photograph or video cannot always be selected as ordinary text. PowerToys Text Extractor can recognise text in a region of the Windows screen, but the result needs checking before it becomes a search query or a support report.

Bring the relevant image into view and enlarge the message until individual characters are clear. Pause a video on the useful frame. Include the error heading and code, while leaving account details and unrelated windows outside the capture area.

Capture into a place where you can inspect it

With Text Extractor enabled, use its configured activation shortcut; Microsoft's default is Windows+Shift+T. Drag around the required text. The recognised result goes to the clipboard. Paste it into a plain text note first, where mistakes are easier to notice than inside a search field.

Compare the code character by character with the image. Pay particular attention to zero and the letter O, one and lowercase l, punctuation, spaces and minus signs. Keep the original image alongside the corrected note so another person can check an ambiguous character.

Preserve context without copying everything

Add the application name, the action that produced the message and the approximate time. Label uncertain characters instead of silently guessing. Search for the verified code together with the product name; a generic sentence alone may lead to advice for an unrelated system.

Text Extractor depends on an installed OCR language pack. If recognition is poor for the language shown, check its preferred language and Microsoft's language support instructions. Repeatedly drawing the same region will not add a missing language pack.

Treat extracted text as a transcription, not an instruction to execute. A command appearing in a screenshot should be reviewed for purpose and source before it is ever run. For a support handover, the useful output is a checked message plus a small amount of context, with private information removed from both the note and its accompanying image.

Source: Microsoft PowerToys documentation.