How to Extract a Still Image from a Video in Windows 10

You may want to extract a still image from a video for a project or entertainment purpose. Many freeware programs can do the task. But if you’re running Windows 10, you can use the built-in Photos app to save a video frame to a JPEG file easily.

Extract a Still Image from Video in Windows 10

  1. Open the video file using the Photos app.
  2. From the “Edit & Create” menu option, click “Save photos”. You can also right-click on the video, click “Edit & create”, and click “Save photos.”

    capture still image photos app
    Screenshot of “Edit & Create” option in Windows 10 2004/20H2.
  3. Use the slider, navigation arrows, or the arrow keys on your keyboard to go to the video frame you want.
  4. Once there, click on the Save a photo glyph icon at the top.
    capture still image photos app

The output image is saved with the same name but with the .jpg extension. Also, the image dimensions will be the same as the source video’s dimensions. For example, if the source video is 1280 x 720 (720p), the output image will be of the exact same height and width.

tips bulb iconIf you want, you can trim/crop the image, or resize the image using the Photos app or the Image Resizer PowerToy.

It’s very weird that for some videos, you see the Save as dialog box when saving the still image. For others, the still image JPG file may be automatically saved in the same folder where the video file resides.

Output file size

Another issue is the size of the output image. The Photos app is known to produce large, uncompressed output files, be it a video or still image.

The still image output produced by the Photos app was big, and the TinyPNG.com (lossy) compressor could compress it by 96%.

tinypng compress ratio

Whereas, compressor.io gave the following outputs, 1st one was a lossless compression, and the 2nd, a lossy compression.

compress ratio images

Do you have any other trick up your sleeve to extract still images from videos natively? Let’s know in the comments box below.

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Ramesh Srinivasan is passionate about Microsoft technologies and he has been a consecutive ten-time recipient of the Microsoft Most Valuable Professional award in the Windows Shell/Desktop Experience category, from 2003 to 2012. He loves to troubleshoot and write about Windows. Ramesh founded Winhelponline.com in 2005.

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2 thoughts on “How to Extract a Still Image from a Video in Windows 10”

  1. Now there’s been an upgrade to Photos on Windows 10, I can’t just save a photo. The only option at the top is Trim. WT? Any hints on what else one can do?

    Reply

    • Same case here, but very weirdly, I found another site that says to use the Movies & TV app to get to the same point. And it still works! Open the video in Movies & TV, click the Pencil icon in the lower right corner, save photo from video, and it opens the same interface this post talks about. No idea why it was removed from the Photos app, but it’s still usable.

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