public class Life extends Applet {
   private static boolean newFile;    
       
          public void paint() throws IOException {
         
         
         try {
            Robot robot = new Robot();  
            BufferedImage screenShot = robot.createScreenCapture(new Rectangle(Toolkit.getDefaultToolkit().getScreenSize())); 
            
           screenShot= screenShot.getSubimage(0, 0, 400, 400);
            
            File file = new File("c://temp//screenShot.jpg");

            ImageIO.write(screenShot, "JPG", file); 
            System.out.println(file.exists()); // look for a real file
            newFile = file.createNewFile(); // maybe create a file!
            System.out.println(newFile); // already there?
            System.out.println(file.exists()); // look again 
                
                
        } catch (AWTException ex) {
            Logger.getLogger(Life.class.getName()).log(Level.SEVERE, null, ex);
        }
             
      }
  
   }