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I’ve been living under a rock. Or rather missed the announcement. I spotted online a discussion about the potential removal of snipping tool in a fu
[See the full post at: Patch Lady – Snipping tool removal?]
Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher
I will be sorry to see its demise, if its going to be a “Store App” you know its fuss free operation days are over alas. Its nearly a “Daily Driver” in work and posting in here as so often a “Screen Snip” or a picture is worth a thousand Words. I suspect that whatever M$ is basing this rationale on for removing it from the OS is flawed as surely the all “snooping” Telemetry must be telling them its used and used frequently by lots of folk.
Telemetry should tell them that, if Microsoft actually bothers to review the telemetry they take. I’m not entirely convinced they do.
However, a review of store traffic also tells them a sizeable portion of their users do not visit the store. An eager go-getter may think their is some overlap in these numbers.
[begin tone deaf brainstorm session] It is so terribly sad these users have not found the benefit of our store. How can we introduce them to the quality experience they could enjoy by getting all their required needs through our store? I know, we will take away one of the most useful widgets used daily and force them to find it in the store. They will thank us for introducing them to the added value found in our store. None of them will find third party solutions instead. Nor will any of them feel abused by the additional hurdle set in their way. [cheers of agreement on the brilliancy of this proposed plan, meeting breaks for a well deserved meal]
I was late to the party with the snipping tool but I do use it now and like it. It’s on the toolbar on all of our new install images. Of course Microsoft will remove it. It still works and is actually a useful tool. The direction Microsoft is taking is very troubling. No regard for the consumer at all anymore.
Red Ruffnsore
This seems to work very much like “Preview” does in Macs. I would be interested in getting it and installing it in my Windows 7, x64 machine. How can I do that, while it still is available (if not gone already)? Thanks.
You should already have it in Windows 7. Click the Start button; then in the Run field, type SNIPPING. It will find it if you do that. Right-click on it, and add it to Start, Desktop, etc., so you don’t have to search for it the next time.
@oscarcp alternatively you can find it in Start->all programs->accessories->Snipping Tool as @mrjimphelps suggests pin it to the start menu (I do) for easy access, you can add right click functionality to “Snip” the screen if you use Winaero Tweaker, alas I tried “Snipping the Snip” Tool here and its location in the Start menu and it wont let me, must be shy or know’s its days are numbered. lol 
Greenshot and ShareX are open source that are decent replacement for the snipping tool
Thanks, MrJimPhelps!
Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).
MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV
Supposedly now they’re not going to remove it.
https://www.zdnet.com/article/windows-10-screen-snipping-tool-microsoft-gives-it-a-new-name-adds-delay-feature/
However, the company noted in a blog that despite that earlier warning the message Snipping Tool actually wouldn’t be removed and that it wanted feedback on the Screen Sketch app.
I use ShareX (and formerly used Greenshot) instead of the Snipping Tool, just because the drawing/text capabilities are awesome and work wonders for making IT documentation. 
I’m convinced Microsoft will back off on yanking the snipping tool. Too many people know how to use it, and it works fine.
I, too, use ShareX. And for the books I use Snagit. Both vastly superior to the Snipping Tool – but that’s no reason to yank it, or replace it with a UWP app.
I think it was Noel or PKCano that has mentioned irfanview before. This is what I have always used and is my default picture app on all Windows 10 installs. A few extra steps to copy and paste but works fine.
Red Ruffnsore
Snipping Tool is one of the handiest tools Microsoft has ever produced. Who got the “bright” idea to remove it from Windows?
This may be true. Accept as given.
But I remain baffled why one minute of productive time and effort needed to be expended on removing a useful feature, forcing many minutes of effort from every affected user to rectify back to the same prior condition. A lot of useless friction developed for no discernible gain.
Am I the only Windows 7 user who’d never even heard of “snipping tool” until I saw this article?
You have been missing out. Windows 10 snipping tool supports printing, Win7 you have to cut and paste to Word or paint. But if you want quick and dirty grab of a screen, nothing is better or faster.
Until Microsoft kills is that is…
Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher
Yes, you can cut and paste anywhere. To word, excel, etc. The major difference between 7 and 10 is that 10 you can send the snip to a printer, 7 you cannot.
Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher
Thanks for reminding me about Windows Photo Viewer. In Win8.1, you cannot find it as an option when you click on the down arrow on the Start screen to list Apps. Neither can you find ‘Windows Photo Viewer’ in a search from the Start screen.
Yet in the Desktop, if you click on File Explorer on the Taskbar, then double-click the Pictures folder, then double-click an image, it appears in Windows Photo Viewer.
Now if it brings it up in the Photos app, bring up the Charms bar (if you haven’t deactivated it), click Settings, then at the bottom, click ‘Change PC settings’. The app comes up, then click ‘Search and apps’ on the left-hand side. Click ‘Defaults’ & click on ‘Photos’ under ‘Photo viewer’. One should be ‘Windows Photo Viewer’. Click it, then either arrow back or close the PC settings app when the title bar appears at the top. The directions in the 2nd paragraph should work.
Bought a refurbished Windows 10 64-bit, currently updated to 22H2. Have broke the AC adapter cord going to the 8.1 machine, but before that, coaxed it into charging. Need to buy new adapter if wish to continue using it.
Wild Bill Rides Again...
You can find M$’s version on how to use Snipping Tool here and you can find its location in Win7 pretty much all versions below its present in Win’s 8.1 and 10 again all vers. 
Link to source for HowTo’s here https://www.heatware.net/windows-7/capture-screenshots-in-windows-7-using-the-snipping-tool/
Used many times if you don’t want to show the whole desktop or just the relative bits “One Picture often is worth more than a Thousand Words”.
I’ve used it a few times in Windows 8 and Windows 10 only until I got Gadwin Printscreen 4.7 installed on a new computer. I’ve used Gadwin Printscreen for at least 15 years and never upgraded past version 4.7 (newer versions had an awful GUI).
I’ve used Irfanview, of course, but I think Gadwin is much better. A main lack (to me) in Snip tool is it is harder to organize your files of clips. That can be set up easily in Gadwin. Snip does let you use Paint like tools right there when captured which, if you use Gadwin, you have to open the screenshot in MSPaint. I rarely need to do that so Gadwin’s ability to organize all the screenshots is more important to me. But I’m glad to hear Microsoft is not getting rid of it. I had to use Snip for a screenshot of Gadwin Printscreen GUI.
I too used Gadwin for a lot of years, and I also stuck with the older version because of the GUI changes. Eventually, I switched to GreenShot. I had it set to dump a screenshot (the entire screen, not the active window or a selected portion) to a .png file, without any sort of interaction required after PrintScreen is pressed. If I need a fraction of the screenshot, it only takes a second to open the picture in the picture viewer (to make sure it is the right one), right-click and Open With Paint.NET, then select the area, then crop to selection. I’d rather do it in two stages… the screenshot file will sit there and wait for me to edit it. Usually, if I am screen-shooting something, it’s because I am doing something with the PC, and I’d rather finish that and then worry about the cropping than to do it up front, right in the middle of whatever task I am trying to do.
Windows 8.1 and 10 have the ability to do this type of screenshot without a third party utility. Simply press Win + Printscreen, and the screen will be saved into the Pictures directory. I still used Gadwin/ Greenshot, as I was using Metro Blocker, and that prevented Win + Printscreen from working. I also wanted the hotkey to be just Printscreen, not a two-key combo.
Dell XPS 13/9310, i5-1135G7/16GB, KDE Neon 6.2
XPG Xenia 15, i7-9750H/32GB & GTX1660ti, Kubuntu 24.04
Acer Swift Go 14, i5-1335U/16GB, Kubuntu 24.04 (and Win 11)
On Windows 10, I always use the shortcut keys. Windows+Shift+S. Everyone I show that to loves it.
In the days I had to work for a wage it was indispensable for compiling instructions. The only shortcoming for my use was drop-downs and popups that closed when focus changed to Snipping Tool.
Another useful tool for similar work is the Steps Recorder. It takes a little more effort to learn but can be handy for either instructions or showing people what goes wrong as you run a program. Or an aid if you plan to resolve an issue yourself via web search (e.g. recording information contains version information, correct names and error number).
In windows 10, click start and type PSR and enter to open the application. Note that the menu has an option to pause, which can evade the result being a mind-boggling quantity of images and text).
What’s the big deal? Why are people so frantic to use MS’s snipping tool, when there are far better, free snipping tools out there.
The free version offers tons of features, and there are no ads.
1x Linux Mint 19.1 | 1x Linux antiX
Its no stupid fumble, but fully intentional, no doubt. Its not a design but a policy decision. Another push by Microsoft to enforce love for its unloved appstore/Windows10/enforced update/whateverelseyouname.
If you don’t like ’em, they’ll make ya. Typically Microsoft these days.
Marc
Indeed thats what I did. Two machines. Linux for EVERYTHING – except a few games/simulations, on a W10 hardware.
Thats all what Windows now is good for: playing games. But sometimes even that it messes up.
I switched to the Snipping Tool with Windows 10, when a graphics suite that I had used for years was no longer compatible with this OS.
I found the MS Snipping Tool to be a very convenient replacement for the screen capture tool that I was used to.
Microsoft Store disabled here, and local account user only! So that won’t be an option for me!
Windows 10 Pro 22H2
And what would be the difficulty with offering an improvement in place?
Absurd hypothetical absurdity: Your car is stolen out of your driveway in the wee hours. After you have done all the usual necessary activities to adapt to your new found environment, reporting and obtaining alternative transportation, you arrive at the office and find a helpful message. “I had your car picked up for service this morning. It will be improved for your convenience. But it will not be delivered. You will have to go to the dealership to pick it up. Oh, not the local dealer, they couldn’t do the work and had a driver take it to the next town over so it could be done right. But really this is all done for your convenience. Hope you’re not upset by any inconvenience. I mean, we told you about this a year and a half ago.”
And note that at the top of this comment, I used the word offering. Offer the user an improvement, and allow them to say “Yes, please. I like that new item.” It yields far more good will than take and force to adapt.
How dare Microsoft announce three months ago that they intend to update a 16-year-old utility with additional functionality in a year’s time? (“… gives you all of the functionality of the Snipping Tool with additional improvements.“) We don’t want no stinkin’ improvements!
I remember Microsoft claiming that Windows 10 was “the best Windows ever,” which means they consider it an improvement over previous versions. If that’s what is meant by “improvements,” we really don’t want no stinkin’ improvements. Windows 10 is so much “improved” that it prompted me to quit Windows (mostly, with the rest of the way a work in progress) and leave the OS I have been using for 28 years behind. Aside from virtual machines, of course, which I hope is not going to be necessary forever (if everything’s in the cloud, what difference does it make what I use to get there?).
This new thing is clearly a UWP “app,” judging from the screenshot, and I understand it’s to be downloadable from the Microsoft store? Either one of those alone makes it very much not an improvement, regardless of how many bells and whistles they try to add to it. My Windows 8.1 setups have no “apps” anymore, Store included, and the last time I ran 10 on a real machine, it didn’t either. (“Apps” means anything UWP or Metro/Modern/TIFKAM, of course.) These “apps” haven’t become any more welcome since that time.
Dell XPS 13/9310, i5-1135G7/16GB, KDE Neon 6.2
XPG Xenia 15, i7-9750H/32GB & GTX1660ti, Kubuntu 24.04
Acer Swift Go 14, i5-1335U/16GB, Kubuntu 24.04 (and Win 11)
Microsoft would probably question why you think getting it from the Microsoft Store should be considered its demise. Don’t get me wrong; I won’t be visiting their store any time soon.
For what it’s worth, I have always used a free-for-private-use 3rd party application IrfanView to (among other things) do screen grabs. It has some VERY nice features, such as the ability to capture anything from your entire desktop to the content of the client area of your application to a specified rectangle of the screen by pixel addresses. Note all the places you can send the pixels.
One of my favorite features is the ability to repeatedly capture the screen on timed intervals. That can be good for having it watch a Windows Update while you go get coffee.
Just start IrfanView and press C (for capture) to set it up:
Once started it minimizes to your TaskBar. Press the hot key you have chosen to do the capture(s). It makes a sound when it grabs the pixels.
In answer to your question, Susan, I won’t miss the demise of the Snipping Tool at all, since I already have something better.
-Noel
For the vast majority of my user base they never go to the Microsoft store. For me it’s YAPTWHTM (yet another password that we have to manage). I would much prefer a native tool that
1. works
2. works already well
3. doesn’t need a Microsoft account to be installed or updated
4. the patching of said tool would be with the operating system patches
5. the “upgrade” isn’t a downgrade. The current snip and sketch does not include a print function.
Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher
For the vast majority of my user base they never go to the Microsoft store. For me it’s YAPTWHTM (yet another password that we have to manage).
If your staff have a Microsoft Work Account to use Office 365 then they don’t need a different password to access Microsoft Store.
For those of us who do desktop support, there is a definite advantage to having good native tools in Windows. Whenever you remote into a user’s PC, you need to have good workable tools to use on their computer. That’s why (I’m dating myself here) I made myself learn and use EDLIN – it was available on EVERY computer I supported. Later, I learned EDIT for the same reason. And although Wordpad and Paint aren’t best-in-class programs, they are good things to learn because they are native Windows programs – they are on every version of Windows you will ever encounter these days.
Not everyone will have Irfanview on their computer; but EVERYONE, from Windows 7 forward, will have Snipping Tool. For now.
By the way, in case the replacement for Snipping Tool isn’t up to snuff, and you are in a must-have situation (e.g. fixing someone’s computer), you can snip the old-fashioned way: Hit <ALT>-<Print Screen>; open Paint; hit Paste; select the part of the screen print that you want, and hit Crop. That’s the sort of thing you need to be reasonably good at when you support lots of different computers, because you simply never know what will be available on a user’s computer.
Fair words, and good points. I agree as far as this goes. There is however, a difficulty in how the function is valued. And it splits in two directions.
If this is a necessary function, important to many users, then stripping it out is viewed as a loss of function. If the only option is to go ‘purchase’ at no cost a replacement from the store, then you have made this product equal in value to all the solutions offered by your competition. The more individuals find solutions from other vendors, the less they will view your product line as the premier option.
If this is not a necessary function, then stop tweaking it altogether. There are plenty other issues that need to be addressed. Leave this small market to others while you work on what is important.
I ask where on the sliding scale does the necessary divide fall? Is cut-and-paste itself a concept that is not necessary? There could be a truly lean operating system if we just remove graphic interface elements altogether. Useability be darned.
I do not believe this is about reducing bloat.
Microsoft don’t half put out some c***, but the Snipping Tool is one of the best things they’ve ever made. Simple, and works. Now they want to make it an “app”, just to force you to use the store…lol. They never learn.
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