Is it possible to get a Mac-like screenshot functionality in Windows? Update Cancel. With Windows 7 you can also use Snipping Tool (All Programs/Accessories/Snipping Tool). There are 3–4 tools which will help you to grab a screenshot like mac on windows. Print screen on windows is simple as print screen mac. Few tools like lightshot. Best Snipping Tool for Mac If you want a snipping tool packed with additional features, download Skitch, from the creators of Evernote. Skitch is a free snipping tool app for Macs that also allows you to easily draw arrows, boxes, add text, resize the image, and much more.
Like Windows 7 and Windows 8, Windows 10 too includes the Snipping Tool which lets you take screenshots in Windows 10 computer. This Snipping Tool or SnippingTool.exe is located in the System32 folder, but it (shortcut) can also be accessed via the following location:
C:ProgramDataMicrosoftWindowsStart MenuProgramsAccessories
Snipping Tool for Windows
Lets us have a look at ways to use the Snipping Tool in Windows 10/8/7, effectively.
Capture screenshots in Windows
When on the Metro UI or Start Screen, you can click on the Snipping Tool tile to open it. The tool will open, and you will find yourself immediately on your desktop. When in the Desktop mode, you can open it by typing Snipping Tool in the Charms Bar Search. If you use it regularly, you can also create its desktop shortcut to access it easily.
![Microsoft snipping tool for mac Microsoft snipping tool for mac](https://d2tt0.aoscdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/screenshotonmac.png)
To pin it as a Tile, when on the Windows 8 Start Screen, right click on the screen (not the tile). Click on the ‘All App’ option. In the bar that pops up at the bottom of the screen, you will see Snipping Tool in All apps. Simply right-click on it and choose the ‘Pin to Start’ option to put it on your Start screen as a Tile.
Snipping Tool
When you capture a shot from a browser & save it as an HTML file, the URL appears below the snip. To prevent the URL from appearing, open Options and clear the Include URL below snips (HTML only) check box.
Open Snipping Tool using Hotkey
If you are a frequent user of the Snipping Tool, you can create a hotkey for it. To do so open the System32 folder and right-click on SnippingTool.exe (or on its shortcut in the Program/Accessories folder). Select Properties. Here, you can set a hotkey for it. I have as an example selected F5. So to open the snipping tool, all I have to do next time is press F5.
The Snipping Tool allows you to take four different types of screenshots:
- Free-form Snip lets you draw and captures any irregular part of the screen
- Rectangular Snip will allow you to drag the cursor around an object to form a rectangle
- Window Snip will let you select an open window, such as a browser window or dialog box and let you capture it
- Full-screen snip will capture the entire screen when you select this type of snip.
Once you have changed the Settings to your requirements, you can click on New or Ctrl+PrtnScr to take captures.
Win+PrntScr in Windows
Clicking on Win+PrntScr in Windows will let you capture the screenshot as per your settings. The image is automatically saved in your Pictures folder.
Snipping Tool Keyboard shortcuts
- Alt+M – Choose a snipping mode
- Alt+N – Create a new snip in the same mode as the last one
- Shift+Arrow keys – Move the cursor to select a rectangular snip area
- Alt+D – Delay capture by 1-5 seconds
- Ctrl+C – Copy the snip to clipboard
Disable white overlay
When the Snipping Tool is open and active, a white overlay appears. If you want to turn it off, you can do so via its Options. Uncheck the option to Show screen overlay when Snipping Tool is active.
To save the image, you have to click on the Save Snip button An extra feature in Windows 8 is that the full screen shots are automatically saved in your Pictures folder.
If you wish to share a snip, you can click the Arrow on the Send Snip button, and then select an (email) option from the menu.
The Snipping Tool will not normally work on the start screen. You will be able to only capture the full start screen using the Win+PrntScr buttons and not a part of the start screen. If you click your allotted hotkey when on the start screen, your windows will automatically switch to the desktop mode with the snipping tool opened. But there is a trick to do so, which we will see a bit later!
Capture Context Menu using Snipping Tool
If you wish to capture screenshots of your context menu, start Snipping Tool and click on Esc. Next right-click on the desktop, file or folder and then press Ctrl+PrntScr. This will let you capture the right-click context menu. In Windows 7 you can also capture the start menu using this trick.
Capture parts of Windows 8 Start Screen
In Windows 8, to capture a part of your start screen, open Snipping Tool, press Esc. Next, press Win key yo switch to Start Screen and then press Ctrl+PrntScr. Now move your mouse cursor around the desired area. This will let you capture a part of your Windows 8 start screen. To capture the entire Start Screen, you can, of course, press Win+PrntScr.
NOTE: Windows 10 lets you set time delays to capture screenshots.
![Microsoft snipping tool windows 10 Microsoft snipping tool windows 10](https://cdn1.tekrevue.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/snipping-tool-960x540.jpg)
Capture part of screen using Hotkey
In Windows 10 Creators Update and later you can capture a part of your screen using a keyboard shortcut – WinKey+Shift+S. You can even create a desktop shortcut using the command snippingtool /clip in the Location box.
If you are aware of any more tips or tricks for the Snipping Tool, please do share them in the comments section.
You may also want to check out our freeware Windows Screen Capture Tool that allows you to capture full screen, selected screen area, windows, webpages and more. You can also add watermarks to your captured screenshot or edit the image using its basic image editor.
UPDATE: Check out the new Microsoft Snip Screen Capture Tool.
TIP: Download this tool to quickly find & fix Windows errors automatically
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Since Window 7, Microsoft has been including an incredibly handy tool with its operating system: Snipping Tool. According to Microsoft, the easiest way to make a copy of something is to take a snapshot of the screen, and that’s exactly what the Snipping Tool allows you to do.
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In this article, we describe what the Snipping Tool does and how to use it, and we also list many Snipping Tool Mac alternatives.
Snipping Tool Under Microscope
The idiom “a picture is worth a thousand words” is especially applicable in today’s digital age. Sharing of images has become incredibly easy, and much of what we do every day takes place on a computer screen. As such, people naturally want to capture what they write, see, create, and do for a myriad of different reasons.
To make screenshot-taking easier for users, Microsoft has created Snipping Tool. To access this tool, select the Start button, type snipping tool in the search box on the taskbar, and then select Snipping Tool from the list of results.
A small window will appear on your screen with four snipping modes:
Snipping Tool For Mac Os
- Free-form snip: this option allows you to draw a free-form shape around an object and save it as an image file.
- Rectangular snip: this option allows you to drag the cursor around an object to form a rectangle and save it as an image file.
- Window snip: this option allows you to select a window, such as a browser window or dialog box, and save it as an image file.
- Full-screen snip: this option captures the entire screen and saves it as an image file.
Other features of Snipping Tool include the option to set a delay as well as the option to annotate your snips by selecting the Pen or Highlighter buttons. Snipping Tool also supports a number of keyboard shortcuts:
- Alt + M: choose a snipping mode.
- Alt + N: create a new snip in the same mode as the last one.
- Shift + arrow keys: moves the cursor to select a rectangular snip area.
- Alt + D: delays capture by 1-5 seconds.
- Ctrl + C: copies the snip to clipboard.
- Ctrl +: saves the snip.
- Ctrl + PrtScn: captures the entire screen, including the open menu.
As you can see, Snipping Tool is quite powerful for such a small utility that many users are not even aware of. Unfortunately, we have bad news for Windows users who wonder how to use Snipping Tool on Mac: Apple’s operating system doesn’t come with this useful application. But it comes with another screenshot-taking tool, called Grab, and you can think of it as Snipping Tool for Mac.
Snipping Tool for Mac: Grab
Grab is a Mac Snipping Tool alternative that makes it possible to take screenshots of your screen and save them as image files. Just like Snipping Tool for Windows, Grab has several screen-capture modes, and it also supports keyboard shortcuts. Best of all, there’s no need to look for Snipping Tool download for Mac links as Grab comes included with all recent versions of macOS.
To access Grab, you can either:
Download Snipping Tool Windows 10
- Open it from the Utilities folder under Applications.
- Type /Applications/Utilities/Grab.app in Finder.
- Open Launchpad → Other → Grab.
- Open Spotlight and type in Grab.
By default, Grab saves screenshots in the PNG image file format. PNG is the most widely used lossless image compression format on the Internet, and it has a number of advantages over other lossless image compression formats. The problem with the PNG file format is that it produces somewhat large files. Fortunately, Grab allows you to change the default file format to JPG, TIFF, GIF, and PDF formats.
- To change it to JPG, open Terminal and type in “defaults write com.apple.screencapture type jpg” without the quotation marks.
- To change it to TIFF, open Terminal and type in “defaults write com.apple.screencapture type tiff” without the quotation marks.
- To change it to GIF, open Terminal and type in “defaults write com.apple.screencapture type gif” without the quotation marks.
- To change it to PDF, open Terminal and type in “defaults write com.apple.screencapture type pdf” without the quotation marks.
- To change it back to PNG, open Terminal and type in “defaults write com.apple.screencapture type png” without the quotation marks.
Okay, so you have Grab open, configured, and ready, but how do you take a picture of your screen or a part of it? You have several options:
- Grab → Capture → Selection: using this option, you can capture a specific region of your screen by dragging a selection box around.
- Shift + Command + A: this shortcut provides an alternative way how to trigger the selection option.
- Grab → Capture → Window: using this option, you can capture a screenshot of a window that you select.
- Shift + Command + W: this shortcut provides an alternative way how to trigger the window-capture option.
- Grap → Capture → Screen: using this option, you can capture a screenshot of your whole screen.
- Command + Z: this shortcut provides an alternative way how to trigger the screen-capture option.
- Grab → Capture → Timed Screen: using this option, you can start a 10-second timer, select a part of your screen, and then take a screenshot.
- Shift + Command + Z: this shortcut provides an alternative way how to trigger the timed screen-capture option.
More Snipping Tool Mac Alternatives
If you would prefer even simpler alternative to Snipping Tool for Mac than Grab, you’ll be pleased to know that macOS comes with not one but three such alternatives:
- Command + Shift + 3: captures a screenshot of your entire screen.
- Command + Shift + 4: turns the cursor into a crosshair, allowing you to select which portion of your screen you would like to capture.
- Command + Shift + 4 + Space: after pressing the space bar, the crosshair turns into a little camera icon, allowing you to move over any open window to take a screenshot of it.
All screenshots taken using these three shortcuts are saved to your desktop. You can also press control to save the screenshots to your clipboard instead, which is useful if you intend to paste them into other applications anyway.
Greenshot
Greenshot is an advanced screenshot-taking tool with built-in OCR capabilities. Just like Snipping Tool for Windows, Greenshot allows you to create screenshots of a selected region, window, or entire screen. It can even capture complete web pages from Internet Explorer without any addons. You can easily annotate, highlight, or obfuscate, the screenshots you take with Greenshot using the application itself and export them in various ways. Greenshot is completely free, open source, and it runs on both macOS and Windows.
LightShot
LightShot is a Mac Snipping Tool alternative and arguably the fastest way how to take a customizable screenshot. The application features a simple and intuitive user interface, which allows you to select any area on your desktop and take its screenshot with just two button-clicks. You can then share your screenshots with others by saving them to your computer or uploading them to LightShot’s servers. LightShot comes with an intuitive yet powerful screenshot editor, so you don’t have to leave the application just to highlight a part of a screenshot or add an annotation.
Snagit
Snagit is more than yet another Snipping Tool for Mac: it’s a full-featured screen-capture software with built-in advanced image editing and screen recording capabilities. The target audience of this powerful application is content creators, educators, business people, and really anyone who wants to add visuals to communicate clearly and be more engaging. With Snagit, you can capture your entire desktop, region, window, or scrolling screen. It takes just a few clicks to make complex edits right within the application, and Snagit’s user interface is so intuitive that using it is a pleasure.
Recover Deleted Screenshots on Mac
Disk Drill
Disk Drill isn’t a Snipping Tool alternative for Mac computers — it’s something even better. With Disk Drill, you can recover all common and not-so-common image file formats, so you’ll never lose any of your screenshots, pictures, videos, music, documents, or any other files since Disk Drill supports the recovery of over 200 file formats.
Sniping Tool Windows Xp
You can download Disk Drill for free and use it without any expert knowledge, and there are several extra reasons why you should definitely do so because it comes with extra free disk tools that can find duplicates on your hard drive, backup your data, or monitor the health of your hard drive, among many other things.
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Your Companion for Deleted Files Recovery
Your Companion for Deleted Files Recovery
Disk Drill has been successfully used to recover important files by countless professional and home users alike, establishing itself as the most accessible and reliable data recovery solutions for macOS and Windows.