7 ways Snipping Tool has become better in Windows 11

Windows 11 can be criticized for many things, but it’s hard to deny that Microsoft has been adding a lot of features that make the operating system and its apps that much better. In the past, I already highlighted how the Paint app became better in this version of Windows, and now I want to do the same for the Snipping Tool.

The Snipping Tool in Windows 11 is actually a merger of the old Snipping Tool and the Snip & Sketch app from Windows 10, bringing together the best of both and adding a whole lot new to the mix. Let’s go over some of the best parts of this new version of the Snipping Tool.

7 New timer options

They just make more sense

Starting off small, the new Snipping Tool comes with some new options for timed screenshots, which generally make more sense. Whereas the Snipping Tool supported one-second intervals up to 5 seconds, this new app supports a 3-second, 5-second, or 10-second timer. You do have fewer options, but really, there’s not much of a chance the one-second timer ever gave you enough time to do what you needed to do to grab a specific screen.

This is also an improvement over the Snip & Sketch app on Windows 10, which only had options for 3 and 10 seconds. The new Snipping Tool makes sensible choices for the timer options available, and it’s a more well-rounded app as a result.

6 A modernized UI

It looks nice now

The Snipping Tool in Windows 11 is also a big improvement over the previous version of the Snipping Tool, taking more inspiration from the Snip & Sketch app from Windows 10, and then modernizing it further for Windows 11. The UI in the new Snipping Tool mostly looks the same as Snip & Sketch, but with new icons and more rounded corners in UI elements for a nicer feel overall.

Aside from simply looking more modern, this new UI comes with the major benefit of supporting dark mode, which was never an option in the classic Snipping Tool. All the icons use the more simplistic style of Windows 11, which looks cleaner while still maintaining clarity.

5 It’s easier to use than ever

Keyboard shortcuts are a great addition

Another element the new Snipping Tool takes from Snip & Sketch is the ability to quickly launch the app to take a screenshot at any time without going through the Start menu. At any moment, you can press Windows + Shift + S on your keyboard to launch the Snipping Tool’s capture mode, which can take screenshots of the entire screen, a specific window, or an area drawn by the user.

In fact, recent Windows 11 updates made this even easier. Now, you can launch the Snipping Tool by just pressing the Print Screen key, which makes things even easier, especially when it comes to capturing context menus or tooltips that would usually be dismissed when pressing the Windows key.

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4 Automatically saving screenshots

It saves me some time

I used Snip & Sketch quite a bit on Windows 10 already, but it wasn’t a perfect experience. Every time I took a screenshot, I’d need to open the main app to edit and save it if I wanted to keep it, and it wasted a bit of my time. It’s especially frustrating today when I need to capture Windows 10 screenshots and forget that they’re not saved automatically, so I can’t take multiple in quick succession.

On Windows 11, Microsoft added the ability to automatically save screenshots to your computer, and it’s enabled by default, which makes things so much easier. Now, if I just want to take a screenshot quickly, I can do just that, and if I need to edit it, I still have that option just as I did before. It’s really nice.

3 New editing capabilities

It’s a much more capable tool now

The Snipping Tool in Windows 11 has also become a much better tool for annotating and drawing on your screenshots. The classic Snipping Tool had basic pen and highlighter tools, and Snip & Sketch wasn’t too different. But through numerous updates, the new Snipping Tool has added a ton.

The existing tools have improved with more thickness options and colors, but it’s the new tools that stand out, such as the ability to draw straight lines, arrows, and shapes such as rectangles and circles, making the tool perfect for highlighting parts of an image and creating tutorials. In fact, I use the Snipping Tool frequently for my own guides, and it’s a blessing. Shapes can have outlines and fill, so you can really use them in any way you’d like.

You can even add emoji to your screenshots, which isn’t exactly useful, but it might be somewhat fun depending on what you’re taking screenshots of.

2 Text recognition

Copy or hide text in screenshots

This is one of my absolute favorites, and another feature I rely on almost daily. Snipping Tool on Windows 11 supports optical character recognition (OCR), which means it can identify text in an image, and it can then take actions on it. For example, you can copy text from an image that you might otherwise have to type out manually.

More importantly for me, though, Snipping Tool can also redact sensitive information easily. Many times I’ll take screenshots of the Settings app in Windows 11 for a guide, for example, and that includes my email. Snipping Tool has a quick redact feature that automatically hides that for me, so I never really have to worry about showing my personal email address off to the world. Usually, I’d have to hide it manually, which was far more time-consuming.

Recently, Microsoft has even added QR code recognition, and while I don’t really have a use for that, it’s definitely good to have all these features built into an app that used to be so basic.

1 Video recording

It’s about time

For years, Windows lacked a proper video recording tool. You could use the Xbox Game Bar, but this was a janky solution since it was meant to be sued for games, and some scenarios weren’t really supported.

Finally, in Windows 11, Microsoft has addressed this major oversight by adding proper screen recording to the Snipping Tool app, This tool lets you record any area of your screen easily, and it has the option to enable audio recording from your microphone and the computer’s output separately. This makes it perfect for showcasing step-by-step guidance and explaining what’s happening using your voice, so you can create an easy-to-understand guide without needing any third-party tools.

Screen recording is a feature that’s been added to platforms like Android and iOS years ago, so it’s surprising that Microsoft took so long to deliver it, but it’s easily one of the best additions to the Windows toolset. You no longer need to hunt for software riddled with ads or pay for a quality video recording app.

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I love the new Snipping Tool

Before Windows 11, I rarely, if ever, opened the Snipping Tool. Even back in the day it felt like a relic that wasn’t very convenient to use. But thanks to all the modernization and updates that have been done to the app in the Windows 11 era, this has become one of my absolute favorite apps in Windows 11, and it’s essential in my daily workflow. It could definitely be better, but I rarely ever need a Snipping Tool alternative anymore.