Four built-in shortcuts cover almost every case.
Paste clipboard captures with Ctrl + V. Saved files land in Pictures > Screenshots.
Looking for a simpler alternative? UnicornOCR sits in your system tray. One hotkey or tray click, drag to select, and it's on your clipboard. One step, no combos.
Notes and caveats
Win + Shift + S is the one most people want
A toolbar appears with four modes: rectangle, free-form, window, and full-screen. The snip goes to your clipboard, and a notification pops up that you can click to annotate or save.
PrtScn on laptops
On many laptops you need Fn + PrtScn. You can also remap PrtScn to open Snipping Tool directly from Settings > Accessibility > Keyboard.
Snipping Tool app
Search "Snipping Tool" in the Start menu for extras: a delay timer (3/5/10s) for capturing menus or tooltips, annotation pens, and save as PNG, JPG, or GIF.
If you screenshot often
UnicornOCR is a Windows tray app built around a shorter workflow:
- Single-key hotkeys - separate shortcuts for screenshot, OCR, window capture, and full-screen
- Multi-monitor capture - drag across displays in one snip
- OCR built in - extract text from anything on screen
- Barcode and QR scanning - decode codes from your screen (see our guide)
- Recent captures - preview and re-copy earlier captures (Pro)
- Automatic file saving - captures saved to a folder as you go (Pro)
Available on the Microsoft Store. Runs offline, nothing leaves your machine.