Snipping Tool review
A free Windows capture utility for screenshots, selected-area recording, and quick edits.
Reviewed by iTechGuides Editors · Editorial team · Updated Oct 2026
For everyday screen capture and quick visual documentation, Snipping Tool brings screenshots and selected-area screen recording together in a free Windows utility. It suits Windows users who want to capture a window, the full screen, or a chosen region, then make quick edits without paying for a separate capture product. The range of capture shapes and built-in annotation tools also makes it useful for marking up instructions or highlighting details before sharing them through Windows options.
Its editing and text tools are a notable strength for a built-in utility. Captures can be cropped and marked with pens, highlighters, shapes, or emojis, with undo and redo available. OCR extracts text for copying, while quick redaction can obscure detected email addresses and phone numbers. A delay timer from 1 to 5 seconds helps when a capture needs to include an on-screen state that is not immediately ready. Screenshots save automatically to the Screenshots folder; image export formats include PNG and JPG. Screen recordings can include microphone audio, and Snipping Tool integrates with Clipchamp, Paint, and Windows sharing.
The main trade-off is scope. Microsoft says scrolling capture is not natively supported, so users who need to capture long webpages or documents will need another tool. Windows sharing is available, but this is not a cloud-sharing workflow. Feature availability can vary by Windows version and region. Choose Snipping Tool for free, practical capture and annotation within Windows; look elsewhere if scrolling capture or cloud sharing is central to your process.
Snipping Tool pros and cons
- Where it wins
- Captures freeform, rectangular, window, and full-screen images
- Combines selected-area recording with microphone audio
- Includes OCR, contact-detail redaction, annotations, and automatic saving
- Where it doesn't
- Does not natively support scrolling capture
- Limited to Windows
- Does not provide cloud sharing
Snipping Tool fact sheet, pricing and score →
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