I Ditched the Snipping Tool on Windows for This App

Feb 22, 2025

Although Windows' Snipping Tool has improved lately, it still leaves a lot to be desired. I didn't fully realize how limited it was until I tried ShareX. This free, open-source tool has quickly become my go-to for screen capturing, and I don't see myself returning to Snipping Tool.

While Snipping Tool only offers basic options for screen capturing—such as rectangular, window, full screen, and freeform captures—ShareX goes well beyond. One of my favorites is scrolling capture, which lets me capture long web pages or documents.

Another useful option is the ability to record screen activity as GIFs. I often use this to demonstrate steps or show small interactions in my articles. There's also the auto-capture function, which I use occasionally. With it, I can set ShareX to take screenshots automatically at specific intervals.

When it comes to annotating screenshots, Snipping Tool doesn’t offer enough options to meet my needs. Sure, it allows me to add shapes, emojis, and some freehand drawing, but that’s about it.

With ShareX I can add text, speech bubbles, and even step numbers to guide viewers through a screenshot. What I find especially useful is the ability to blur or pixelate parts of an image, which makes it incredibly easy to hide sensitive information.

ShareX also includes a magnification tool, so I can quickly highlight important parts of a screenshot. Having all of these annotation features built into the app means I no longer need to rely on third-party apps to edit my screen captures, as it's all right there in the same app.

Beyond simple annotations, ShareX offers plenty of options to refine my screenshots. After capturing something, I can simply right-click on the image and choose Add image effects to add borders, watermarks, or unique backgrounds. It even lets me make adjustments—like cropping, resizing, and scaling—directly within the app.

The best part? I can create and save specific presets for any of these adjustments. So, if I want all my screenshots to have the same crop size or a specific watermark, I can create a preset and apply it without having to manually redo the steps every time.

Another feature I've come to rely on is batch editing. If I need to apply the same effects to multiple images, ShareX lets me do that all at once. This is especially useful when I'm working on projects that require a consistent style across several images.

One of my favorite things about ShareX is its seamless handling of cloud uploads. It supports various cloud storage services, including Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox, and Mega.

Additionally, if I need to quickly share an image online, I can upload it to popular image-hosting services like Flickr, Imgur, Photobucket, and ImageShack, directly from ShareX.

Setting this up is easy, too—I simply need to head to Destinations > Destination settings, link my accounts, and I’m good to go. After capturing a screenshot or video, I can press Ctrl + U in the editor window and enjoy the seamless upload process. I can also set captures to automatically upload to different services if I want, as well.

The sheer convenience of this is something the Snipping Tool simply can’t match.

A large part of what makes capturing, editing, and uploading screenshots with ShareX so convenient for me is its extensive support for keyboard shortcuts. With ShareX, I can use shortcuts to capture my screen in a variety of ways—whether it’s a full-screen capture, a specific region, a scrolling capture, or even screen recording.

I'm not stuck with the default shortcuts; I can customize them to suit my workflow. This is a huge step up from the Snipping Tool, where I had to manually select different options depending on what I wanted to capture.

All in all, ShareX offers far more flexibility, automation, and customization than I ever expected to need in a screen capture app. If you're still using the Snipping Tool, give ShareX a shot—you might be surprised at how much more productive you can be.

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Windows Defender has blocked installation of ShareX .... any comments?

Very confusing on how to use it...I'm going back to snipping tool

will it work with my MAC?

Isn't it amazing how many Free and Open Source tools make Windows better, with that much Free and Open Source Software available, you would think people would stop using Windows for anything, and start using the Ultimate Free and Open Source Tool... The Linux based Operating System, like Ubuntu, Linux Mint, Fedora, Manjaro and others, where all those FOSS tools are available by default.

Seriously, Microsoft?

Microsoft isn't budging on the hardware requirements needed to run Windows 11.

A revamped AI Hub is here to help.

You'll wonder how you lived without it.

Stay vigilant, Mac users.

Took you long enough, Google!