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How to use the built-in snipping tool in Windows 11 - no need for third-party tools!

Writer: Amanda Sterner
Amanda Sterner
Jun 3, 2025
4 min read

Hi welcome to my series on how to start loving Windows 11 now that it's time for Windows 10 to say bye 👋🏻. Until 14th of October I will explore Windows 11 features and functionality 💗.


In the fourth blog post in my series on how to fall in love with Windows 11 I want to talk about how to use the built-in snipping tool and what you can do.


Why should I use the built-in snipping tool?

Well, why should you? Earlier the built-in snipping tool lacked functionality but today it's just as good as third-party tools and it's just there ready to use! And I just love using a built-in free tool that requires no installing or different versions, it's just there 😎.


How to Use the Built-In Snipping Tool in Windows 11 - how to reach it and what you can do

You reach the snipping tool by pressing Windows button + Shift + S. You can also reach it by searching for snipping tool and clicking + New. I prefer the shortcut since it makes it possible for me to snip when I'm in my working mood.


There are a range of different things you can do:


Snip an image: Sniping the image, before you snip you can decide if you prefer to snip a rectangle, window, full screen or free shape.

Gif of sniping screen and different options

Snip a video: When sniping a video, the only choice is sniping a rectangle. Before you start recording you can decide if you want to include the audio system and/or the microphone. You will not be able to edit the videos in the editor mode after, it will be saved directly. For editing I recommend Clipchamp 🙂.

Gif of sniping a video

Perfect screenshot: This is an AI Copilot +PC functionality that helps you crop or resize your snips in a more precise way. No need to retake a snip to get the perfect size or. There should also be some sort of smartness included in an automatic resizing of crop size based on content - I have yet to experience this 🙈. Note! This is in Windows Insider at the moment (this is how you enroll if you like to test new things ➡️➡️ The Windows Insider Program).

Gif of getting a perfect screen shot with AI

Click to do: You can also find Click to do through this shortcut, read more about click to do in this blogpost: How to get started with Microsoft Recall as an end-user.


Color picker: No need to use a third-party tool or website to find that HEX, RGB or HSL code from a color you like. Now you can directly with snipping tool find the color code. When you use this the color code will be copied.

Gif of color picker tool

Text extractor: With this feature you can extract text, I don't see a big use case for text but the lovely thing is that it works both on images and videos as well (as you can see in my gif on my background image)! When you've picked this you will get more options such as copy all text, automatically copy all text or remove line breaks. Note! This is in Windows Insider at the moment.

Gif of text extractor

Edit the snip

Ok we have the snip - let's edit it! Every time you make a snip the image will appear in your notifications asking if you want to do more with then snip other than copying in. If you don't see this make sure snipping tool is turned on under your notification settings.

Gif of how to edit a snip

There are a range of different things you can do:


Take a new snip: We have the same options here but we also get a timer, I guess that's needed if you don't use the shortcut 😇.


Draw on the image: There is one normal pen and one highlighter, both with several colors to use.


Eraser: We can erase what we drawn.


Add shapes: We can add different kinds of shapes such as squares, arrows, circles and more. With our without filling. We can also add a few selected emojis.


Crop: We can crop the image if we want.


Edit in Paint: If we need even richer functionality such as adding text or for example an image on top of the snip, we can also choose to edit the snip in Paint.


Save/copy: When we are done we either save the snip or copy it and paste it where it's needed 🙂.


More settings: If you want to adjust more settings you will find the settings under ..., you can change things such as saving copies of the snips, where to save them, add a border to each snip and more. 

Gif of more settings in edit mode

Final thoughts

I hope we all can agree on that the built-in snipping tool offers a lot of flexibility and functionality! Now you go ahead and use it 💃🏻💃🏻.


✨✨✨


Others posts in my Windows 11 series:




343 Comments


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viswiseco+98fc73ce
Oct 25

This piece gives a clear walkthrough of the snipping tool shortcut (Windows+Shift+S) and the various capture modes like rectangle, window, full screen and freeform, which is handy for knowing which option to pick. It also explains the snipping tool’s current limitations for video — only rectangular captures and no in-app video editor — and notes the audio capture choices you can toggle before recording. The write-up highlights newer Insider features such as the Perfect screenshot AI Copilot and the text extractor that works on both images and video, and it points readers toward external editing options dropany that handle tasks the built-in editor won’t. Finally, the explanation of the color picker copying HEX/RGB/HSL values is practical for designers who need exact…

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Oct 18

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Waris Ali
Waris Ali
Oct 15

This Windows 11 Snipping Tool guide is helpful for learning how to capture and share screenshots easily. The 10.0.0.1 login page can also help users access their router settings and manage their home network.

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Oct 15

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HI, I'M AMANDA STERNER

WELCOME TO MY BLOG ABOUT MICROSOFT TEAMS, MICROSOFT 365 AND COLLABORATION.
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I HOPE THAT YOU LEARN SOMETHING NEW TODAY!

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