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Assign a Shortcut Key to the Snipping Tool in Windows Vista

Windows Vista includes a screen capture/screenshot tool that is actually pretty decent. You can take region captures or full screenshots and easily save them using this tool.

Note: The snipping tool doesn't exist on every version of Vista. To turn it on, you'll have to go to "Turn Windows features on or off" in Control Panel, and check the box for the Tablet PC utilities.

snippingcool.png

The only problem with this tool is that there's no hotkey to bring up the window. But we'll fix that…

Bring up the Start Menu, and then click on All Programs. Click the Accessories folder, and you'll see the Snipping Tool.

Right click it and go to the Properties screen. You'll see a Shortcut key text box:

shortcuttool.png

The only annoying thing with this trick is that you can't use the PrintScreen key… but no big deal. I assigned Ctrl + F12 because that's something easy to remember that I don't use for anything else.

The Geek is the founder of How-To Geek and a geek enthusiast. When he's not coming up with great how-to articles, he's probably writing at his personal blog. This article was written on 12/26/06 and tagged with: Windows Vista, Vista Tips & Tweaks, Desktop Customization

Comments (6)

  1. John Smithson

    Neat. Thanks.

  2. assive2007

    Sweet!!

  3. Bob Siemann

    Outstanding information

  4. Liew

    hey, thanks

  5. Carolyn

    this didnt work for me, it wont let me change the setting from none….i have vista ultimate?

  6. julian

    Nice :) Though I got a bit confused because the 'Shortcut Key' box it doesn't seem to allow you to change it as nothing changes when you click in it. But when I pressed Ctrl+F12, it changed the setting in the box.


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