Image: diignat, Getty Images/iStockphoto

The Microsoft Windows 10 May 2022 Update, which advances the OS to version 1903, modifies and improves many standard applications, including the relatively new Snip & Sketch app introduced in October 2022. Microsoft's intention is for Snip & Sketch to supplant the at present deprecated Snipping Tool, which had been part of the bones Windows awarding lineup for years.

At its core, Snip & Sketch is a tool for capturing screenshots on your PC. Once a screenshot is captured, you can utilise the app to add elementary annotations, highlights, or text. When you lot are finished, you can relieve your results or share them with colleagues or friends. Typically, the snipping screen overlay must be activated by starting the Snip & Sketch app from the Start Card or from the Taskbar, but there is some other way.

This how-to tutorial explains how to modify Windows 10 and Snip & Sketch so that the snipping screen overlay tin can be started by pressing the print screen button (PrtScn) on a standard keyboard.

Run into: Windows 10 May 2022 Update: 10 notable new features (free PDF) (TechRepublic)

How to open the Windows 10 snipping screen with the impress screen button

Irresolute settings to allow the standard print screen button to actuate epitome snipping is best accomplished by accessing two separate configuration screens. Outset, open the Snip & Sketch app by clicking or tapping its icon in the Commencement Menu or on the Taskbar. As you tin can encounter in Figure A, the opening screen doesn't reveal much.


Figure A

Click the three dots to extend the carte and select Settings to open the screen shown in Figure B.


Figure B

There are a few application settings to consider. Personally, I prefer to update the clipboard automatically as I brand annotations. However, for our purposes, we are interested in the link near the top of the screen that says: "Employ the PrtScn push button to open screen snipping." Click information technology to be taken directly to the Keyboard section of the Windows 10 Ease of Access Settings screen, shown in Effigy C.


Figure C

Scroll downwards the screen until you discover the slide push button setting that allows you to open screen snipping with the print screen (PrtScn) button, as shown in Figure D.


Effigy D

Close the Settings screen and shut Snip & Sketch. At present, when yous printing the print screen button you will see the screen snipping overlay, which looks something similar Figure E.


Figure Due east

The screen snipping overlay offers you several options. You tin can capture a particular window (a welcome new feature), draw a rectangle and capture the image, capture the full screen, or describe a freeform area and capture the image within of it. The captured images reside on the Windows 10 clipboard, which you lot tin can admission via the advanced clipboard function (Windows logo cardinal + 5).

It is important to note that the initial press of the impress screen button still places an image of the full screen on the Windows 10 clipboard, even if you cull not to utilise the screen snipping overlay.

Snip & Sketch

Oddly, to use the annotation features of the Windows ten Snip & Sketch app you will have to admission the snipping screen overlay via the Snip & Sketch app itself—non through the print screen push button.

Click the New button on the menu of Snip & Sketch (Figure A) and you will see the snipping overlay. Only at present, when you capture an image using ane of the options, you will exist taken dorsum to the Snip & Sketch app where y'all can make annotations and use the sharing tools.