Screen Sketch is the new snipping tool on Windows 10 and will be available at the next feature update due late this year. Since it’s already released to Windows 10 Insider build 17704, we’ve got a chance to try it out and see how it works first hand.
There are a few ways to start a screenshot (screen capture) with Screen Sketch. Let’s count them all out.
You can launch Screen Sketch app and start a snip by clicking the New button on the toolbar or pressing Ctrl+N.
You can press the new snipping keyboard shortcut Win + Shift + S to directly start a region screenshot.
You can click the back of your Pen if you are using on with Surface devices. There is a new setting in Settings app that can assign the Pen button to start a screen capture directly.
Go to Settings > Devices > Pen & Windows Ink, and select Screen Snipping option from Pen Shortcuts section.
However, if you prefer defaulting to Windows Ink Workspace, a full screenshot will be taken automatically when the button is pressed and will be shown in Windows Ink Workspace as well.
You can also use the classic Print Screen (PrtScn) key to launch the snipping like the old days, only it starts with a region screen capture instead of a full-screen capture in the clipboard. However, to use it, you will need to re-assign the Print Screen key with the new setting.
Settings > Ease of Access > Keyboard, and turn on the switch under Print Screen shortcut section.
What about a shortcut on the desktop? Of course. You can create a shortcut to the following command and save it on your desktop. Thanks to this guy for the tip.
ms-screenclip:?source=QuickActions
When the shortcut is created and ready, you can double-click the shortcut on your desktop to start the snipping whenever you want.
Once a screenshot is taken, a small window pops up from the bottom right corner like bubble notification with the preview of the screen capture in it.
Clicking on it opens up the Screen Sketch app that you can use to further edit the screenshot you took if needed. If you missed it, you can open the Action Center and find it there.
My first impression of Screen Sketch is quite positive. I can see I am switching over to it down the road very soon. It integrates with the system very nicely. I like there are a number of ways available for me to start a screenshot. The editing feature seems to be quite limited, compared to the one I am currently using. Since this is still early in beta, hope more features can be added later on.