Snipping Tool is one of the useful utilities built into Windows operating system. The free screenshot capturing tool from Microsoft can take full-screen, window, rectangular, delayed, or free-form snaps. The best part is that there are nine useful keyboard shortcuts for Snipping Tool to grab the screen quickly.
While Snipping Tool is better than the screen capturing functionality that we have seen in earlier Windows versions, it still lacks some key features such as image resizing and cropping. The current version of the Snipping Tool allows you only to highlight a part of the snap and write anything using the pen on the snap.
Most of the third-party free screen-grabbing tools offer much more than the built-in Snipping Tool. Free tools such as Greenshot (which I have been using for years now) not only enables you to capture the screen but also allows you to set the quality, image format, and easily annotate pictures.
If you are using a third-party screen capturing utility in Windows 10, you might want to disable the built-in Snipping Tool. Fortunately, there is a provision in Windows 10 to disable the Sniping Tool without touching its system files.
You can use the Group Policy or Registry Editor to disable the Snipping Tool in Windows 10.
You get “Windows cannot open this program because it has been prevented by a software restriction policy” message when attempting to open the Snipping Tool on a PC where Snipping Tool is disabled.
Complete the given below directions to enable or disable the Snipping Tool in Windows 10.
Method 1 of 2
Enable or disable the Snipping Tool via Group Policy
This method is intended only for Professional and Enterprise editions users of Windows 10. If you are on Windows 10 Home edition, please refer to the directions in Method 2 of this article.
Step 1: Open Local Group Policy Editor by typing Gpedit.msc in the Start or taskbar search box and then pressing Enter.
Step 2: In the Local Group Policy window, navigate to the following folder.
User Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Tablet PC > Accessories
Step 3: Now, on the right-side, double-click on Do not allow Snipping Tool to run policy to open its properties.
Step 4: Select Enabled and then click the Apply button to disable the Sniping Tool in Windows 10.
To enable the Snipping Tool again, select Not Configured and then click Apply button.
Method 2 of 2
Enable or disable the Snipping Tool via Registry
Step 1: Open Registry Editor by typing Regedit.exe in the Start or taskbar search field and then pressing Enter key. Click Yes button if and when you see the User Account Control dialog.
Step 2: In the Registry Editor, navigate to the following key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREPolicies MicrosoftTabletPC
If the TabletPC key doesn’t exist, right-click on Microsoft key, click New and then click Key. Name it as TabletPC.
Step 3: In the left-pane, select TabletPC. On the right-side, right-click on an empty spot, click New, and then click DWORD (32-bit) Value and name it as DisableSnippingTool.
Step 4: Finally, double-click on DisableSnippingTool and change its value data to 1 to disable the Snipping Tool in Windows 10. To enable the Snipping Tool, set DisableSnippingTool value data to 0 (zero).
Hope you find this article helpful!