NoMo Snipping Tool Try Screen Sketch Instead
With the upcoming release of Windows 10 this fall, Version 1809, the Snipping Tool may be no more. Those who run the Skip Ahead version of the Insider Preview can see a warning to that effect. In essence, this says “NoMo Snipping Tool Try Screen Sketch instead.” Here’s how this looks in the Snipping Tool screenshot from Skip Ahead Build 18204.
I was amazed to learn that the old familiar Snipping Tool actually dates back to Windows XP Tablet PC Edition from 2005. I didn’t get to know it until Vista came along in November 2006 myself.
OK Then: NoMo Snipping Tool Try Screen Sketch Instead
In the Skip Ahead preview, you can click the button shown labeled “Try Screen Sketch.” This launches the eponymous application. If you click its “New” button, you make a rectangular screen snip by default. This works much like the old Snipping Tool. Screen Sketch also offers options to crop, annotate or highlight screencaps. Personally, I’ve used tools such as Corel Draw, IrfanView, Greenshot, and SnagIt Editor to work on screen stuff captured using Snipping Tool.
Screen Sketch offers basic capabilities, but its controls aren’t as fine-grained or as comprehensive as those other tools. Thus, I probably won’t use it for image annotation or manipulation myself. For basic capture and annotation it works — as long as you don’t mind “touch writing.” Can’t stand it myself. As a writer, I’m a keyboard guy through and through.
But if you use Snipping Tool now, you’ve been warned. It’s likely to disappear in Windows 10. If not in Version 1809, then in Version 19H1. (That is, I believe, the new version nomenclature that could appear for the first Feature Upgrade of 2019). One version or the next, sometime soon, Screen Sketch will take Snipping Tool’s place. If you’re like me, and make frequent screen grabs, you’ll pin it to the Task bar right away. If you want to get an early start with the tool, you can already download Screen Sketch from the Microsoft Store.