# Windows Snipping Tool

7 Hacker News commenters recommended Windows Snipping Tool and 13 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 5 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** Built into Windows, opened with Win+Shift+S, it handles quick screenshots and screen recording. Critics say it now starts slowly and is oversized.

## Why people recommend it

- Replaces third-party screenshot apps (2 comments): "If all you need is screen recording, as per your parent, and you're on windows the default screenshot tool (Win + Shift + S) does screen recording." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46309495)) "they're quite solid and have become everyday tools that eliminated the need to reach for some other third party apps" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46569091))
- Dependable, does the job (3 comments): "they're quite solid and have become everyday tools that eliminated the need to reach for some other third party apps" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46569091)) "Snipping tool is pretty great though" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46806333)) "a perfectly serviceable piece of kit" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46975882))

## What people warn about

- Slow to open and select (5 comments): "It now takes multiple seconds to initialize, plus additional delay in actually selecting what you want to capture." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45939816)) "That is 4 infuriating seconds for something that should be (and I'm sure used to be!) virtually instant." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46568545)) "On my very rasonably spec'd laptop it often takes 20 seconds for the snipping tool selection to pop up." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46047401))
- Bloated at 449 MB (2 comments): "The new Snipping tool for instance is 449 MEGABYTES, whereas it used to be only a few KB in size." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46982475)) "re-created it as a bloated UWP version that is an insane 449 MEGABYTES in size" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46981873))
- Bugs including multi-monitor capture (3 comments): "When Microsoft decided to rewrite the screenshot app from Win32 to WinUI, it had plenty of bugs" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46119542)) "it stopped working across 2 monitors, you can only snip in one of the two monitors" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46821445)) "capturing over-exposed screenshots when playing videogames" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46818098))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Flameshot](https://hackerapproved.com/p/flameshot.md): 44 recommend
- [KDE Spectacle](https://hackerapproved.com/p/spectacle.md): 21 recommend
- [ShareX](https://hackerapproved.com/p/sharex.md): 10 recommend
- [CleanShot X](https://hackerapproved.com/p/cleanshot-x.md): 6 recommend
- [Shottr](https://hackerapproved.com/p/shottr.md): 5 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Windows Snipping Tool", https://hackerapproved.com/p/snipping-tool/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).