Before Windows Vista OS, if you want to capture a screen shot, you probably had to use “Shift + Print Screen” command and then pasting the screen shot into a graphics program to save it or adjust sizes.

Also there are lots of Windows Vista free softwares available for capturing the screenshot. But do you know that Vista has in-build snipping tool to take screen shots.

As this is a feature of  Tablet PC program of Vista, you need administrative rights to enable this feature. Mostly this feature is turned off in your Laptop or PC by default, but you can activate by following these simple methods :

Open “Control Panel” , select “Programs and Features” and after that click on “Turn Windows features on or off“. You will find this option most probably in left bar of “Programs and Features”.

After clicking on “Turn Windows features on or off”, you will find lots of settings. Locate “Tablet PC optional Components” and click the check box beside this option.

To use this new tool, click “Start Menu“<”All Programs“< “Accessories” < “Snipping Tool” and press enter.

Some features of Snipping Tool :

• It offers Free-form Snip, Rectangular Snip, Windows Snip or Full Screen Snip.
• You can also select the background color before taking the screenshot for image editing.
• You can save the screenshot in various graphic formats like jpeg, png, bmp etc.
• You can use the Pen and Highlighter tools to add markup to your screen shot. Also there is eraser tool to remove the marks made with the Pen and Highlighter Tools.
• You can also email your snip by using the “Send To” button on the Snippin Tool toolbaar.
• You can also use Shortcut Key for Snipping tool if you want to keep it handy for quick access. To enable Shortcut Key, click “Start Menu”<”All Programs”<”Accessories”<”Snipping tool”. Click on “properties” by right clicking “Snipping Tool”. Type the key which you want to be a shortcut key for it, eg., Ctrl + F4.

So, if you’re still using Print Screen or some other freeware to take screenshots in Vista, it’s time to use Snipping tool which is very easy to use, handy and will not take any memory in your PC.