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Anyone know of a way to simply paste a screenshot (taken with PrtScn or Alt+PrtScn) into a Windows Explorer folder and have it be saved as an image (possibly with a dialog asking about image size and format options)? That is, I might take a screenshot with print screen, open a folder and hit Ctrl+V, and a new jpg (or png, or whatever) would appear in that folder with the contents of my screenshot.

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While some of those answers may be useful here, this question is asking about a very different task. – Velociraptors Nov 19 '10 at 15:59
Directly paste a screenshot held in the clipboard into a Windows folder, no, this would require software of some sort, I have never seen this type of software, interesting idea though. – Moab Nov 19 '10 at 16:16

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If you're running Windows Vista or Windows 7 I'd recommend using "Snipping Tool" which comes installed automatically.

It's a bit more versatile than the Prtscn command and it allows for direct saving, copying and pasting, etc.

As for the PrtScn command copying to Explorer automatically, I think that this isn't possible due to the format in which the command takes the screenshot.

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I like snipping tool (and am running Win7), but I'd still love to have the functionality I describe in the question. Also, anything's possible if you have the time/money/determination - I could envision a service or taskbar application which monitors clipboard contents for the signature of an image and detects when Ctrl+V is pressed while the active window is an Explorer window. Then, all that's left to do is transform the clipboard contents to an image format and save to the folder in the active window. I bet AutoHotKey provides a method to do so. But I don't want to reinvent the wheel. :-) – Pat Nov 19 '10 at 16:45
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After I posted this request to the DonationCoder netizens, the world was given a handy piece of software by c.gingerich that fits the bill nicely:

Paste As File. Right click on the desktop or on the background of a Windows explorer window and select Past As File. You can then save the clipboard to a file based on the contents. Either a text file or an image in PNG or JPG format. You can download it from my website if you are interested. It's free.

context menu showing PasteAsFile

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