Automatically save a snipped screenshot to disk

Question

In Windows 10 you can press + PrtScn and it will save a screenshot of the whole desktop to disk. This works great.

What I'm looking for is this exact functionality but being able to choose a region using the mouse.

What I've found so far:

• Snipping tool: Either brings an editor after capture, or saves to clipboard. Haven't found a way to automatically save to disk.
• Lightshot: Also bring an editor, or automatically generate a link. Can't automatically save to disk

The solution can rely on a third party software that runs in background, or also AutoHotkey script.

Answer 1

Since you mention Win ⊞ + Print Screen specifically, I am assuming you wish to save in the same location each time (e.g. C:\Users\Username\Pictures\Screenshots).

I would highly recommend Greenshot in this case. Greenshot is a free, open source screenshot tool. It's light-weight and currently supports Windows and Mac OS.

By default, it allows selection of a region to capture, though it can save full screenshots and the currently active foreground window as well (all through configurable shortcuts). Importantly, while it normally allows for a large number of potential output options once a screenshot is captured, it can be configured with both a static output path and a set number of automatic export options (which can include that path).

To configure Greenshot to save to a specific path automatically after a screenshot is captured:

1. Right-click the Greenshot icon in the System Tray and select Preferences... from the menu. This should bring up the Settings dialog.

2. Under the Output tab, specify your Preferred Output File Settings. In particular, enter your desired path to automatically save screenshots to in the Storage location field.

3. Under the Destination tab, uncheck Select destination dynamically and check Save directly (using preferred file output settings). Leave the other options unchecked (unless you want one or more of them to run automatically as well).

4. Once finished, click Ok at the bottom of the Settings dialog to apply your changes.

With these settings, any time you capture a selected area (i.e. as soon as you release the mouse button after clicking and dragging with Greenshot active), the captured area will be saved (without prompting or dialogs) to the path specified.

Notes

• As a personal preference, I dislike mouse pointer capture and the magnifier reticle for region selection being turned on by default. These can be disabled in Settings.

• Per the comment by AFH, Win ⊞ + Alt + Print Screen is available in Windows 10 v.1703 (Creators Update - April 2017) and beyond (though regular Alt + Print Screen should still be available in all current versions of Windows 7+). That said, this digitalcitizen.life article puts it squarely in realm of capturing screenshots in video games. In context, this would be the current foreground window, but you may simply want to test its behavior (out of game) yourself.

Answer 2

Ever since the introduction of "Screen Clip" this has been built into Windows.

1. Use + Shift + S
2. Create a screenshot.

And you're done. This will have been copied into your clipboard and will have been written to file in a special directory inside C:\Users\<your username>\AppData\Local. The trick is finding that directory name.

As of May 2022 on Windows 10 that path is:

C:\Users\USER\AppData\Local\Packages\MicrosoftWindows.Client.CBS_cw5n1h2txyewy\TempState\ScreenClip

Find ScreenClip directory in AppData\Local with cmd.exe

1. Start -> Search "Run" -> Enter cmd.exe
2. cd \Users\yourusernamehere\AppData\Local
3. dir ScreenClip /s

Find ScreenSlip directory in AppData\Local with Windows PowerShell

1. Start -> Search "Power Shell"
2. Get-ChildItem . -Recurse | Where-Object {$_.PSIsContainer -and $_.Name.Contains("ScreenClip")}

Answer 3

Found this article that sent me in the right direction.

https://www.minitool.com/news/win-shift-s.html

For me the files were saved in the following location:

C:\Users\<USERNAME>\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.Windows.ShellExperienceHost_cw5n1h2txyewy\TempState\ScreenClip

Need to see how to change that now....

Answer 4

This is an extension to @pomax's answer (I can't comment yet).

To actually change the location of the built in "Screen Snip" tool (win+shift+s), you can hard link the original folder. Remove/rename the original ScreenClip folder, then run the following command in cmd (not PowerShell). Rename C:\YourScreenshots to the folder you want to use.

Careful: This breaks the notification-center feature (image). When you click the tile, the image is not found...

mklink /J %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Packages\MicrosoftWindows.Client.CBS_cw5n1h2txyewy\TempState\Screen
Clip C:\YourScreenshots

Answer 5

One can use ShareX (gratis, open-source) to automatically save a snipped screenshot to disk.

ShareX shortcuts:

Answer 6

Pressing the Windows Key + Shift + "s" will activate the Snipping tool. Allowing you to select the area you wish to "snip" and auto-saving your capture to the pictures folder of your user profile. Hope this helps. :)

Answer 7

Update for Windows 11

Since Windows 11 Build 25211, the captured images (not only screenshots of the whole desktop) from Screen Snip (Windows Key + Shift + S) / Snipping Tool are automatically saved to C:\Users\Username\Pictures\Screenshots. The setting for this can be set in the Snipping Tool under Settings and is on by default.

Answer 8

I found the "Paste As File" utility that converts any content that's on the clipboard to a file. Just COPY something to your clipboard, right-click your mouse in any folder, select 'Paste As File' and the txt, rtf, html, pdf or image file is created in that folder.

https://pasteasfile.org