Print Screen opens Snipping Tool: how to give the key back
Since a Windows 11 update in 2023, pressing Print Screen opens Snipping Tool by default. Windows takes the key first, so your screenshot app never hears it. The fix is one setting.
Press Print Screen. The screen freezes.
Open menus and tooltips stay put. Drag over the part you need.
PrtScKeyboard shortcutsArrows, boxes, a marker and text
One key per tool. Shift snaps arrows to 45°.
Blur that cannot be undone
Built from the pixels around the box, so there is nothing to recover.
Numbered callouts with comments
A click drops a number. The comment stays on the picture or goes as text.
One more, and one more
Each screenshot in a set gets a letter, its callouts become A1, A2, B1.
ShiftEnterSend several screenshotsThe whole set goes into a chat at once
Your comments and the pictures arrive as one message.
WinAltVSend several screenshotsOr as one picture
For email and tickets: all screenshots on one sheet, comments under each.
CtrlVCombine screenshotsPrint Screen opens Snipping Tool? One click fixes it
WellSnap takes the key over, and you can give it back at any time.
Quiet updates, private by design
Updates install while you are away. Screenshots never leave your computer.
How to do it
Open WellSnap Settings
Right-click the WellSnap icon in the taskbar corner and choose Settings.
Go to Shortcuts
The Print Screen key card shows whether Windows is holding the key.
Give Print Screen to WellSnap
One click turns off the Windows option. Restore puts it back at any time.
Press Print Screen
WellSnap opens. The status next to the shortcut says Active.
Changing it by hand
Open Windows Settings and search for Print screen. The option is under Accessibility, Keyboard, and in newer builds also under Bluetooth and devices, Keyboard. It is called "Use the Print screen key to open screen capture" or "to open Snipping Tool", depending on the build. Turn it off, and the key goes to whichever app registers it.
Win+Shift+S keeps opening Snipping Tool either way, so you lose nothing.
When another app holds the key
Lightshot, ShareX, Greenshot, Snagit, OneDrive, Yandex Disk and other tools can claim Print Screen too, and two apps then open at once or neither does. WellSnap checks for 13 known tools and, if the key will not register, tells you which one is most likely holding it and how to turn it off there. It never closes or reconfigures another program for you.
OneDrive deserves a special mention: its option to save screenshots to OneDrive also reacts to Print Screen. Turn it off in OneDrive settings, under Sync and backup.
Lightshot or ShareX stopped working on Windows 11?
It is usually the same setting. ShareX 16 and later can turn it off from its installer, and so can Greenshot 1.3. If you would rather switch tools, WellSnap takes the key over with the button above and gives it back with Restore.
Questions and answers
Will this break Snipping Tool?
No. Snipping Tool still opens from the Start menu and with Win+Shift+S. Only the Print Screen shortcut changes hands.
What happens when I uninstall WellSnap?
The uninstaller restores the Windows setting if WellSnap changed it, so Print Screen opens Snipping Tool again.
Can I use another key instead?
Yes. Settings, Shortcuts lets you record any combination with Ctrl or Alt, and offers Ctrl+Print Screen and similar alternatives when the plain key is taken.
Ready the next time you press Print Screen
Install takes a few seconds and needs no admin rights on Windows.