Snipping Tool

Snipping Tool is a component of Microsoft Windows. It was first introduced in Windows XP Tablet PC Edition as a tool to take screenshots of a specific area on the computer and edit it if needed. Since Windows 10 October 2018 Update it has been complemented by a similar tool called Snip & Sketch, which was later redesigned and renamed to Snipping Tool in Windows 11.

Early years
Snipping Tool's first version was available as a downloadable PowerToy for Windows XP Tablet PC Edition, which was known as Snipping Tool for Tablet PC, and was released alongside Microsoft Tablet PC on 7 November 2002. It was a basic screen snipping app that took advantage of the Tablet PC pen to "cut out" a specific area of the computer, and then make highlights, annotations, or marks using it.

Windows Vista and later
In Windows Vista, Snipping Tool was first available for traditional PCs, where it started gaining significant recognition by users as a simple, but useful tool to take screen snips, albeit with less focus on pens for this case. After this, Snipping Tool remained mostly the same for the next three versions of Windows.

Windows 10: "Delay" and deprecation
In Windows 10, Snipping Tool received its first new feature after several years: Delay, which allowed to delay future snips between 1 and 5 seconds, but asides from that, it was mostly the same. In future updates, two more changes would be added, being the snipping modes moved from the "New" panel to their own one, and updated icons.

In October 2018 Update build 17661, Screen Sketch, a similar pen-oriented complement it had been living together for some time, was updated to a full app that had the same functionality as Snipping Tool but with several updates, with the main goal of consolidating and modernizing the previous snipping experiences. While there were a few hints to this at first, in build 17704, Snipping Tool was updated to include a note about this, explaining that the app would be removed from the operating system in a future update, though it was not specified as it would be a feedback and data-driven decision. After this, the deprecation process started, as new features related to the snipping experience were now added to the then-renamed Snip & Sketch app instead of Snipping Tool. Later, in Cobalt build 21277, Snipping Tool became an optional feature, letting users to uninstall it and keep only Snip & Sketch. In build 21354, Snipping Tool was moved to the Microsoft Store and is now installed alongside Snip & Sketch.