Vista's Snipping Tool

While the old 'Print Screen' still works in Vista to capture the entire screen to your clipboard, you then need to paste that image into a program like paint in order to copy the part you want and save it to disk or in a document. Vista's new Snipping Tool simplifies this task.

Available under the Start menu's Programs/Accessories (or simply type Snipping, or Snipping Tool in the search box), Snipping Tool allows you to capture the entire screen, the active window, a rectangle, or even a 'freestyle' selection. Once captured, you can save the file to disk as HTML, JPG, GIF, or PNG. If you have the mail program setup, you can also e-mail the file.

This tool is great. If you have ever used the downloadable free utility Zapgrab it's very similar, but you don't need to paste you copy into paint or another program in order to use the screen-shot. It already does this for you! To be honest it's a simple utility and there's not a whole lot more to it. Just mess with it and you'll see how easy it is to use. You can also use Free-From to draw with a pen the area you want to snip. I've been waiting for a tool like this for a long time! Enjoy!