Snipping Tool Keeps Popping Up in Windows 11 Fix 

It’s useful to have a tool that makes grabbing screenshots a piece of cake. It’s not so useful to have that same tool popping up unnecessarily all the time. If this is your experience with the Snipping Tool on Windows 11, then you’re probably looking for a fix. The good news is we have a few troubleshooting methods to stop it from popping up automatically.

A Clash of Shortcuts

The problem with a randomly, continuously opening Snipping Tool, in most cases, has to do with a clash of shortcut keys, namely the Print Screen key. Before the introduction of the Snipping Tool, this was the built-in way to get snaps of your screen. The Snipping Tool itself makes use of the Win+Shift+S shortcut. But in Windows 11, the Snipping Tool can pop up simply when you press Print Screen.

Let’s look at how to fix this.

Windows Snipping Tool Automatically Opens and How to Fix It

Below are some of the best solutions to make sure the Snipping Tool only opens when you want it:

End Snipping Tool in Task Manager

A quick way to disable the Snipping Tool until you need it is to disable it in Task Manager. Here’s how:

Step 1. Open Task Manager (Ctrl + Shift + Esc) and search for the Snipping Tool “.exe” file. You can also search under the “Details” tab.

Step 2. When you find the program, right click on it, then the “End Task” button.

Step 3. See if this resolves your problem.

Disable the Print Screen Snipping Tool Shortcut

If the Snipping Tool keeps opening every time you press the Print Screen key, then this shortcut has probably been enabled under the Settings. Disabling it, though, is a cinch:

Step 1. Open up Settings (Win + I) and choose “Accessibility” from the sidebar.

Step 2. Navigate down to “Keyboard” and click it.

Step 3. Scroll down to the “On-screen keyboard, access keys, and Print screen” controls and drag the slider next to “Use the Print screen button to open screen snipping” to “Off.”

Step 4. Test your Print Screen key again, and the problem should be resolved.

Repair and Reset the Snipping Tool

If the above doesn’t solve your problem, then you can try resetting the Snipping Tool to its factory settings and (hopefully) normalcy. Here’s how:

Step 1. Type “Snipping Tool” into the Search Bar and right-click when it appears, and select App settings.

Step 2. In the App window, scroll down and click the “Terminate” button to stop all activity involving the Snipping Tool.

Step 3. Click the “Repair” button to fix any problems with the app.

Step 4. If that doesn’t solve the issue, click the “Reset” button below it to delete all app data and start fresh.

Step 5. If these two options don’t work, you may need to uninstall the app.

Uninstall Snipping Tool

If you’ve tried the above solutions, you can try removing it using the “Uninstall” button hovering below the “Repair” and “Reset” buttons. You can also uninstall by right-clicking the app in the Search Bar. Once the app has been removed, you can try reinstalling it to get it to work correctly. Here’s how:

Step 1. Open up the Microsoft Store and type “Snipping Tool” into the search bar.

Step 2. Choose the option when it appears and click the “Install” button.

Step 3. When the app is installed, restart your machine and see if the problem has been resolved.