Windows 11 - Snipping Tool issue with multiple monitors with different Scale Settings

Anonymous
2022-11-15T15:34:32+00:00

On Windows 11, if you have multiple monitors with different scale settings and resolutions, the snipping tool doesn't work properly. What happens is the smallest monitor's resolution determines what portion of the other monitors can be snipped. For example, I have three monitors on my Surface Laptop 4, the primary is 2496 x 1664 and is set to 150%. The second is 1920 x 1080 and at 100%. Third is 3440 x 1440 at 100%. When I hit print screen, it only greys out a portion of the first and third monitor. And the second isn't even greyed out at all. I've determined that if I put the all the monitors at the same scale, say 100%, the snipping tool works fine. It's only when one of them is different that the snipping tool doesn't work. Also, it doesn't matter if it's three monitors. This happens to me when I have only two monitors connected. I'm just using my current setup as an example.

This has been a problem since Windows 11 was released.

Windows for home | Windows 11 | Display and graphics

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Anonymous
2023-10-10T02:42:43+00:00

I might have found a quick fix to this issue. I just 'repair' and 'reset' my 'Snipping Tool', and now it can screenshot the entire screen correctly.

Apps>Installed Apps>Snipping Tool

Under Reset, Use the 'Reset" and 'Repair'.

Hope it helps.

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  1. Anonymous
    2023-05-19T21:16:16+00:00

    So while not a "fix" to the problem, here's how I am getting around it without resorting to dragging across multiple screens, rearranging monitors, etc.

    I am running a Surface Pro 9 with a 2880x1920 resolution, and two additional 24" monitors at 1920x1080 through a Surface dock. The Surface by default is at 200% while the remaining monitors are at 100%, which causes the snipping tool issue as well as forcing Teams for Business to do a similar spanning issue across multiple displays on startup.

    I realized that dialing the surface down to 100% is unusable as everything is just too small to read (I'm old, sorry), but... I don't "need" it at 2880x1920 if I have to double up the resolution. So, I dialed it down to 1440x900 @ 100% scale, and I don't have to squint at my monitor, I don't have any issues with the snipping tool, teams opens across a single monitor as it should, and because I don't "need" the very high resolution (not using the Surface for any artistic work/drawing/CAD/etc), it's a decent temporary solution until MS fixes the issue with the scaling.

    I think the reason it's not fixed for Snipping tool is that's not all it affects. It's affecting other programs as well, just isn't as "broken" as a quick double click to maximize it fixes the other apps.

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  2. Anonymous
    2023-05-22T16:39:52+00:00

    I had the same issue with (3) monitors. I adjusted my display settings to be at 100% for all three and the issue is now resolved.

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  3. Anonymous
    2023-05-29T07:16:35+00:00

    Here is another example of a standard WIndows 11 dialog being broken by non-100% DPI.

    Can someone please confirm?

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