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
    2023-09-23T03:44:27+00:00

    Such a pain. Changing the screen resolution on my laptop only has worked for me (I didn't mess with the second monitor settings). But I'm only using one external monitor.

    But this shouldn't be "the resolution" to this problem because the settings I had to put on my laptop really aren't ideal. I've left them because I take a lot of snips, but I hate the way my laptop monitor looks now. MS should fix this.

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  2. Anonymous
    2023-09-25T15:39:46+00:00

    Another working tool is Screen Clipping included with OneNote. But you don't have the editing tools.

    So when needed, I use W11 Snipping Tool, I do in it the edits then I take a OneNote Screen Clipping of the screen of Snipping Tool...

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  3. Anonymous
    2023-09-26T16:37:41+00:00

    Hey guys, I found a quick fix to this for those who (like myself) use the Snip & Sketch feature regularly.

    In my case, I have a small laptop with a 1080p screen resolution set at 150% scaling (the recommended setting) and a large monitor also at 1080p resolution but set at 100% scaling (again, the recommended settings). I found when my large monitor was set to be the primary display, this would cause the Snip & Sketch issue, however, if you instead set the smaller screen with the higher scaling settings as the primary display, the Snip & Sketch tool works just perfectly across all monitors, regardless of resolution/scaling settings.

    TL;DR - Set the monitor with the highest scaling % value as the primary display as a workaround for the issue

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