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
    2023-10-10T10:25:19+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.

    For what it's worth, I confirm that resetting and repairing worked also for me

    @alvinlim17: THANKS

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  2. Anonymous
    2023-10-09T18:49:38+00:00

    Found this response on reddit which helped my situation. I set my laptop as the main display again and now the snipping tool works correctly across 3 monitors.

    https://www.reddit.com/r/Windows11/comments/qe5i8k/snipping_tool_broken_when_using_multiple_monitors/?rdt=54177 After a long, frustrating bit of debugging, I finally managed to figure out the conditions that cause this:

    If your secondary display has a larger scaling ratio than your primary display, the snipping tool doesn't work right.

    I've got a laptop monitor and an external. Both are 3840x2160, but the external is much larger. For comfortable text, I have the laptop set to 200% and the external set to 150%.

    Since I prefer my taskbar and whatnot on the larger, external monitor directly ahead of me, that's my primary monitor. But doing that breaks Snipping Tool (and win+shift+s), as described. The best fix I can find is to switch it so the laptop monitor is primary. That way I keep the scalings as they are, but can take screenshot again properly.

    tl;dr:

    • Scale your monitors however you want
    • Pick your preferred monitor as primary
    • Have Snipping Tool work correctly Choose two.

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  3. Anonymous
    2023-10-07T00:01:29+00:00

    As many of you have said, this does not work! Making the multiple monitors the same doesn't work for me either, but I have a solution!

    Go to the Microsoft Store and download the Sniptool app. It has even more function, and DOES cover all of both of my 2 screens, one being 200% and the other is 225%.

    Hope this helps somebody.

    Microsoft, you are NOT doing a good job on Sniptool!!!

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