Note: Be sure to read the comments for more help!
Today when I used the Snipping Tool in Windows 10 it stopped working. I could select an area over and over again, but it never closed after that as it should. The screen was dimmed and I could not get to any other program because Snipping Tool was on top of everything, even Task Manager! I almost gave up doing a hard reset, when I found a way to get rid of it:
Alt+Tab still worked though. There is a small X that appears if you hover an application thumbnail with the mouse. Using this you can close Snipping Tool!
Phew…
Than you!! This just happened to me on my company’s remote server I was working in.
They seem to have fixed the “press the X to kill it” feature so that didn’t work for me. I did find that Alt F4 killed it, lets hope they don’t block that one next.
Alt F4 worked for me
Thanks for sharing this solution
Hi.. Apparently they did! I am stucjed!
Same for me, no go. Stupid tool!
Best fix I’ve found is ctrl+shift+esc to open task manager, find the tool by scrolling down (use down arrow on keyboard if you can’t click things) then hit escape to kill the process. Absolutely dumb.
Thanx!
Alt F4 worked for me also on WINDOWS 10 HP PAVILION Tower. Thank you !!!!!!!!!!!!!
Alt F4 just worked… finally! That app just sucks!. Thank you!
Thanks!
Thanks heaven!!
Alt F4 worked and saved me a heartache
Alt+f4 worked … ty
OMG. THAT WAS HORRIBLY FRUSTRATING. Yeah, none of those work for me sadly. That said, I was actually able to force it closed without fully shutting off my pc (a surface book) by holding the power button, sliding to shut down & then when it asks, are you sure you want to shut down? You have all these things open, I clicked cancel & when it went back to my desktop snipping tool was closed! Woo! So glad I didn’t have to lose all my progress on the multiple things I had open
Your way saved me, others didn’t work.
Thanks Michelle,
Same! I believe the other solutions didn’t work because I had captured something previously, and there was a popup asking if I wanted to save the changes (probably preventing it from closing).
This worked for me. Nice job figuring this out.
Yes you’re the winner! this worked. I used the Windows key to open the Start Menu, from which I was able to restart normally.
THANK YOU!
Your method worked on my notebook. Held the power button until shutdown screen came up, the canceled the shutdown.
I can now resume whatever it was I was working on at the time before this MAJOR distraction.
You are a genious, thanks.
This saved me
This saved me alot of work, thank you!
JUST GREAAT !! thanks!!
Thank you so much! This is what worked for me too!
This worked! Thank youuuu!
I have a lenovo thinkpad running windows 10. I had to hit windows and manually click restart then as quick as possible hit cancel and that fixed it. You’re the best!!!
Thank you, this was my last option and thankfully it worked, was really worried as I was about to save a project but thought id get a snipit first to send someone, oof. (Using a desktop)
OMG!!!! This worked on Sept 2022! You saved me!!!
This worked! Thank you!
Nothing worked for me until I did this.
Press the windows key or search icon in the bottom left then type the following
(taskkill /f /im “snippingtool.exe” /t), but exclude the brackets.
Hope this helps someone else as I almost forced shutdown.
This is the only thing that worked for me. Great little command here
Same for me. Nothing else worked.
This worked for me! Thank you so much for saving my a**!
Life saver!
My lord it worked! Thank you so much. I have been working on exams the past few weeks. Im in the last stretch and it froze on me. I got soo stressed but u saved me! Thanks
Your exact code didn’t work for me, but this variant worked:
(taskkill /f /im snippingtool.exe) excluding the brackets.
Thanks! :)
You saved my life. I love you.
Worked well
You have the best comment on the internet. I bless you.
I was almost shutting my laptop, but finally That works for me, thank you!
The only solution that worked, big thanks
This worked for me, thanks
Thank you!
This actually amazing thank u ! If it doesn’t work for you you’re probably not adding the spaces they put after some words! Make sure when you’re typing it the bar on the right says “task command”; otherwise you’re typing it wrong.
Wow!
This magic worked, Thanks
? awesome thanks
Thanks!!!
Omg, you saved me… This was the only working option
OMG this is the only thing that worked for me. Thank you!!!!
That command saved me ?
Just saved my day. Thank you!
Legend. Tysm
Oh my god you saved my evening and my entire life. Thank you thank you thank kyou
You are god +1
Thank you so much! This was the only thing that worked for me. Life saver.
You’re the best.
Thank you so much! This worked!
You saved me!!! Thanks!!!
Thanks! I used Alt-Tab to switch to a command line then typed this command without seeing it on the screen, and hit Enter, and it worked!
Genius! That saved me in 2023 from another frustrating reboot in the middle of a busy workday!
100 points to you Sir!
ONLY THING THAT WORKEDD !!! ;D
TYSM
Thankyou!
This just saved me from a huge loss of work. Seriously. Thank you!
That worked, THANKS!
Alt-Fn-F4 also works – in case you can’t see the little x
–Lonny
Thanks a lot. None other than this helped me
Tried all the others. This worked for within my RDS.
Alt f4 worked when ALT tab didn’t. A life saver. Didn’t lose work.
Thanks a lot. None other than this helped me
God bless this email chain! You just saved my minutes ?
I clicked the power button and before it shutdown I clicked cancel instead of Shutdown anyway and it went back to normal.
Alt + F4
Thanks
I have written the command on a sticky note for the next time this happens as none of the other options worked. I also reset the snipping tool.
Im not entirely sure if the “Press and hold the power button and slide” thing work’s or not but i just want to warn other that if you try that MAKE SURE you take you’re finger off the button in 1-3 seconds or you’re pc will already be shutting down hopefully this helped as this happened to me and I don’t want others to face the same fate
Thanks! Alt-F4 worked for me :)
ALT F4 worked great! Thanks!!! :-)
Only thing that worked for me is shot down option on my laptop. There was no prompt for “are you sure you want to shutdown” but if you have open unsaved files it will trigger Windows to go back in. As a result you may lose some information as things close but not all apps will close.
What does close is the snip & sketch application. I was planning for the worst but only a few apps closed before I was prompted. Hopefully this helps other in a similar bind.
After this I also went to task manager under “options” and selected “always on top” so in future I can kill this application if it happens (saw this in another thread).
I have been sadly using Windows 10 for awhile now. Snipping Tool has Frozen on my Screen Countless times forcing me to hard re-boot the computer and pray all my window tabs I had open remain and I dont lose any info upon starting up again.
I came across this posting for solutions to fix the freezing snip tool and it saved me !
ALT & then F4 Key worked for me and unlocked the frozen screen caused by the snipping tool !
I did not have to re-boot and for that I am ecstatic !
This Windows 10 Tower was an Emergency Buy when my other Tower with Windows XP Professional on it got the Blue Screen of Death, I NEVER EVER had a Snipping Tool Issue on that Tower until Windows 10 usage. This week I am bringing my Windows XP Pro tower into the repair shop to get rid of the Blue Screen and get it fixed and back up running and then I am getting as far away from Windows 10 as I can.
Thank You !!
non of the above worked for me, Alt + F4 did nothing.
but i could do Ctrl + Shift + N, which closed the snipping action for me so i could close the program itself.
Literally the only thing out of all the things on here that worked for me on T490s Lenovo. Thank you so much. CTRL + Shift + N closed the snipping action and all went back to normal.
taskkill /f /im snippingtool.exe /t ..try this.. Thanks a lot it works
This was the ONLY thing that worked for me! Thank you!!!
yes that worked – legend – thank you
ATL + F4 doesn’t work for me, I couldn’t do anything else except to press power off button then from the lock screen I chose restart button!! I thought my laptop was gone :’)
This worked for me:
Press the Windows key, and type “taskkill /im snipping* /f”. In the search results, it should ask if you would like to run the command. Select that “search result” to kill the snipping tool process.
Didn’t work:
I tried to press the windows key and exit the application by clicking the ‘x’ however I couldn’t reach the window asking if I wanted to save a previous snip.
This command is what worked for me. Tried everything else, including other versions of the same command posted earlier. Thanks very much!
That worked. Thank you
Thanks for those who suggested Alt + F4. In my Dell, you need to use Fn to use F4, so it is actually like this: Fn + F4 + Alt. I guess many modern laptops have the same configuration, where the F’s now are secondary to light and sound and play controls…etc
Thank you!
Alt+tab to open the window and make sure you’re on the Snipping Tool program, and then Alt+Spacebar opened a menu that I could arrow down to the ‘close’ option. Hope it helps
I did a similar thing: alt+tab to the snip tool window. But then used Escape to close it.
here is what worked for me just now: 1. I pressed ctrl + shift + esc and a list of programs opened up.2. I found snipping tool in the list and it’s status was “running” . 3. I right-clicked on the snipping tool item and selected “End Task.
that did it!
Win 10 Variant fix – only do this if you have enough applications and items open which will block the logout.
1) go to your CTRL+ALT+DEL menu, select logout,
2) allow it to think for a moment and give you the warning about unable to logout,
3) cancel the logout,
4) your screen “may” be released. You’ll still want to close snipit and rage a bit after, also have to catch/cancel close on all unsaved items.
Ctrl + shift + N worked for my remote connection, nothing else worked for me.