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!
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!
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.
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!
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!
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
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.
taskkill /f /im snippingtool.exe /t ..try this.. Thanks a lot it works