Microsoft is testing a new way to take screen clips in Windows 10

Thurrott via Rafael Rivera. Click for original. (Image credit: Thurrott via Rafael Rivera)

There are several ways to grab a screen capture in Windows 10, in whole or in part, and it looks like there will be one more when Redstone 5 rolls out, presumably sometime in October.

Rafael Rivera at Thurrott.com spotted the new method in the latest Windows 10 Pro Redstone 5 preview build (17639). As shown in the image above, Microsoft added a new "Screen clip" Quick Action to the Action Center. When a user clicks (or taps) on it, the screen dims and an overlay of buttons appears on the top. Here's a look:

Thurrott via Rafael Rivera. Click for original. (Image credit: Thurrott via Rafael Rivera)

Those buttons allow you to select a rectangular clipping tool or select a portion of the screen in free-form mode. You can also choose to grab fullscreen clips. Rivera says they are automatically saved to the clipboard, but as currently implemented, there is no option to save the clips to your PC's storage drive. You can, however, find them in a temporary folder.

Windows 10 doesn't really need yet another way to save screenshots—you can already do that by hitting the Print Screen button (or Alt+PrtScrn for a single window), using the Snipping Tool, through the Game Bar, and with the screen sketch tool in Windows Ink. In this case, it doesn't appear that Microsoft is throwing yet another one on top of the pile, but replacing the old GDI-based Snipping Tool, with this new option also taking over the Win + Shift + S shortcut. That hasn't been confirmed, it's just how things are looking, based on Redstone 5.

This will not be a part of the upcoming Spring Creators Update (Redstone 4) that is due to arrive sometime this month. Microsoft has committed to releasing two major updates to Windows 10 every year. If the company sticks with its past release cadence, we can expect Redstone 5 to show up in October.

Those who want to take an early look at what's in store can sign up for Microsoft's Windows Insider program. You would need to join the Fast ring, which introduces newer builds in less polished form than users in the Slow ring, and choose the option to "Skip ahead" to play with builds that are further down the development branch. It's a relatively new option for Fast ring subscribers, and currently allows users to play with experimental Redstone 5 builds.

Paul Lilly

Paul has been playing PC games and raking his knuckles on computer hardware since the Commodore 64. He does not have any tattoos, but thinks it would be cool to get one that reads LOAD"*",8,1. In his off time, he rides motorcycles and wrestles alligators (only one of those is true).

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