Windows Vista comes with a free screen capture utility called Snipping Tool that is installed by default in all versions of Vista – including Vista Home Premium, Vista Business, Vista Enterprise, and Vista Ultimate editions. In all of these cases, it can be easily accessed from the Accessories folder in Start Menu. The Snipping Tool is handy application with a user-friendly interface that lets you capture screen shots, edit them, and then store them easily in a wide variety of image formats.
However, sometimes, due to unexplainable reasons, the Snipping Tool may not be installed in your Vista edition by default. In that case, you have to install/enable this feature manually.
You can easily do this by simply following the instructions given below.
- Click on the Start button, and then go to Control Panel.
- Click on Programs link.
- Click on Turn Windows features on or off link. If User Account Control dialog pops up for confirmation, click on the Continue button.
- Scroll down the list of features in Turn Windows features on or off window, tick the check box for Tablet-PC Optional Components to enable and show the Snipping Tool in Vista.
- Click OK when done.
The reason why the Snipping Tool feature is considered under the Tablet-PC Optional Components is that previously, the Snipping Tool had been released in the Windows XP Tablet PC Edition 2005. Hence, when you enable Tablet-PC Optional Components in your PC, the Snipping Tool feature is switched on as a result.