Appatic

The Microsoft Snipping Tool was originally made as part of a pack of tools that could be added into the two editions of Windows XP Tablet.  Other versions of Windows XP never officially got it.

Later on, with the release of Windows Vista, the software stacks created for the special editions of Windows XP were fully consolidated into the OS. But while Media Center software was openly available for everyone to use. The Snipping Tool needed (or needs, i don’t recall if SP2 changed this) to be enabled as part of the extra Tablet focused Vista features in order to be accessible.

Only with the arrival of Windows 7 and the advent of what now is known as Windows Touch, was that the Snipping Tool became a default and fully accessible tool in the OS.

There is a really long history of this little tool. So long that its actual origins dates from the initial development of the Tablet PC concept back in 2000. If rumors are to be believed, the very first developments of the Tablet PC were not actually done in alpha builds of Windows XP, but Windows 2000. That means that the snipping tool is already a  over a decade old.

Snippy is an alternative for the Windows XP Tablet Edition version of the Snipping Tool. Supposedly developed out of app envy, once it was obvious that the original tool was going to remain off limits for the common versions of Windows XP (Starter, Home, Pro).

While it is not as featured as the original Snipping Tool, it does mimics the general basic features of it. 

Using Snippy

• Click on the Snippy icon – mouse cursor changes to a pen – mark an area of the screen – the marked area is now in your clipboard.
• If you want to select a rectangular area, just hold down the Shift key while dragging. You can configure some things like the color of the border and so on by right-clicking on the Snippy icon in the taskbar. One of the things you can do here is to set a keyboard hotkey for activating the capture mode.
• Snippy also supports multiple monitors. If you have a dual-mon set up, you can use Snippy to grab images off either or both monitors.

Some Notes

The most amazing qualities about Snippy is that it is portable, tiny (100k) and that it got almost universal compatibility. It was designed for XP, so it don’t needs anything to be run in XP as it is and it will give out the most consistent behavior only in XP.

But as i said, it is actually a universal windows app. It works in all Windows OSes from Windows 98 to Windows 7. And it can  even run and be used perfectly in Linux or Mac via Wine/Crossover.

The very best alternative to the original Microsoft Snipping Tool for Windows XP.

Linkage

Snippy Info

Snippy                                                         <— Direct Download Page 

Snippy (Mirror)                                   <— Download Page 

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But if you want the real one, you can also get it and install it in any Windows XP version you happen to have. Just check this other post:

Install The Original Tablet PC Microsoft Snipping Tool In Any Windows XP

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