How to fix Snip & Sketch not working on Windows 10 (Snipping Tool shortcut issues)

I often need to take a screenshot and annotate it a bit before I paste it into a chat, Jira ticket or document. On my Windows system, I love the simplicity of the Microsoft Snip & Sketch app (also known as Snipping Tool), which is always just a shortcut (Win+Shift+S) away. 

Unfortunately, on my work laptop (still running Windows 10), I've recently run into an issue where the shortcut stops working.  When I press the shortcut or even open the app and select to take new snip, no screenshot is taken, and the toolbar doesn’t appear. Instead, I see the cursor spinner for a few seconds, but nothing else happens.

After some troubleshooting, I found a solution, so I thought I'd write it down for future reference and to help anyone else facing the same issue!

Solution: restarting the Explorer process

The fix that eventually worked for me was simply restarting the Explorer process. There are a few ways to restart Explorer, most of which involve using Task Manager. However, my preferred method is to use this one-liner in the Windows Run prompt (Win+R):

cmd /c taskkill /F /IM explorer.exe && start explorer

view raw restart-explorer.bat hosted with ❤ by GitHub

Other solutions to try

If restarting Explorer doesn’t work for you, here are a few other potential fixes that might help:

• Reset the app: Go to Windows Settings → Apps & features, find Snip & Sketch, go to Advanced options, and select Reset.
• Reinstall the app: You can uninstall Snip & Sketch and reinstall it from the Microsoft Store. Alternatively, use the Winget command to install it:
  
  

  winget install -e --silent --id 9mz95kl8mr0l --source msstore

  view raw install-snipping-tool.bat hosted with ❤ by GitHub
  (You can verify the application ID in the URL of the app's Microsoft Store page.)

Error details in Event Viewer

I also checked the Event Viewer and found an Application Error log under Windows Logs → Application. Here are the details:

Faulting application name: ScreenClippingHost.exe, version: 124.21904.0.0, time stamp: 0x66b25259

Faulting module name: ScreenClipping.dll, version: 124.21904.0.0, time stamp: 0x66b25230

Exception code: 0xc000041d

Fault offset: 0x000000000001bbfd

Faulting process id: 0x5008

Faulting application start time: 0x01db345fa9ecd727

Faulting application path: C:\windows\SystemApps\MicrosoftWindows.Client.CBS_cw5n1h2txyewy\ScreenClippingHost.exe

Faulting module path: C:\windows\SystemApps\MicrosoftWindows.Client.CBS_cw5n1h2txyewy\ScreenClipping.dll

Report Id: 699ef9b4-2197-4a00-ad9c-36f1672ff32e

Faulting package full name: MicrosoftWindows.Client.CBS_1000.19060.1000.0_x64__cw5n1h2txyewy

Faulting package-relative application ID: ScreenClipping

 If you're seeing similar errors, try these steps, and hopefully one of them will fix the issue!