Looking for a functional, yet lightweight solution to taking pictures of your desktop? Greenshot is a robust screen capture program that blows the others out of the water.

For those worried about space or CPU consumption, fret not. Installation is fast and simple, and the program itself takes up a mote of CPU power. After setting it up on your computer, you will find that it comes with many features including, but not limited to: highlighting, obfuscation, annotations, cropping, and other basic editing tools. Mapping hotkeys is a breeze so that the program behaves as you wish. For example, I have “capture selection” with PrntScrn (Print Screen), “capture window” with Space+PrntScrn, and “capture desktop” with Alt+PrntScrn.

Once a screenshot is taken, by default a secondary screen pops up that allows you to edit your shots without the use of another program, such as Paint or Photoshop. This can be turned off within the settings. Do note that these are basic tools; if you’re looking to make a masterpiece, it would be more expeditious to save the file and import it into another program.

There were a few cons I found with Greenshot, such as the time it took from pressing the PrntScrn button to seeing the green crosshairs appear on the screen. After going into the settings, the ~500 millisecond delay from key press to screenshot can be set to immediate (or if you choose, the time can be elongated). Editing the filename format within the settings can also be off-putting for less experienced users; however, the Greenshot devs include a small help guide within the program to use as a reference.

Overall, Greenshot is an excellent program for screen capture and simple editing, and boasts a slew of features that are not readily accessible with the Windows built-in snip tool. Go on, give it a shot!

Greenshot is open source software and can be downloaded here.