ShareX: What the Free Screenshot Tool Does and How to Use It

ShareX is a free, open-source screenshot and screen recording program for Windows. It captures the full screen, a window or a region, records video and GIFs, and then runs automatic after-capture tasks: annotate in the built-in editor, copy to the clipboard, save, pin the image on screen, run OCR or upload it to one of many hosting services. It has no ads and needs no account.

This guide explains what ShareX does today, where to download it safely, the default hotkeys, how Pin to screen and the image editor work, and how to change the ShareX theme.

What is ShareX?

ShareX is a Windows screen capture and file sharing tool that combines screenshots, screen recording, uploading and a set of productivity utilities in one program. The project has been in development since 2007, the source code is on GitHub, and the interface is available in about 30 languages.

What sets ShareX apart from simpler tools is its workflow model. Every capture passes through a chain you define once:

• Capture: full screen, active window or monitor, window and monitor menus, region (including last region and custom regions), scrolling capture, auto capture, screen recording and GIF recording.
• After capture tasks: open the image editor, add image effects or a beautified background, copy to clipboard, save to file, print, pin to screen, scan a QR code, run OCR or upload.
• After upload tasks: shorten the URL, copy the link and keep a history of everything you shared.

ShareX also uploads files, folders, clipboard text and URLs, supports custom uploaders, and can watch a folder and upload new files automatically.

ShareX download: official sources and versions

Download ShareX only from the official channels listed on getsharex.com: the installer or portable ZIP from the GitHub releases page, the Microsoft Store or Steam. Third-party download portals add nothing and can bundle unwanted extras.

ShareX ships updates often, so check the changelog on getsharex.com for the current version. The ShareX 22 line, which began in October 2026, rewrote the whole interface, and the developers warned that its first release would be less stable than usual; the latest ShareX 21 build remains available on the GitHub releases page if you prefer the older interface. Windows 7 has not been supported since ShareX 18, and current builds need Windows 10 64-bit or newer. ShareX is a Windows program: the macOS and Linux builds on the official artifacts page are preview builds for testing, not releases.

ShareX default hotkeys

ShareX works in the background and starts captures with global hotkeys. ShareX has long used these default hotkeys; check Hotkey settings in the main window to confirm or change them, since labels can differ in the redesigned ShareX 22:

On Windows 11 the Print Screen key may open the Snipping Tool instead. To give the key to ShareX, open Settings > Bluetooth & devices > Keyboard and turn off "Use the Print screen key to open screen capture" (older Windows 11 builds list it under Accessibility > Keyboard). If you prefer the built-in tool, see our guide to the fastest ways to take a screenshot on Windows.

Inside the region capture overlay, press Space to grab the full screen, the tilde key for the active monitor, number keys for a specific monitor and Esc or a right-click to cancel.

How to pin an image to the screen in ShareX

ShareX Pin to screen keeps an image floating on top of all other windows, which is handy for a reference picture, a code snippet or a color sample while you work. The feature arrived in ShareX 15 in January 2023.

1. Open the ShareX main window and select Tools > Pin to screen.
2. Choose the source: Select region, From clipboard or Select image.
3. Drag the pinned image with the left mouse button, or nudge it with the arrow keys (hold Shift for 10 pixel steps).
4. Zoom with the mouse wheel or the + and - keys (20 to 500 percent); hold Ctrl while doing so to change opacity (10 to 100 percent).
5. Right-click the image, or use the close button on its hover toolbar, to remove it.

You can also enable Pin to screen as an after capture task so every new capture is pinned automatically, right-click an image in History to pin it, or assign dedicated hotkeys, including "Pin to screen (Close all)". Middle-click resets size and opacity, double-click minimizes the pin, and Ctrl+C copies the original image. Details are in the official Pin to screen documentation.

ShareX image editor and annotation tools

The ShareX image editor opens after a capture (if enabled as an after capture task) and lets you mark up a screenshot before it is saved or uploaded. Its tools include shapes, arrows, freehand lines, text, speech balloons, numbered steps, emoji, highlight, blur, pixelate, magnify and spotlight, plus crop and cut-out.

The editor has changed considerably since 2023:

• ShareX 15: added the cut-out tool (removes a strip of the image and stitches the rest together, with sawtooth, torn edge or wave borders), the freehand arrow and a larger maximum text size.
• ShareX 20: introduced a new image editor built on Avalonia UI with 18 annotation tools and 232 image effects, an option to follow the system theme, new arrow styles, an image annotation tool and a print button.
• ShareX 21: added toolbar customization, border styles, rotation for several shapes, step types and shadow options, plus new Background remover and Image Comparer tools.
• ShareX 22: redesigned the interface and every tool, and later added a Photo editor and a Clone annotation tool.

For text inside screenshots, ShareX also offers offline OCR on Windows 10 and newer, a feature that arrived in ShareX 14.

How to change the ShareX theme

ShareX ships with several color themes, and the default is a dark theme. ShareX 15 added the "Dark" theme and renamed the earlier dark theme to "Night". ShareX 22 also added a theme toggle to the main window's title bar.

1. For more control, open Application settings in the ShareX main window.
2. Select the Theme tab.
3. Pick a theme from the list and apply it; the same tab lets you adjust theme colors. Labels can differ slightly in the redesigned ShareX 22 interface.

Since ShareX 17.1 custom theme support is always on, so there is no longer a separate "Use custom theme" checkbox. The newer Avalonia image editor can follow the Windows light or dark mode through its own "Use system theme" option.

Useful ShareX tools beyond screenshots

ShareX includes a toolbox that many users never open, available from the Tools menu in the main window. The most useful ones:

• Screen helpers: color picker, screen color picker, ruler, mouse highlighter and monitor test.
• Image tools: converter, resizer, combiner, splitter, watermark, thumbnailer, beautifier and background remover.
• Video and GIF tools: video converter, trimmer and thumbnailer, animated GIF maker and trimmer. Recording works without a separate download: ShareX 15 started bundling FFmpeg, and ShareX 22 added native screen and GIF recording.
• Utilities: OCR, QR code reader and generator, hash checker, metadata viewer, clipboard viewer and network monitor.

If you only need quick snips with basic markup, the Windows Snipping Tool now adds text to screenshots too. ShareX is the better fit when you want automation: hotkeys, after capture chains, upload destinations and history.

FAQ

Related: ShareX offline OCR explained, Paint and Snipping Tool in the Microsoft Store