The Snipping Tool Is Not Working On Your Computer Right Now
By 
In a previous post, I described a screen capture application included with Windows, called Snipping Tool. Since then, I've been using it regularly for my screen capture needs. That is, until I realized an interesting flaw: the application, after a few uses, stops working. In Vista, here's the error message I get:
It eventually appears when you try to launch the tool, preventing you from using it. The advice the dialog offers (restarting your computer and then trying again) is totally unacceptable, in my mind. Because of this problem, I could not rely on the tool - so I instead started using Jing more often. Eventually, I tried to see if I could do something to fix this problem whenever it occurred.
Solution
The solution I found was to kill the Snipping Tool process, and then re-launch it. This way, rebooting isn't necessary. Simply fire up Task Manager, right-click the SnippingTool.exe process, and select End Process:
Once the process has been killed, you can try re-launching Snipping Tool - it should now start up correctly.
If that doesn't fix it, and rebooting also doesn't, you might need to run Office Diagnostics - other users have had success with that.
See Also
- Adil Hindistan's Blog - Vista snipping tool error
- Forum Post: Snipping Tool/Sticky Notes Cannot Start
- Technet Forum Post: Snipping Tool Fails
- Microsoft Office Help Article: Diagnose and repair crashing Office programs by using Office Diagnostics