What Is ShareX

ShareX is a completely free, open source screenshot, screen recording, and file sharing tool for Windows. It is licensed under GPL-3.0, written in C#, and has around 40,000 stars on GitHub, with more than 18 years of continuous development. It folds screenshots, screen recording, image annotation, OCR, file uploads, and automation workflows into one lightweight program. The installer is about 6.6 MB, with no ads and no account required. For anyone who lives in screenshots and clips every day, it is close to a must install.

If you keep your files in a cloud drive, ShareX can upload shots straight to it so you never sort them by hand. The OneDrive setup is covered in How to Use OneDrive. And for quick captures without installing anything, the built in options are in How to Take Screenshots and Record Your Screen in Windows.

Key Features

  • Varied capture. Full screen, active window, window menu, region, scrolling capture, screen recording including GIF, and automatic capture.
  • Region annotation. Rectangles, ellipses, arrows, freehand, text, mosaic, blur, spotlight, and step numbers, so the toolbar is thorough.
  • After capture actions. Auto save to file, copy to clipboard, open the image editor, upload to a host, OCR the text, generate a QR code, and more.
  • File uploads. More than 80 destinations, including Imgur, FTP and FTPS, Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive, Amazon S3, and GitHub.
  • Utility belt. Color picker, screen ruler, hash check, QR generate and read, clipboard viewer, and borderless window.
  • Automation. Chain capture, edit, and upload with Tasks, and call it all from the command line.

How to Install

  1. Open https://getsharex.com and click Download to get the installer, named like ShareX-*.exe, about 6.6 MB.
  2. Double click it and follow the wizard, or grab the portable .zip and run it after extracting, which is handy on a USB stick.
  3. You can also install from Microsoft Store, or with a package manager by running winget install ShareX.ShareX.
  4. The GitHub repo is at https://github.com/sharex/sharex.

How to Use It

  1. Default hotkeys. Print Screen captures the full screen, Ctrl + Print Screen captures a region, Shift + Print Screen starts recording, and all of them are remappable.
  2. After a region capture the annotation bar appears. Draw, arrow, and redact, then choose upload and copy link, or save to file.
  3. For a long page, pick Scrolling Capture and ShareX stitches the whole thing together.
  4. Configure destinations. Add an image host or cloud account under Destinations, and shots upload and copy a share link automatically.
  5. Orchestrate automation under Task Settings, for example watermark and then upload after every capture.

Things to Watch

  • System needs. Windows 7 SP1 or later, 32 or 64 bit, and for recording or GIF, install FFmpeg and ensure .NET Framework 4.8 or newer.
  • Upload privacy. Uploading to a third party host exposes the content. Keep sensitive shots on private storage or local only.
  • Hotkey conflicts. If a hotkey does nothing, check whether another app grabbed it.
  • Compliance. Only share what you have the right to share, and respect host and cloud terms plus local law.

Download

  • Official download https://getsharex.com
  • GitHub repo https://github.com/sharex/sharex

Official Site

  • https://getsharex.com

Getting Started

On first use, remap the default hotkeys, especially region capture and recording, since the defaults may clash with something else. Do not enable every upload destination up front. Bind one cloud drive or image host you actually use, so you are not drowning in prompts every time. The automation workflow is the strongest part, so start with something simple like watermark after capture, then chain harder tasks once you are comfortable. The portable build is nice on a USB stick, but its settings do not travel with it, so install the full version on a fixed machine. Spend a little time in the Task Settings and Destinations panels and the daily screenshot routine gets much faster.

FAQ

How is ShareX different from the built in snipping tool? The built in tool is great for a quick grab, but it lacks annotation, OCR, long screenshots, auto upload, and automation. If you screenshot occasionally it is enough. If you process screenshots all day, ShareX is far faster.

My scrolling capture came out misaligned. Why? Usually a page has animation or triggers motion while scrolling. Turn off page animations first, or slow the scroll speed in the scrolling capture settings so the stitch is stable.

OCR is inaccurate. How do I fix it? Capture quality drives recognition. Shoot high resolution, avoid blur and tilt, and make sure the language pack is installed. For Chinese, pick the right language or the OCR will miss characters.