PicPick

Download: PicPick
Purpose: Screen capture
Platforms: Windows XP, Vista, Windows 7; Windows Server 2008, 2003
Cost: Free for personal or nonprofit use; $19.99, down to $7.99 each for 50-plus licenses

If you've ever tried to use the Windows 7 Snipping Tool to capture fleeting images on the screen -- notification boxes that go away when you click, or popover or context menus that disappear the minute you move your mouse -- you're in for a treat.

PicPick lets you take screenshots with the press of a key or key combination of your choosing. Pressing the key doesn't make ephemeral items on the screen run for cover. You can, depending on the key combination, capture a full screen, an active window, a rectangular or freehand region on the screen. If you need to shoot against a white or single-color background, the PicPick Whiteboard tool lets you "erase" convenient parts of the screen. Once shot, PicPick pops your screen into an editor, with tools for resizing and editing. Toss in automatic file naming, on-screen magnification at selectable levels, a pixel ruler, color picker, and a half-dozen other screenshooting aids, and you end up with a versatile, everything-but-the-kitchen-sink shooter.

The PicPick Image Editor includes all of the tools in Windows Paint, plus a few that are particularly useful for editing screen shots.