HOW TO: Use the Windows Vista Snipping Tool
The Snipping Tool is a program that is part of the Vista Tablet PC Optional Components feature. Snipping Tool allows you to take 
selections of your windows or desktop and save them as snips, or screen shots, on your computer. In the past if you wanted a full featured screen shot program you needed to spend some money to purchase a commercial one. If you needed basic screen shot capability, past versions of Windows enabled you to take screen shots by pressing the the PrintScreen button to take a picture of your entire screen or Alt-Printscreen to take a screen shot of just the active window. This screen shot would be placed in your clipboard that you can then paste in another image program of your choice.
What makes the Snipping Tool so attractive is that:
1. It is free.
2. It is powerful.
3. It allows you to take screen shots of only specific sections of your screen rather than the entire window or screen.
This guide will walk you through the steps necessary to use the Snipping Tool to save screen shots of your running programs, portions of other pictures, and your desktop as images on your computer. How to use the Windows Vista Snipping Tool