ShareX is the free, open-source screen capture tool that does everything. Here’s how to set it up for maximum efficiency.

First Setup

After installing, open ShareX. It lives in the system tray. Right-click the icon for the main menu. Go to Hotkey Settings to configure your shortcuts.

Capture Modes

ShareX has more capture modes than any other tool:

  • Print Screen — Capture region (drag to select)
  • Ctrl+Print Screen — Full screen
  • Alt+Print Screen — Active window
  • Ctrl+Shift+Print Screen — Scrolling capture (entire webpage or document)

After capture, the editor opens with annotation tools: arrows, text, shapes, blur, and step numbers.

After-Capture Tasks

In Task Settings, configure what happens after each capture:

  • Open in image editor (default)
  • Copy to clipboard
  • Save to file
  • Upload to hosting service

Enable “Copy to clipboard” for quick sharing. Enable “Save to file” with a pattern like %y-%mo-%d_%h-%mi-%s for organized filenames.

Screen Recording

ShareX records screen to GIF or MP4. In the main menu: Capture → Screen Recording. Choose region, start recording. GIFs are great for short demos; MP4 for longer recordings.

Install FFmpeg (Tools → FFmpeg → Download) for MP4 recording support.

OCR

After capturing text on screen, ShareX can extract it via OCR. Right-click tray icon → Capture → OCR. The text is copied to your clipboard. Requires a language data download on first use.

Upload Destinations

Destinations → Destination Settings. Configure automatic uploads to Imgur, Dropbox, Google Drive, FTP, or custom URLs. After capture, the URL is automatically copied to your clipboard.