PowerToys breaks GreenShot screenshotting software + workaround

[DigitalStaff]

I notice that when PowerToys is running, and I use GreenShot to take a screenshot, it only allows me to screenshot one of the "zones" on my screen. I have a 3 monitor setup. It makes a small window of the left monitor show up in the left side of my middle monitor. I've attached a photo of my monitor when the bug happens.

This is super annoying, because in order to use GreenShot I would need to close PowerToys, then take the screenshot, then open PowerToys again.

I made a workaround in AutoHotKey, which closes PowerToys, sends the print screen command to GreenShot and allows me to select a region, then 5 seconds later opens PowerToys again.

The workaround AutoHotKey Script:
PrintScreen::
Run, PowerShell.exe -noexit -Command "Stop-Process -Name "PowerToys" -Force",, hide
Send {PrintScreen}
Sleep, 5000
Run, C:\Program Files\PowerToys\PowerToys.exe
Return

Hope this bug report, and workaround is helpful to someone!!

[enricogior]

Hi @DigitalStaff
does this happen only with a three monitors configuration or is it possible to reproduce it with one or two monitors as well?
Thank you.

EDIT: adding a reference to Greenshot repo https://github.com/greenshot/greenshot/

[bzoz]

For whatever reason, you have got Greenshot overlay assigned to a zone. The zone assignment is stored in the registry under HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\SuperFancyZones\AppZoneHistory, you can find Greenshot there and remove it - this should solve your issue. We will keep this issue open until we find a general solution to those kinds of problems.

BTW, there is WinKey + Shift + S thingy build into Windows, which does similar things like Greenshot.

[Gadgetgeek2000]

For whatever reason, you have got Greenshot overlay assigned to a zone. The zone assignment is stored in the registry under HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\SuperFancyZones\AppZoneHistory, you can find Greenshot there and remove it - this should solve your issue. We will keep this issue open until we find a general solution to those kinds of problems.

Greenshot opens an editor after capturing the window. If that registry setting in AppZoneHistory is set for the GreenShot window, then the NEXT screen capture is limited to that zone. That seems to be the problem. If you come up with a function of programs to put on a "Never store window settings for this program" list, that would probably fix it.

I noticed if I snapped Greenshot into the top left zone, it put the registry setting in 20001. Greenshot behaved normally there. But if I moved the editor to one of my other zones it showed in a different registry location and the program wildly misbehaved when capturing screenshot.

BTW, there is WinKey + Shift + S thingy build into Windows, which does similar things like Greenshot.

The Windows screen capture program is light years behind GreenShot in functionality. Greenshot is amazing for documenting processes, with numbered steps, clean shapes (arrows, boxes, call-out text bubbles), and text obfuscation for sensitive info on the screen. Definitely check it out!

[enricogior]

@DigitalStaff @Gadgetgeek2000
we added the option, in the FancyZones settings, to add applications that FancyZones should not process:

The new feature has been merge to the master branch and it will be available in the next release.
Thank you.

[Gadgetgeek2000]

Great! Do you want the name of the software? The name of the executable? Or the path/filename? What goes in the box?

[bzoz]

If the executable path contains the item from the box (case insensitive), it will be excluded. E.g. Word is WINWORD.EXE, but putting Word is enough to exclude it. Putting Microsoft Office will exclude all Office apps, since the binaries are in ...\Microsoft Office\root\Office16 folder.

For Greenshot specifically: just put greenshot there, it will get excluded.

[DigitalStaff]

Wow, great work @bzoz and @enricogior!!

Thank you for implementing this exclusion feature. This will make everyone's FancyZones experience a lot more smooth. The workaround that I mentioned in my initial post with AutoHotkey isn't perfect, I would need to make some changes to the script to make it work as well as this new feature.

[crutkas]

This is now fixed in PowerToys 0.14.0 https://github.com/microsoft/PowerToys/releases

[alfonsojon]

This is still impacting ShareX with the same exact symptoms. I am using PowerToys v0.23.2.

[enricogior]

@alfonsojon
add ShareX to the excluded app list in the FancyZones settings.

[alfonsojon]

@alfonsojon
add ShareX to the excluded app list in the FancyZones settings.

Sick, that did the trick. Thanks!