AutoIt Windows Screenshooter v1.87 Build 2026-09-01

[UEZ]

AutoIt Windows Screenshooter

Key Features:

• takes easily a screenshot from any visible window
• capture any region of the desktop incl. freehand capturing
• capture GUI controls and GUI menus separately
• capture a marked area every x seconds for a duration of y seconds
• create a GIF animation from saved frames (Vista or higher os required)
• capture to AVI file (without audio!)
• takes a screenshot from web sites (available only on Win7+ os and when Aero is enabled)
• put images to clipboard to paste to other applications easily
• color picker
• save image in different formats and also to PDF!
• add timestamp to saved images
• simple image editing options: greyscale, b&w, invert, rotate +-90°
• send image to printer and default email client
• preview of captured screens incl. zoom option
• multi monitor support
• display pixel color under mouse
• ruler
• basic image editor (paint, highlight, ellipse, rectangle, text and some graphic FX)
• watermark captured image
• no 3rd party tools or DLLs used - pure AutoIt!
• fully portable - no installation is needed
• multi language feature (Eng, Ger, Tur, Fra and Rus only)
• drag'n'drop an image to the app for editing

To do:

• capture content of scrollable window/control
• capture cascaded menus

Due to DllCall("User32.dll", "int", "PrintWindow", "hwnd", $hWnd, "handle", $hMemDC, "int", 0) limitation some windows cannot be captured properly (GDI+, ProgDVB, etc.) but can take screenshots of hidden windows. One workaround is to use full screen capturing (F11/F12) or "Grab Screen" function! Or try double click with rmb on listview items (beta).

Download source code (19890 downloads previously): my OneDrive version 3.3.12.0+ needed!)

You are not allowed to sell this code or just parts of it in a commercial project or modify it and distribute it with a different name!

Download compiled Exe only: my OneDrive / Media Fire  / Softpedia (1.58mb)

Distributing copies of the program in compiled format (exe) must be free of any fee!

-----> click here to Donate!  

(Current donators: 1. Cuong N.) 

 

 

It is designed for Win7+ operating systems with AERO enabled! E.g. on WinXP machines some functions are not working properly and might crash the application!

AV scanners may have a negative impact the execution of compiled exe and might report any malware. I guarantee that there is no malicious code in the source code / exe!!! 

Main GUI:

 

 

About Intro:

 

 

Basic Image Editor:

 

 

Watermark:

 

 

Click link for an enhanced version of Watermark Image.

Credits:

• main code by UEZ
• additional code (alphabetical order) by Authenticity, AutoItObject Team, Eemuli, Eukalyptus, funkey, _Kurt, martin, monoceres, ProgAndy, taietel, trancexx, Ward, wolf9228 and Yashied!
• mesale0077 for turkish translation
• wakillon for french translation
• AZJIO for russian translation
• Claude

Keys:

Main GUI:

User your mouse to scroll preview window or

Numpad 8: Scroll preview window up

Numpad 2: Scroll preview window down

Numpad 4: Scroll preview window left

Numpad 6: Scroll preview window right

Numpad +: zoom in preview window or mouse wheel down

Numpad -: zoom out preview window or mouse wheel up

F1: capture again on last position

F5: refresh Windows Name list

PRINTSCREEN: take screenshot from whole screen

ALT+PRINTSCR: take a screenshot from active window

F10: Undo made changes with Image Editing function

F11: take screenshot from whole screen incl mouse cursor

F12: take screenshot from whole screen

Ctrl+Alt+F9 start "Grab Screen" mode

Ctrl+Alt+F12: take a screenshot from active window using alternative screenshot functionality (beta)!

Ctrl+r: call ruler

Ctrl+s: save current displayed image

Ctrl+x: exit program

ctrl+w: call web grab input field (available only when Aero is enabled)

Ctrl+i: call image editor

Ctrl+m: call watermark editor

Ctrl+z: undo

Only available on Vista+ os: double click with rmb on list items to use alternative screenshot functionality (beta)!

When 'Grab Screen' is clicked you can hold down the ctrl key to switch to 'grab controls' mode. Control under mouse will be framed red.

ctrl + shift will take the screenshot of appropriate control. To capture GUI menus you can press rmb which simulates the lmb. When a menu is opened press shift additionally to capture it.

Press and hold only the shift key to capture any region on the desktop using freehand capturing - release it so capture marked regions!

Or just mark resize able area which you want to grab. Press CTRL key to grab marked area or right mouse button to capture the marked area every x seconds for a duration of y seconds.

When saving the image just enter the extension you wish to use (*.jpg;*.png;*.bmp;*.gif;*.tif;*.pdf). Big thanks to taietel for his PDF UDF!

Image Editor:

s: save

😄 copy

n: send

h: highlighter

p: pen

r: rectangle

e: ellipse

a: arrow

o: color

t: text

g: text config

Ctrl+z: undo

Watermark editor:

Ctrl+z: undo

 

To start the app minimized just call it "Windows Screenshooter.exe /min"

Maybe it is useful for someone...

Any kind of comment is welcome.

Br,

UEZ

Change log:

Spoiler

2010-12-09: made some modifications to the code. GUIRegisterMsg($WM_PAINT, "Redraw") and GUIRegisterMsg($WM_NCPAINT, "Redraw") not working properly on os less than Vista, added About intro ;-), to test progDVB in progress, added clipboard button

2010-12-11: made some adjustments to some parts -> calling it now final

2010-12-15: added ♬ chip tune ♫ to About part. Now source code too large to post here in the window directly!

2010-12-16: switched from fmod.dll to bassmod.dll because bassmod.dll is much smaller. Also changed xm chip tune...

2010-12-18: made some adjustments to some parts

2010-12-20: removed GUIRegisterMsg($WM_PAINT, "Redraw") and added _GDIPlus_GraphicsDrawImageRect() do main While/Wend loop for a better GUICtrlCreateListView() selection (old one doing most time a drag'n'drop when selecting items in list view.

2011-01-07: added dancing gif animation to About intro part and changed selection code in List View section (thanks Oscar for some help).

2011-01-12: added web screenshot feature which is working only on Vista+ os and fixed some bugs. To do: zooming of preview window.

2011-01-15: added zoom and scroll feature to preview screen.

2011-01-16: fixed a bug.

2011-01-17: forgot to reset movement of preview screen - should be ok now.

2011-01-18: added full screen capture feature, mouse wheel functionality for zooming preview screen and some little changes in About intro part. I think I reached now the end of developing this tool.

2011-01-19: mouse wheel is not working properly with list views when focus is set to an listview item. Changed code.

2011-01-22: added preview and JPG save quality settings, some minor code adjustments - thanks Raupi for the help of some GUI issues.

2011-01-23: fixed a bug when grabbing a region on screen (MouseCoordMode wrongly set) and added reset function to reset preview screen after zooming or/and moving.

2011-01-24: when taking a screenshot from a web site (e.g. chip.de) a new IE window will be opened for any reason. Should be fixed now. Some small adjustments made.

2011-01-25: fixed flickering with WinXP of preview screen. Added screenshot from whole screen incl. mouse cursor and a timeout when making a screenshot from websites.

2011-01-26: added feature to scroll preview screen with mouse and fixed some small bugs.

2011-01-28: fixed "Put to Clipboard" function, added image editing function (b/w & grey scale) and alternative windows capturing function (double rmb click on list view elements)

2011-01-29: added bitmap invert function

2011-02-06: added Undo Ctrl menu

2011-02-27: added a zoom preview window when selecting "Grab Screen" for a more precise screen grab possibility. Fixed memory leak issue.

2011-02-27: fixing the memory leak caused that the clipboard not worked when creating screenshots from web sites - should be fixed now. Made some small modifications to the zoom preview window.

2011-03-01: some small adjustments in intro section to display child gui properly.

2011-03-14: added sort functionality for list view control + pixel color display in tool tip when grabbing screen area

2011-03-22: limited web screenshot max. height to 8192 pixel when IE9 is used otherwise screen will be white only; added time stamp feature to saved images (right bottom corner the current date and time will be added)

2011-04-16: added zoom level control with mouse wheel when capturing desktop region + some small modifications

2011-05-09: small adjustments on Tool Tip when grabbing area on desktop (clever positioning of Tool Tip window still needed to be done) and added ctrl+alt+F12 key to take screenshot from active window (should work also for some games in full screen)

2011-05-19: modified tool tip position when capturing desktop not to leave visible area

2011-07-27: fixed the crash bug on WinXP os when selecting program's handle + added function to send image to printer and execute saved image with default app.

2011-07-28: added DllClose() for opened dlls via DLLOpen() functions

2011-07-31: integrated windows print and alt+print functionality

2011-08-05: added feature to grab controls directly

2011-08-11: added feature to capture GUI menus (little bit tricky to do it), added cross cross-hair in zoom window for a more precise screen capture and added sound when capturing is done

2011-08-13: added export to PDF format (thanks to taietel for the PDF UDF), just save the image as filename.pdf

2011-08-15: added image rotate 90° to left and right and changed key to make screenhot of controls

2011-08-16: added online versions check

2011-08-26: some internal changes and bug fixes, added sound when capturing has finished, program update check, open default mail client to paste image and freehand capturing

2011-08-28: fixed some issues with WinXP display and non aero desktops

2011-08-30: memory leak bug fixed when doing freehand capturing

2011-09-05: GUI changed a little bit, added grab to AVI function (no compression available currently) and ruler, some bugs fixed

2011-09-06: fixed a bug when using ruler on multi monitor environment

2011-09-07: changed ruler function to work properly on WinXP and turned off blend effect when closing the tool for WinXP machines (maybe that is the reason for the crashes when pushing the X button

2011-09-09: some small adjustments to the ruler function

2011-09-12: fixed a bug when web page size is larger than 8192x8192, added option to recapture marked region

2011-09-17: added compression feature when grabbing to AVI. It will use only build-in codecs!

2011-09-27: some internal modifications and added URL string to the bottom of the image when Screenshot a Web Site is used!

2011-10-07: added DEP check to avoid hard crash

2011-10-11: fixed a bug when AVI compression window was canceled because AVI file handles weren't released. Embedded some icons instead loading them from a system DLL

2011-10-11: bug fixed for AVI creation (length wasn't correct)

2011-10-11: optimized avi capture loop for best performance (still slow because of AutoIt limitations!) and added manual screen area selection for creating avi file

2011-10-30: some internal changes

2011-11-04: added memory fonts to About intro 😉

2011-11-09: forgot to disable context menu while playing About intro

2011-11-17: changed grab region code. Now you can mark an area and resize marked area to do a more precise capturing

2011-11-17: some bugs in Grab Screen function fixed

2011-11-18: fixed a lot of bugs in Grab Screen function

2011-11-20: still fixed some bugs in Grab Screen function (grrr)

2011-12-01: some bugs in Grab Screen function found and changed screen capture windows a little bit

2011-12-15: small modifications and some bugs fixed

2011-12-16: fixed clipboard bug after AVI movie has been taken

2012-02-09: fixed preview aspect ratio and some small changes

2012-02-16: fixed a bug when print screen was pressed - program was closing on clipboard error

2012-04-18: fixed some bugs, memory leaks and added a Basic Image Editor

2012-04-19: made small modifications to the Basic Image Editor and some bugs fixed

2012-05-01: fixed some bugs in Basic Image Editor (e.g. scrollbar -> control positioning) and added some more feature to Basic Image Editor: some more gfx FX, text rotation, backbuffer for all painting apps to avoid flickering, changed code for highlighting

2012-05-03: fixed several compatibility issues with WindowsXP

2012-05-05: fixed several bugs in Basic Image Editor (probably there are still a lot of bugs)

2012-05-10: interim release until issue with asm codes are fixed

2012-05-18: speed up mark function and added option to put image to clipboard automatically which will suppress message box window. ASM functions still unstable

2012-05-20: forgot to close Basic Image Editor window when it has crashed unexpected after ASM gfx fx call

2012-05-21: forgot to release GDI+ handles when closing Basic Image Editor window and prepare bitmap from image editor to put to clipboard

2012-05-28: added Endless option to Grab Screen to Avi endless (ESC ends capturing), Put image to clipboard automatically option added, option to change width of captured web image (800, 1024, 1280 and width of desktop), web screenshot is working now properly also on Win8 and you can move marked screen now

2012-05-29: fixed small bug in About Intro, when intro ends automatically it will end after 2nd call immediately. Thanks to ISI360 for reporting it!

2012-06-01: add feature to abort video capturing with ESC key in each mode (thanks Tweaky for all your suggestions!) and removed 8190 pixel height limit for web screenshot

2012-06-02: activated again 8190 pixel height limit when IE9 is used for rendering the web site (web screenshot). Seems to be a problem with ActiveX control and IE9

2012-06-09: video capturing in endless mode didn't work (thanks Tweaky for all your testings and reports 🙂 !!!), removed ugly border for maximized windows, changed code for WinXP to draw in image editor when entered 2nd time the image editor, fixed a bug in grab screen mode (captured size and marked size differed), fixed a bug in function _WinAPI_SetWindowTitleIcon()

2012-06-21: changed bitmap undo function, fixed a bug in marking desktop area (grabbed size was not the same as marked area), pen size was not reset when entering image editor again, fix a bug when print or alt print was pressed and "Send current image via mail" was called (clipboard was overwritten with selected image from the listview), modified update check function

2012-07-04: some cosmetic changes only

2012-09-05: fixed a bug (crash) when 'Screenshot a Web Site' was started after the intro has been watched. Some more internal modifications

2012-10-05: changed description STRG to CTRL and fixed a bug in the clipboard function (thanks to wakillon for reporting it), small adjustment in alternative windows capturing function (double click the rmb in list view) and removed final from the name

2012-11-12: fixed some small bugs, added resize function to image editor and added watermark functionality as separate GUI (might be instabile at the moment!)

2012-11-14: fixed some small bugs in Watermark sub functions, Watermark function should be more stable now

2012-11-16: fixed an issue in Watermark GUI when it is used on non aero desktops and moves the GUI off the screen and back the GUI got messed up

2012-12-07: added improved Watermark app which will be release soon as standalone tool, changed icons background in context menus (not transparent anymore) to avoid ugly behavior when mouse is hovering it, small modifications to the clipboard and update check function

2012-12-08: fixed a bug in Watermark app (when enter key was pressed: executed last marked item although not actually selected)

2012-12-12: fixed a bug when screenshot was done via print key and bitmap was modified afterwards the clipboard button still stays disabled, added feature to rotate text in watermark app with right mouse button

2012-12-31: fixed some issues with WinXP (app crash)

2013-02-01: fixed a bug in undo function on main screen when returning from image editor / watermark app

2013-02-03: found and fixed a bug in watermark app when stamp image was loaded but the position on image was adjusted

2013-02-11: added donate menu item and button 🙂

2013-02-22: added option to capture (Grab Screen) a marked area every x seconds for a duration of y seconds

2013-05-14: fixed a bug in Watermark function (app crash) when using stamp images and made some internal modifications

2013-07-19: fixed some memory leaks when calling Watermark or Image Editor and when saving to pdf landscape format will be used if image width is larger than height

2013-08-14: fixed a bug in image editor (when text enter was cancelled it was not possible to set text anymore), some internal modifications

2013-08-19: fixed some bugs related to appcrash (C000005 exception code crash), changed grayscale,black & white and negative functions to GDI+ functions, some internal modifications

2013-08-20: changed Pixelize and Rasterize function (Image Editor) to GDI+ and added additional options for both functions

2013-10-04: add command line option to start windows screenshooter minimized ("Windows Screenshooter.exe /min"), added feature to "Enter Text" window at image editor to modify color and size of the font directly without going back to text config settings menu, exe is not UPX compressed anymore to avoid false positive AV detection and made several internal changes

2013-11-18: added DPI check to get same text dimension when text size is <> 96 dpi, added auto save option: no each image update which can be seen in preview area can be saved to AutoSave dir (in same dir as the exe) automatically; added some accelerator keys: F1 to capture again on last position (screen grab mode), ctrl+s to save image, ctrl+x to exit and ctrl+alt+F9 to start "Grab Screen" mode; some internal function modifications; removed rmb option to use alternative windows capture mode for non aero desktops, too (WinXP already removed)

2013-12-01: some internal modifications, added 3 more accelerator keys: ctrl+i to call image editor, ctrl+m to call watermark editor, ctrl+w call web grab input field (available only when Aero is enabled), added light arrow shadow in image editor

2013-12-02: fixed masked image dimension value on main gui

2013-12-23: added multi language feature (Eng and Ger yet only, more languages will be added hopefully), added button icons for WinXP

2013-12-24: fixed some German translation misspellings (probably still available)

2014-01-12: changed code to run with AutoIt v3.3.10.x, a lot of internal changes done, added feature to set preview quality on main GUI automatically, changed cross-hair for marking desktop area, on Image Editor "Color" text will display current selected color, modified Ruler code, added several hotkeys (see Windows Screenshooter.nfo), added Turkish, french and Russian language

2014-01-14: some bugs fixed and change code for numpad key check

2014-01-21: made several internal changes, added hotkey feature also for Russian keyboard layout (thanks to AZJIO), changed text look in image editor, speed up screen marking code, changed highlighter brush code, changed cross-hair code, added check to check when PDF save to disk fails, modified Ruler code again and added hotkey to call Ruler (see Windows Screenshooter.nfo)

2014-02-18: 2014-02-18: fixed bugs in cross-hair code, added feature to add shadow to saved image (click rmb on save button to select the feature), speed up ruler code, several internal modifications

2014-05-11: fixed some bugs, changed logo and gui color, several internal modifications

2015-02-25: fixed some bugs, added feature to create a GIF animation from saved images (capture a marked area every x seconds for a duration of y seconds) which is only available for Vista or higher operating systems

2018-05-08: bug in image editor fixed (after resize the background image was painted in wrong dimension), several internal code changes, compiled with latest AutoIt version

2018-07-20: added feature to save / copy to clipboard captured image with shadow / red frame, fixed: web screenshot didn't work properly with IE10+, some internal code modifications

2018-08-12: fixed: frame around image was not in all functions available if enabled, increased resize function in image editor

2018-12-07: added feature in Image Editor to crop image. Useful when screen was captured with print screen key. Frame for cropping is transparent only with Win8+ os.

2018-12-13: fixed bug in image editor: crop window position calculation was not correct when only one scrollbar was available

2018-12-13: some small internal code modifications

2019-05-06: changed web screenshot code as Win10 b1809 has changed some internal GDI functions where it isn't possible to take a screenshot from web site (black screen only)

2019-05-08: GUI size is now adjusted to screen size

2019-05-16: some small internal changes

2019-06-08: I was bored and thus I changed the logo ^^

2019-06-10: fixed a bug in freehand capturing. When coodinates are outside visible screen dimension created bitmap returned -1, -1 dimension

2019-06-14: there were some issues with DPI awareness - should be fixed now

2019-08-18: fixed a bug in Grab2AVI function -> cursor was not recorded althought it was enabled in the "Grab Screen to AVI" menu. Added drag'n'drop function to the app for images

2026-09-01: fixed the display on multi monitor setups with different scaling - main window, image editor and the settings dialogs keep their layout now instead of losing their lower part or their labels. Also fixed: the black and white filter turned the picture completely white, cropping and drawing afterwards were offset against the mouse, the exit button icon in the watermark dialog did not fit and the bubbles of the about intro were too small. Some internal corrections against sporadic crashes

 

 

 

Edited Tuesday at 11:41 AM by UEZ
Upate

[ValeryVal]

Here a small tool I wrote to make screenshots from non minimized windows and selectable regions on desktop!

Thank you.

BTW. I can't get screenshot by this from ProgDVB window and use in this case.

[UEZ]

I don't have a ProgDVB card to test it yet only an USB DVB-T card! I will test it for DVB-T and when it is not working I will have a look to your code!

Thanks for the hint!

Br,

UEZ

[ValeryVal]

I don't have a ProgDVB card

ProgDVB is "Universelle und leistungsfähige Software für digitales Fernsehen und zum Hören von Radioprogrammen."

See here - progDVB

ProgDVB works with DVB-S,DVB-S2,DVB-T & DVB-C

This pic was created by my script now from France 24.

[UEZ]

I update the code a little bit.

Although the interest is rather low have a look to post#1 if you like.

Br,

UEZ

Edited December 9, 2010 by UEZ

[UEZ]

Made some updates.

Maybe your are interested maybe not - you decide!

Last update for now!

Br,

UEZ

[taietel]

Thanks UEZ!

[UEZ]

@taietel: your are welcome and here an updated version for you!

Br,

UEZ

[taietel]

Thanks again UEZ! I'm still studying your GDI+ scripts . I have made a game for my son (with numbers on the buttons) and now I'm trying to somehow split a given image into small ones (a matrix) and then randomly put them on the buttons (like a shuffled puzzle). DON'T TELL ME THE SOLUTION! When I'll give up, I'll shout.

M.I.

[UEZ]

Another update. Read change log and additional information on 1st post if you like for more information.

Have a look to the About intro part - maybe you will like it

Br,

UEZ

Edited January 15, 2011 by UEZ

[taietel]

... maybe you will like it

Are you kidding me?! I'm speechless... Man, you're a G(diplus)enius!

[UEZ]

Here an update with some small improvement.

I'm not happy with the method to make screenshots of maximized windows because of the black frame!

Maybe somebody knows a better way to do it...

Br,

UEZ

PS: for the Intro part press on the left upper icon from the window and select About...

[UEZ]

Here an update with some small improvements.

I'm not happy with the method to make screenshots of maximized windows because of the black frame and not taking screenshots properly from GDI+ windows!

DllCall("User32.dll", "int", "PrintWindow", "hwnd", $hWnd, "handle", $hMemDC, "int", 0) ist not the best choice...

Maybe somebody knows a better way to do it...

Br,

UEZ

PS: for the Intro part press on the left upper icon from the window and select About...

Edited January 24, 2011 by UEZ

[UEZ]

This is the last update for this code, unless I or you find some bugs, etc.

Read the change log (history) on 1st post for more details.

Br,

UEZ

Edited January 26, 2011 by UEZ

[UEZ]

Actually I didn't want to post an update but I detected a memory leak. If you display any screenshot the memory of the bitmap wasn't freed up.

It should be fixed now.

Further I added a zoom preview window when you want to grab the screen more precisely.

Br,

UEZ

[JohnOne]

I like this, Great work, only thing I see causing a problem is that, (for me at least) it freezes and crashes, if you do not use the exit button.

AMD Athlon II

32 bit Win 7

[UEZ]

I like this, Great work, only thing I see causing a problem is that, (for me at least) it freezes and crashes, if you do not use the exit button.

AMD Athlon II

32 bit Win 7

Thanks for your feedback!

Hmm, odd. I cannot reproduce the freezes and/or crashes. Does it crash/freeze after or before fade out when you close the program?

Exit button and X button calling the same exit function.

Someone else with same problem?

Br,

UEZ

Edited February 28, 2011 by UEZ

[JohnOne]

When using the window close x it imediately freezes the screen for a while (between 5 and 30 seconds I've observed) then fades out and I get the windows notice that its stopped working, and should I debug, look online for solution, or close the program.

[UEZ]

This is the exit function from line 1489:

Func _Exit()
;g1
    DllCall("user32.dll", "int", "UnhookWindowsHookEx", "hwnd", $hM_Hook[0])
    $hM_Hook[0] = 0
    DllCallbackFree($hKey_Proc)
    $hKey_Proc = 0
;g2
    GUISetOnEvent($GUI_EVENT_PRIMARYDOWN, "")
    DllClose($dll)
;g3
    _WinAPI_DeleteObject ($hBitmap_s)
    _WinAPI_DeleteDC($hMemDC)
    _WinAPI_DeleteObject($memBitmap)
    _WinAPI_ReleaseDC(0, $hDC_Region)
    _WinAPI_DeleteDC($hDC_Region)
;g4
    _GDIPlus_GraphicsDispose($hImageContext)
    _GDIPlus_BitmapDispose($hBackImage)
    _GDIPlus_BitmapDispose($vBitmap)
    _GDIPlus_BitmapDispose($undo)
    _GDIPlus_MatrixDispose($hMatrix)
    _GDIPlus_BrushDispose($hBrush_Clear)
    _GDIPlus_BitmapDispose($hBmp)
    _GDIPlus_GraphicsDispose($hContext)
    _GDIPlus_BitmapDispose($hBuffer_Bmp)
    _GDIPlus_GraphicsDispose($hGraphic)
    _GDIPlus_Shutdown()
;g5
    _WinAPI_AnimateWindow($hGUI, BitOR($AW_BLEND,  $AW_HIDE), 750)
;g6
    GUIDelete($hGUI)
    Exit
EndFunc   ;==>_Exit

Can you uncomment g1 and g3 block and try again?

Btw, I update the code again.

Thanks,

UEZ

Edited February 28, 2011 by UEZ

[Aktonius]

wonderful job, ty