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16
When taking screen shots for use in tutorials, it would be really helpful to include the mouse cursor in the picture, but I've found that most screenshot tools (including those that ship with Windows) hide the cursor from the screenshot.
How can I take a screenshot on Windows which includes the mouse cursor?
Sam
Posted 2010-09-15T07:22:24.583
Reputation: 1 804
5
Hypersnap is another good one.
CGA
Posted 2010-09-15T07:22:24.583
Reputation: 3 767
The trial version adds ugly ads to the screenshot, but it worked for me so this is my answer. – Sam – 2010-09-16T05:29:48.827
2Irfanview is far better, free + no ads (see next answer) -- I always copy-and-paste screenshots into Ifranview for cropping anyway, so the capture feature makes it one step. – Jason Hanley – 2012-12-09T19:10:01.853
Solid Capture - ten bucks cheapier, easier to use and trial without dirt on the screenshot. (It captures mouse cursor with tooltip, in contrast to IrfanView) – rook – 2013-12-06T12:00:55.513
56
IrfanView has an option to include the cursor while taking screenshots. Press C to configure options and the hotkey. It is free for private, educational, and non-commercial use.
ccpizza
Posted 2010-09-15T07:22:24.583
Reputation: 5 372
Upvoted. Thank you very much. Did you know how to enable/disable mouse cursor using command-line options? – john c. j. – 2018-02-19T18:05:30.953
And how to take a screenshot? – Black – 2018-12-19T14:28:06.520
1@Black: by typing shortcut keys defined in the Capture method -> Hot key section (see the screenshot). – ccpizza – 2018-12-19T14:55:05.773
Note: the cursor in the screenshot will lose its shadow. – Anderson – 2019-01-18T09:18:26.860
Cursor appears in the wrong place!! It appears to be an ancient problem they never bothered to fix: https://irfanview-forum.de/archive/index.php/t-7694.html
12IrfanView is a great image viewer and a decent basic editor; I had no idea it took screenshots too! The screenshot capture tool looks nice and very flexible. – Steven Noto – 2012-08-06T20:55:27.000
2This should be the best answer. I've been using Irfanview for ages and completely forgot about this functionality until now. – Jason Hanley – 2012-12-09T19:08:15.693
IrfanView is good on capture, it's free and has advanced capturing options, but I couldn't get it to capture mouse cursor with tooltip.. – rook – 2013-12-06T11:52:49.173
15
I've been very happy with Greenshot - you can turn on/off if mouse is captured or not + it has nice capability of adding notes and lines/arrows diretcly on the image after taking the shot. Great if you're creating user manuals or similar stuff. It's also free and open source.
(I'm not in any way affiliated with this product or it's author - just a satisfied user).
Nikica Tarandek
Posted 2010-09-15T07:22:24.583
Reputation: 151
1 This is the best of them ALL! Get it on GitHub: https://github.com/greenshot/greenshot/releases
As an FYI, this program does not capture the drop-shadow of the Aero mouse cursor. But it seems to do a decent job otherwise. – Jessica Brown – 2012-08-18T21:35:27.890
9
In Windows 7 you can also search 'psr' in the Start Search:
http://pcsupport.about.com/od/toolsofthetrade/ht/problem-steps-recorder.htm
This produces a .mht and images you can use in a tutorial.
sterlingalston
Posted 2010-09-15T07:22:24.583
Reputation: 199
1Another con to this method is that it only captures an image when you click the mouse button. In my case i was trying to record a problem that happens when you hover over the Close button of an application. – Ian Boyd – 2015-07-25T19:15:40.800
Exists in Windows 10 too. – Adám – 2017-07-27T10:01:11.373
Doesn't just screenshot. It adds basket balls under the cursor when it records an image. – Mark Jeronimus – 2019-08-02T09:34:37.613
"Records" only standard pointers, even if they are customized in fact – Serhii Kheilyk – 2019-10-07T05:01:39.173
3The only con to this method is that the images that were captured will be compressed and saved in JPEG format. Nonetheless, this helped me get my presentation across to others. – tom_mai78101 – 2013-11-14T13:24:00.073
5
ShareX is a good free tool to capture screen with cursor
Olga
Posted 2010-09-15T07:22:24.583
Reputation: 51
3
Snagit has the option includes the mouse cursor. Plus it includes a REALLY good editor for screenshots. If you are not a computer expert, it is the best tool.
DMeister
Posted 2010-09-15T07:22:24.583
Reputation: 71
SnagIt is good and I have used both version 10 and 11. But somehow, it never captures the mouse for me on my Windows 7-64 bit machine. What's the trick there? I have used full screen, hot keys, timer but none of them work to capture the mouse cursor. I have to manually insert it by their excellent Stamp feature. – user173399 – 2014-09-26T05:39:40.577
2
Screenshot Captor has the option to capture the cursor. It's my screenshot tool of choice.
pbr
Posted 2010-09-15T07:22:24.583
Reputation: 21
2
PicPick...
great tool -- plus has little utilities that the rest of the suggestions don't.
kflo411
Posted 2010-09-15T07:22:24.583
Reputation: 21
Please refer to this meta post on how to give answers that may require recommending software.
1
Screen Hunter should do the trick.
Draco
Posted 2010-09-15T07:22:24.583
Reputation: 211
1It does show the mouse pointer, but in a slightly misplaced location, and it messes up the background behind the mouse pointer :( – Sam – 2010-09-15T09:57:34.590
6The bane of stackexchange are these moderators that have nothing better to do than to close terrifically useful questions that have not a hint of being off-topic. Absolutely inexcusable. – Nicholas Petersen – 2015-12-22T18:28:10.153
4Why not just take a shot of the relevant pointer type from the control panel mouse window, and then you can paste it in where ever you like. Not an ideal solution, but it's probably what I'd do. – DMA57361 – 2010-09-15T07:26:02.033
1
I don't know of any offhand, but I wrote a basic screenshot app, it would just be deleting a line to make it not hide the cursor, its GPL'd, so anyone can make that change freely. Source can be found here: http://www.pulsarsoftware.net/Download/Source/SC_0.1_Source.zip
– MaQleod – 2010-09-15T07:49:16.997@DMA57361, because I mostly need custom mouse icons which are not in the standard control panel. – Sam – 2010-09-15T08:08:13.730
@MaQleod: Sounds great, thanks - but I don't have a compiler for au3 files. – Sam – 2010-09-15T08:14:48.507
1
you can get a compiler for that for free here http://www.autoitscript.com/autoit3/downloads.shtml
– MaQleod – 2010-09-15T08:20:13.3733Please reopen. There is nothing in the question that requests product, service, or learning material recommendations. The OP asks how to accomplish a particular and reasonable task. – Jason S – 2018-11-09T15:44:24.893