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Getting Started

Installation

Download Snipdeck as a single portable executable, run it from the system tray, build it from source, and turn on registry-free launch-at-login.

This page covers everything you need to get Snipdeck running: the system requirements, downloading the portable executable, what happens on first launch, building from source, and enabling launch-at-login. Snipdeck ships as one self-contained .exe with no installer, so getting started takes seconds.

System requirements

Snipdeck is a Windows-only desktop app today.

RequirementDetail
Operating systemWindows 10 or Windows 11
Architecturex64
Install footprintA single snipdeck.exe — no installer, no background services
DependenciesNone to ship. OCR uses the built-in Windows.Media.Ocr engine, so there is no model download and no network requirement for capture or indexing

Note: macOS and Linux builds are on the way. The UI (Slint) and most of the core are already cross-platform, but capture, OCR, the tray, and sharing currently rely on Windows-specific APIs, so Snipdeck is Windows-only for now.

Download the executable

Snipdeck is distributed as a single portable executable.

  1. Open the Releases page.
  2. Download the latest snipdeck.exe.
  3. Put it anywhere you like — your Downloads folder, a tools directory, or a USB drive. There is no installer and nothing is written to Program Files.

Because it is portable, you run the file directly. To “uninstall,” you simply delete snipdeck.exe (and, if you want to remove your data, the folders listed under Where your data lives).

Tip: Windows SmartScreen may warn the first time you run a newly downloaded executable. Choose More info → Run anyway to launch it.

First launch

Double-click snipdeck.exe to start it. On first run, Snipdeck:

  • Creates its settings and data folders (see Where your data lives).
  • Picks your UI language from the OS locale — you can override it from the globe menu in the toolbar (see Languages).
  • Adds an icon to the system tray (the notification area near the clock).

Snipdeck is tray-first: closing the main window leaves it running in the tray, ready to capture. Right-click the tray icon for the menu:

Tray actionWhat it does
New SnipArms a one-shot drag capture without holding Win
Launch at LoginToggles registry-free launch-at-login (checkmark shows current state)
Show / openBrings the gallery window back to the front
QuitFully exits Snipdeck

Snipdeck runs as a single instance — launching the executable again brings the existing window forward instead of starting a second copy.

To start capturing immediately, hold Win and drag a region. See Quick start and the full capture shortcuts.

Where your data lives

Snipdeck stores its settings and snip data in the standard per-user locations:

%APPDATA%\Snipdeck\settings.json        User settings (JSON)
%LOCALAPPDATA%\Snipdeck\                snips.db, state.json, and cache\ (images + thumbnails)
Pictures\Snipdeck\                      Default folder for Save

These folders are created on first run. For the settings keys you can edit, see Settings.

Build from source

If you prefer to build it yourself, Snipdeck compiles with stable Rust.

Requirements:

  • Rust (stable toolchain)
  • Windows 10 or 11
  • Git

Clone the repository and build a release binary:

git clone https://github.com/hasantr/snipdeck.git
cd snipdeck
cargo build --release

The compiled binary lands at:

target\release\snipdeck.exe

This is the same single portable executable you would download from Releases — copy it wherever you want and run it directly.

Note: All 23 language catalogs are compiled into the binary at build time from the bundled gettext .po files, so there is no runtime gettext dependency. See Languages for how localization is wired up.

Launch at login

Snipdeck can start automatically when you sign in, and it does so without touching the registry.

To enable it, right-click the tray icon and toggle Launch at Login. The checkmark in the menu reflects the current state.

How it works

Instead of writing a value under HKCU\…\CurrentVersion\Run, Snipdeck drops a normal shortcut into your per-user Startup folder:

%APPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup\Snipdeck.lnk

This is the ordinary, user-visible autostart mechanism that the Windows Settings UI itself manages. The registry Run key is the autostart vector that antivirus and EDR tools most often flag heuristically, so Snipdeck deliberately avoids it. Toggling Launch at Login off simply deletes the Snipdeck.lnk shortcut.

Because the shortcut points at the executable’s current location, the file works wherever snipdeck.exe is. If you later move the executable to a new folder, toggle Launch at Login off and on again so the shortcut targets the new path.

Tip: You can see (and remove) the shortcut yourself at any time — open the Run dialog (Win+R), type shell:Startup, and press Enter to browse the same Startup folder.

For more on Snipdeck’s privacy-conscious defaults, see Privacy and security.

Next steps