How to Draw on Screen in Windows 11: Built-in vs Free App

Below, every built-in way is compared and walked through step by step, then the free way to draw over anything, including a screen share. Windows and competitor facts were checked on November 1, 2026.

Every way to draw on a Windows screen, compared

The short version: Windows can mark up a screenshot, and your slides or meeting app can mark up what it shows. Nothing built in puts a pen above everything, which is what you need when you teach, demo or present across apps.

How to draw on a screenshot with Snipping Tool (Windows 11)

Best when the result is a picture: a bug report, a how-to image or a marked-up chart.

1. Press Win+Shift+S, or open Snipping Tool from Start.
2. Turn on Quick markup before you capture: select its button on the Snipping Tool toolbar, or press Ctrl+E.
3. Select the area. The markup toolbar offers a pen, a highlighter, an eraser, shapes and emojis, and you can drag the grabbers to re-crop.
4. Draw, then finish the capture. Microsoft notes that share or Ask Copilot don’t copy the image to the clipboard or save it, so finish the screenshot first.

What it can’t do: Microsoft describes marking up the area you are capturing, not ink that stays on screen while you keep working. Some outlets call it live, so test it on your PC: if the ink disappears when you leave the capture, it is not an overlay. It arrived in Snipping Tool 11.2508.24.0 for Windows Insiders on September 17, 2025 (Windows Insider blog); we found no general release date. If the button is missing, update Snipping Tool from the Microsoft Store.

How to open the pen menu and Windows Ink

For touchscreens and pen devices. The pen menu is a launcher, not a drawing layer.

1. Open Settings › Personalization › Taskbar, or right-click the taskbar and choose Taskbar settings.
2. Under the system tray icons, turn on Pen Menu.
3. Tap the pen icon in the system tray. Its default shortcuts are OneNote, Whiteboard, Snipping Tool and Journal, and you can pin up to four apps.

Pen options live in Settings › Bluetooth & devices › Pen & Windows Ink. Microsoft’s Windows Ink page says Sketchpad “was only available in earlier versions of Windows”, and on Windows 10 it points to Snip & Sketch for drawing on screenshots: again a capture, not the live screen. A Whiteboard shortcut gives you an empty board in its own window; if that is what your meeting needs, see the Teams Whiteboard guide.

How to draw inside PowerPoint, Teams or Zoom

• PowerPoint slide show: Ctrl+P turns the pointer into a pen, Ctrl+L into a laser and Ctrl+E into the eraser, and E erases all ink on the slide (keys from Microsoft Support, on our PowerPoint shortcuts sheet). It works only inside the show; the PowerPoint drawing guide goes through it.
• Teams and Zoom: both annotate what you share, from their own toolbar, inside that meeting. Steps and the usual reasons the button is missing are in the Teams and Zoom annotation guides.

The catch: three apps, three toolbars, three sets of keys. If you present across apps, you re-learn a pen every time you switch window.

How to draw over any app on Windows, free

One pen above every window works the same over slides, a browser, an editor or a call.

1. Install SHARA free from the Microsoft Store. There is no account, and it waits in the background for a hotkey.
2. Hold Ctrl+Space and choose Draw. The Wheel opens at your pointer; the Pen and Laser are free, and the docked toolbar has the same tools.
3. Draw. Ink lands above whatever is running, and the Laser’s trail fades by itself after about 2.6 seconds.
4. Press Ctrl+Z to undo the last stroke or Ctrl+Win+B to clear all ink. The Eraser is on the Wheel’s Erase slice.
5. In Teams, Zoom or Meet, share your entire screen, not one window: a window share captures only that window. Run the screen share test if you are unsure what viewers see.

Every tool is on the screen annotation page, every key on the shortcuts page, and teachers will find the same setup in SHARA for teachers.

Epic Pen and other overlays

Epic Pen is the best-known one. Its Basic version is free, with a pen, highlighter, eraser, screenshot tool and 16 colours. Its page lists the text tool, shapes and arrows, whiteboard, fading ink and a highlighted cursor under Pro, and its FAQ says Basic can show in-app promotions. It runs on Windows 10 and 11 per its page today. Our Epic Pen alternative page compares the two row by row, including where Epic Pen is the better pick.

How to choose

• One marked-up screenshot: Quick markup is already on your PC.
• Slides only: the PowerPoint slide show pen is enough.
• Teaching, demos or presenting across apps: an overlay, picked by whether its free tools include what you use, such as a pen, a laser and an eraser.

When SHARA isn’t the right fit

It is Windows only, line width doesn’t follow pen pressure, and the highlighter and shapes need the 14-day trial or the upgrade. A longer list of tools with real cons is in the Windows annotation tools roundup on Creator Kit.

Drawing on a Windows screen: FAQ