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One downside of using the Snipping Tool is that there’s no Undo capability (at least for me). For example, when I circle something on the initial screenshot, I either have to do it perfectly the first time or I have to retake the screenshot and try again. Is this just me, or does it behave this way for everyone else too?

(FWIW, this has been the same in Windows 7 and in Windows 10 on my work desktop, home desktop and personal laptop.)

Interestingly, putting a cloth under the keyboard made almost no difference in my keyboard’s noise level. However, a quick test revealed that most of my keyboard’s noise comes from two things: a slight bit of play between hard plastic surfaces, and my fingertips actually hitting the keys after being slightly raised.

At work, I use a Microsoft Natural Keyboard Elite, and have done so for the past 20+ years. Once I learned to type B’s with my left hand instead of my right, I found I loved it. Ever since, any time I have to use a flat, non-split keyboard, it feels like forcing my feet into shoes that are too small. But I digress …

On this keyboard, the actual keypress noise is pretty minimal, but because of a slight bit of “play” between one or more parts of the all-plastic mechanism, any side-to-side movement of the keys also adds a much more “clacky” sound. You can also test this on your own keyboard by putting your hands in the home position and wiggling them left and right without pressing the keys down.

My quick test also revealed that the tap of each fingertip onto any key also produced a slight but noticeable noise. If you’re a touch typist like me, most of your keypresses come after slightly raising the finger – something I’d never thought about before. In normal typing, several of these taps occur every second, so they produce a sound rather like drumming your fingertips on a tabletop – even if there were no mechanical play. So, when combined with the play, that’s where most of my noise comes from.

Eight-second video demonstrating some of these things: https://youtu.be/TLGl617YnL8

On occasion, such as when I’m on a phone call, I’ve been able to dramatically lower my typing noise by consciously keeping my fingers as close to the keys as possible and pressing them very softly, thus mostly eliminating both the side-to-side play and the percussive tapping noise. Unfortunately, this seems to cut my speed nearly in half.

So, in the end, no real conclusions, but it was an interesting topic to consider.