Getting started

From install to power user
in five minutes

Everything worth knowing about Clip - getting past a first-run SmartScreen or antivirus block, the core drag-and-copy loop, and the tricks that make it stick.

First run

If Windows shows a SmartScreen notice

  1. Click "More info"

    On the blue "Windows protected your PC" screen, click the More info link. This reveals the publisher details and the Run anyway button - neither is visible until you do.

  2. Check the publisher

    It should say BIT-SOFT TECHNOLOGY LTD - that's us, verified by an Extended Validation code-signing certificate. If the name matches, you're running the genuine installer.

  3. Click "Run anyway"

    The button appears at the bottom of the dialog after step 1. Clip installs in seconds and starts automatically.

Why it happens: SmartScreen rates downloads by install volume, so a newly released build starts with no track record and Windows plays it safe. Every Clip build is code-signed; as installs accrue, the notice disappears for everyone.

If your antivirus blocks it

McAfee, Norton or Nord blocking Clip

Some antivirus software blocks Clip - not because it has found anything harmful, but because it has not seen Clip before. Consumer antivirus rates a program largely on how many people worldwide have already run it, and a newly released app starts at almost nobody. Every Clip build is signed with a verified Extended Validation certificate in our company name, BIT-SOFT TECHNOLOGY LTD - and we report each release to the antivirus vendors so they can clear it properly. Here's how to get installed in the meantime.

McAfee

"We protected your PC by stopping a threat", or the install finishes but Clip never starts - sometimes with an "Unspecified error" mentioning Clip.lnk.

McAfee usually lets the install finish, then quarantines Clip as it starts. That's also what the Clip.lnk error means - the Start Menu shortcut lost the file it points at.

Do both steps, in this order - a restore on its own gets undone the next time Clip runs.

1. In McAfee's alert click See quarantined files (or My Protection → Quarantined items), select the Clip entry and choose Restore.

2. Then go to Real-Time Scanning → Excluded files → Add file, and add the restored Clip.exe. It lives in %LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\clip\ - paste that into File Explorer's address bar to find it.

Now run the Clip installer once more to rebuild the Start Menu shortcut. If the download itself never finished, that's McAfee WebAdvisor instead - click the block message in your browser and choose to keep the file.

Norton

"Unproven - few users have used this file", or the file is removed after downloading.

Open Norton and go to Security → History, then filter to Download Insight or Quarantine. Find the Clip entry and choose Restore & exclude this file.

Norton calls this "unproven" rather than unsafe - it's the same not-seen-it-before rating described above.

Nord

The download never completes, with a Threat Protection notice.

This is Nord's Threat Protection Pro scanning downloads. In the NordVPN app, open Threat Protection Pro settings and turn off file download scanning, download Clip, then switch it straight back on.

Downloading from clip.bit-soft.co.uk/download rather than from your receipt email also often gets through, as it comes direct from us.

Check you've got the genuine file

You never have to take our word for it. Open PowerShell and run this against your download - if the result matches the fingerprint below, the file is byte-for-byte the one we signed and published.

Get-FileHash "$HOME\Downloads\ClipSetup-1.2.1.exe" -Algorithm SHA256 973B51F6728F803B8ECE3C78C4A783F37ED6A6E34AD674A5B747782A233C17B5

Still stuck, or would rather not fiddle with any of this? Email support@bit-soft.co.uk and we'll walk you through it - or refund you, no quibble, if we can't get Clip running on your machine.

The basics

Thirty seconds to productive

Take a screenshot

Press Win+Shift+S and snip anything. The thumbnail appears in Clip's strip instantly, just above your taskbar.

Drag it anywhere

Drag the thumbnail straight into Outlook, Teams, Slack, a browser upload box, VS Code - anywhere that accepts a dropped file. It arrives as a real file, not a paste.

Or click to copy

A single click copies the image to your clipboard, ready to Ctrl+V. You'll see a "Copied!" confirmation on the thumbnail.

Top tips

Make Clip yours

Keep the Clip icon in view

Windows hides new tray icons in the overflow area (the ^ arrow near the clock). Click the arrow, then drag the Clip icon onto the taskbar's icon row - now it's always one click away.

Left-click the icon to show or hide the strip. Right-click it for every setting Clip has.

Learn the hotkey

Ctrl+Shift+Space shows or hides the strip from anywhere - no mouse needed.

Want the combination back for another app? Turn it off via right-click menu → Show/hide hotkey.

Pin the ones you'll need again

Right-click a thumbnail → Pin. Pinned thumbnails show a badge and are never pushed out by newer files - perfect for a screenshot you'll paste five times this afternoon. Pins last for the current session.

Choose your thumbnail count

Right-click the tray icon → Thumbnails → 3, 4 or 5. The strip widens to fit. When it's full, the newest file replaces the oldest unpinned thumbnail.

Put the strip where you want it

Drag the strip by any empty part - including onto another monitor. It can never vanish off the top of the screen or hide behind the taskbar.

To send it home, double-click the "Clip." label (or right-click the tray icon → Reset position). That's also the rescue move if you lose track of it.

Decide when it hides

By default the strip fades away 30 seconds after you last touch it - a new screenshot brings it straight back. Right-click the tray icon → Auto-hide after for 30s, 1 min, 2 min, or Never if you want it always on screen.

More than screenshots

Clip also watches your Downloads folder. PDFs, documents, images - the moment a download finishes it's in the strip, ready to drag into an email. (Programs and installers are deliberately excluded.) Either watcher can be switched off in the right-click menu.

Right-click a thumbnail for the full menu

Open in its default app · Copy file path · Open in Explorer (jumps straight to the file) · Pin / Unpin.

Troubleshooting

Quick answers

A snip didn't appear in Clip

Clip watches the folder Windows saves screenshots to. If your snips save somewhere else, Clip shows an amber warning bar naming both folders - either point your capture tool at the watched folder, or right-click the tray icon → Change Screenshots folder… and point Clip at the folder your snips actually land in. Also worth knowing: after your PC wakes from sleep, Windows folder watching can briefly lapse - Clip rescans every 45 seconds, so a new file appears within a minute at worst.

The strip vanished

Press Ctrl+Shift+Space, or left-click the Clip tray icon. If it reappears somewhere awkward, double-click the "Clip." label to snap it back to its bottom-right dock.

Where's my licence key?

In your purchase confirmation email from Lemon Squeezy. You can retrieve it any time from your My Orders page. The installer itself always lives at clip.bit-soft.co.uk/download, so you can reinstall without going back through your email. To activate: right-click the tray icon → Licence → enter your key. It unlocks instantly - no restart needed.

"Activation limit reached"

Your key covers a set number of devices - Standard: 1, Personal: 2, Professional: 3. Moving to a new machine? Email support and we'll free up the activation.

The trial says it's ended on a fresh install

The 7-day trial is one per machine, ever - reinstalling doesn't restart it. If you believe this is an error, contact support.

Something else went wrong

Clip keeps a log at %APPDATA%\Clip\error.log - paste that path into File Explorer's address bar. Email it to support@bit-soft.co.uk with your app version (shown at the bottom of the tray right-click menu) and we'll get you sorted.

Good to know: Clip has no account, no cloud, and makes no network calls - your screenshots never leave your machine.

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