Install

PwrSnap ships three downloads: a native Apple silicon macOS app, a universal macOS app (Apple silicon and Intel in one build), and a signed Windows x64 installer. All three are code-signed, all three update themselves, and all three come from the same GitHub releases page. These instructions cover PwrSnap 1.1.16 and later.

Every release publishes them under stable names that always point at the current Stable build, so you can link or script against them without chasing a version number:

The same bytes also appear version-stamped in each release’s asset list (PwrSnap-<version>-arm64.dmg, PwrSnap-<version>-windows-x64-setup.exe, and so on).

Pick your platform

Which Mac build? Take Apple silicon on any M-series Mac: it’s the native build and roughly half the download. Take universal on an Intel Mac, or when you’re handing the file to someone whose machine you don’t know: it runs natively on both. Either way, an Apple silicon Mac ends up on the Apple silicon build after its first update (see Updates).

There’s no Windows on Arm build.

macOS

Homebrew

The fastest path if you already run Homebrew:

brew install --cask pwrdrvr/tap/pwrsnap

That pulls from pwrdrvr/homebrew-tap, PwrDrvr’s own tap, not the main Homebrew cask repository. The cask installs the same signed, notarized universal DMG you’d download by hand.

Upgrading and removing work the way you’d expect:

brew upgrade --cask pwrsnap

brew uninstall --cask pwrsnap

Add --zap to the uninstall to also clear PwrSnap’s application support, caches, logs, and preferences. --zap never touches ~/Documents/PwrSnap: the cask deliberately leaves your captures alone, so uninstalling the app can’t delete screenshots.

The cask is marked auto_updates, so Homebrew won’t nag you about a version PwrSnap has already updated itself past. brew upgrade still works whenever you want to drive it from the command line.

Direct download

Two DMGs, both straight from the latest release:

• Apple silicon — https://github.com/pwrdrvr/PwrSnap/releases/latest/download/PwrSnap-arm64.dmg
• Universal (Apple silicon + Intel) — https://github.com/pwrdrvr/PwrSnap/releases/latest/download/PwrSnap.dmg

Both URLs always resolve to the current Stable release, and both are Developer ID-signed, hardened, and notarized by Apple, so either opens on a double-click with no Gatekeeper warning.

Open the DMG, drag PwrSnap to Applications, eject, launch.

Verify the signature

Optional, and only worth doing if you care to check:

codesign -dv --verbose=2 /Applications/PwrSnap.app

Look for Authority=Developer ID Application: PwrDrvr LLC. To confirm Gatekeeper is satisfied with the notarization too:

spctl -a -vv /Applications/PwrSnap.app

First launch

Three things happen the first time you run PwrSnap:

• The Library window opens, and the tray icon appears in the menu bar. Close the Library and PwrSnap keeps running from the tray, with its capture shortcuts live. If you turn on Launch at login (Settings → General), a login launch starts in the background with no window.
• macOS asks for your Documents folder before your first capture, because captures live in ~/Documents/PwrSnap/ where Finder can see them. PwrSnap raises that prompt before the capture overlay covers the screen, so you can answer it. The usage string says PwrSnap only reads and writes its own folder.
• macOS asks for Screen Recording the first time you capture. PwrSnap asks when it first needs a permission rather than throwing a wall of prompts at install; see Capture → Permissions for what each permission is for and how to recover from a denial.

Then press Command+Shift+C and snap a window or drag a region. That’s the whole daily-driver flow; see Capture.

Windows

Download and install

Grab the installer straight from the latest release:

https://github.com/pwrdrvr/PwrSnap/releases/latest/download/PwrSnap.Setup.exe

That URL always resolves to the current Stable build. The same bytes are also published version-stamped as PwrSnap-<version>-windows-x64-setup.exe, which is the name you’ll see in a release’s asset list. Every release also carries a PwrSnap-windows-SHA256SUMS file if you want to check the download against its published hash.

The installer is Authenticode-signed by PwrDrvr LLC. It installs per-user into %LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\PwrSnap, so no administrator rights are needed, and you can point it somewhere else during setup if you’d rather.

To confirm the signature yourself:

signtool verify /pa /v PwrSnap.Setup.exe

The subject should read CN=PwrDrvr LLC.

PwrSnap isn’t in the Windows Package Manager (winget) yet.

First launch

• The Library window opens, and the tray icon sits in the notification area next to the taskbar clock. Click the icon for the capture popover; right-click it for the short menu.
• The capture shortcut is Ctrl+Shift+C (Quick Capture). It’s the only global shortcut bound by default on Windows. Video capture, re-showing the last float-over, and the single-mode captures all start unbound; bind any of them in Settings → Hotkeys.
• .pwrsnap files open in PwrSnap. The installer registers the file association with Explorer, so double-clicking a capture opens it in the app.

What’s different on Windows

Honest differences, not asterisks:

• Recordings have no audio. Windows recordings are screen only, at 30 fps; the microphone and system-audio toggles apply on macOS only.
• Recording runs through a bundled FFmpeg rather than the macOS system recorder.
• No Quick Look previews. The Finder thumbnail and Spacebar preview extensions are macOS app extensions, so Explorer shows a generic icon for .pwrsnap files.
• No HEIC export. HEIC is macOS-only.
• Fewer default shortcuts. Only Ctrl+Shift+C is bound out of the box; see First launch.
• The menu bar is drawn in-app, since PwrSnap uses a custom title bar.
• Logs live at %APPDATA%\PwrSnap\logs\main.log.

Everything else is there: the tray, the region selector, the window picker, the float-over toast, the Library and editor, video recording, and the AI features.

Linux

Not yet. Linux builds run in CI so the code keeps working, but nothing is packaged for download.

Updates

PwrSnap updates itself. Settings → Updates decides what it updates to, with a Release channel grid of four slots: two trains by two tracks. Each slot shows the version currently published on it, with a link to its release notes, and marks which one is Selected and which one is Installed.

Most people want Stable · Latest and never touch this page. Until you pick a slot, PwrSnap follows the kind of build you installed: a Stable download follows Stable · Latest, and a prerelease download follows its own track. Clicking a slot pins it.

When it checks. Background checks run hourly; on a fresh install the first one waits about ten minutes. They stay quiet until there’s something to act on. When a new build has finished downloading, a toast appears in the Library’s lower-left corner, out of the way of the float-over in the lower-right:

• Update ready → Restart to install it. The same action appears in the tray popover and on the post-capture float-over, so you can take an update from wherever you are.
• Update retry needed → the install didn’t finish. Retry update downloads it again and restarts.
• Switch ready → the same as Update ready, for a move back down to a lower version (see below).

Dismissing a toast silences that exact version; a genuinely new one shows up again.

Checking on demand. Help → Check for Updates shows live progress in the Library (what it’s doing, how much of the download has landed) with a Cancel that actually stops the download. The Check for Updates button on Settings → Updates reports its result on the page instead, and offers Restart to Update (or Retry Update) once a build is ready.

Apple silicon Macs get the Apple silicon build. Whichever DMG you installed from, the updater hands an M-series Mac the Apple silicon package from the next update onward, and an Intel Mac the universal one. You don’t have to reinstall.

Switching back down. If you try Beta and want to return to Stable, pick a Stable slot and then press Check for Updates. Moving to a lower version number is only offered on a check you asked for, never on a background poll, and the wording changes to Restart to Switch because the version number is going down.

Staying on Beta doesn’t strand you. When nothing on the Beta train is newer than Stable, Beta · Latest offers the Stable build, so a beta install keeps receiving releases.

Homebrew users: brew upgrade --cask pwrsnap works too. The cask tracks the Stable train only; beta testers use the in-app channel grid.

Uninstall

macOS — quit PwrSnap, then drag PwrSnap.app from Applications to the Trash (or brew uninstall --cask pwrsnap).

Windows — Settings → Apps → Installed apps → PwrSnap → Uninstall.

What stays behind, deliberately:

• Your captures. Every .pwrsnap bundle in the captures folder is an ordinary file and survives the uninstall: ~/Documents/PwrSnap/ on macOS (or ~/PwrSnap/ if PwrSnap fell back there), and Documents\PwrSnap on Windows (or %USERPROFILE%\PwrSnap). Delete the folder yourself if you actually want them gone.
• The index and settings, in ~/Library/Application Support/PwrSnap/ on macOS or %APPDATA%\PwrSnap\ on Windows. Removing this folder resets PwrSnap to a fresh install: your captures stay on disk but the searchable index of them doesn’t. On macOS, brew uninstall --cask --zap pwrsnap clears it for you.

Troubleshooting

The first capture comes out gray or empty. macOS hasn’t granted Screen Recording yet. Open Settings → System Permissions and use Request access on the Screen Recording row; that fires the real OS prompt.

A permission row says “Not yet requested”. That’s not a denial. PwrSnap distinguishes never asked from asked and refused, so you don’t get pointed at System Settings for a question nobody put to you. Press Request access and answer the prompt.

Documents access was denied. PwrSnap falls back to ~/PwrSnap/ (%USERPROFILE%\PwrSnap on Windows) and keeps working. Grant Documents access, then use Settings → System Permissions → Captures folder → Check Documents access. While the fallback folder is still empty, that row offers Use Documents for new captures; once captures have landed in the fallback, PwrSnap keeps using it so your Library isn’t split across two folders.

Update checks say they’re rate-limited. The update feed is GitHub’s anonymous API, which allows 60 requests an hour per IP. If several apps on your network share that budget, PwrSnap stops asking until GitHub’s limit resets and says when (“Update checks resume at…”) rather than pretending the release feed is down.

A shortcut doesn’t fire. Another app may already own the chord. Settings → Hotkeys marks a shortcut that couldn’t be registered and offers Retry, or pick a different combination.

Recordings on Windows are silent. Expected; see what’s different on Windows.

Where the logs are. Help → Logs opens a live log viewer. On disk: ~/Library/Logs/PwrSnap/main.log on macOS, %APPDATA%\PwrSnap\logs\main.log on Windows.