I am looking for a pc screen capture utility that has the same
function as the old Mac SnapJot utility. That function is: by using a
customizable key-combination, a special cursor is displayed, and then
by using the mouse you draw a rectangle any where on the screen, then
release the mouse button. Immediately, a new window is displayed that
replaces the rectangle you just drew. The new window (that contains
the desired portion of the screen) can then be re-positioned any where
on the screen.

I have reviewed many of the common, popular pc screen capture
utilities, and none of them provide the instant-window functionality. 
They all have some kind of "output" option that specifies where the
captured image will be directed, such as clip-board, file, printer,
etc.  I DO NOT NEED/WANT ANY OF THESE OPTIONS.

I WANT THE INSTANT-WINDOW FUNCTIONALITY.

Good luck in your search.

I myself use SnagIt which is a very powerful utility which is cheap
($39.95) for the amount of flexibility it gives you. You can record,
video, copy text, region select pictures, but here's my favorite, you
can screenshot scrolled windows, i.e. webpages, and it will go through
the window and scroll, putting the entire window into one large
picture. The newest version adds what you're talking about which is
output to preview window upon capture:

"Output to the Clipboard, printer, a file, the Web, an e-mail
attachment, catalog or PREVIEW WINDOW"

It's easy to use, and takes up only about 10mb of memory upon starting
up. And I've used SnapJot on the Mac side, and this is the only
program I've found which has the preview option. It may be a bit of
overkill for your preview only use, but I'm sure you'll soon use it
more as you discover its many features.

http://www.techsmith.com/products/snagit/

Thank you for your question, and I'm glad I was able to provide an answer.

skermit-ga

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Clarification of Answer by skermit-ga on 30 Mar 2004 14:23 PST

I would have to disagree, once you have it set up to output to a
preview window (about two clicks in the options menu) it's instant
when you capture a new rectangle area. I'm sorry you are dissatisfied
with your answer.

I'm sorry I am not following the rules here. I have already given a
"Rated" answer, without first asking for clearificaton (this is my
first attempt at using Google Answers). However, whether or not you
re-post my question, I just wanted to let you know that the posted
answer was not un-expected. You see, I have already tried the common,
popular screen capture utilities (as I mentioned in my Question), but
most people do not read carefully and thus "solve" the problem by the
way they understand the problem, instead of trying to understand the
problem from the point of view of the question-asker. I find it hard
to believe that the person who answered my question really used
SnapJot, because Snagit compilcates the task far too much. The Preview
screen of Snagit requires addional keystrokes and mouseclicks, etc,
that I am trying to avoid. I am not looking for a documentation
utility. I am looking for an instant-window utility that does not
provide any editing or manipulation of the contents of the captured
area; just an instant-window of the captured area. How would I use
this utility? For example, when working on a client-server
configuation, and I have just listed 10 accounts numbers that I want
to remember, but I dont want to write them down on a piece of paper,
but instead capture these 10 account numbers in a small "instant
window" that I can reposition to the corner of my screen (with
always-on-top option)that I can refer to as I do additional work on
these account numbers.
Thanks for re-evaluating my request.

Snagit does not fulfil my request. It requires too many steps to
perform the straight forward task I have described.

Control + Print Screen then control +v (paste) it into paintbrush. crop as desired.