Till Windows 7, we had to rely upon third-party tools to capture the current window or screen snapshot called screenshots, but with Windows 11 or Windows 10, taking screenshots isn’t an issue. To capture the whole screen at once, you need to just press Windows Key + PrintScreen or Windows Key + Fn + PrintScreen key combination on the keyboard. While capturing screenshots, your laptop dims, and then you can find the screenshot captured in the Screenshots folder under the Pictures library.
But what if you press the above-mentioned keyboard combinations, Windows captures the screenshot, but it is not being saved. This will, of course, disappoint you, but if it is really important, you can just open Paint (native image editor in Windows) and press Ctrl + V (paste), and you’ll now see the captured screenshot inside Paint in editing mode – which you can save as an image in your desired format. Anyway, let’s stick to the topic and find out how to fix the issue so that Windows can save the screenshots directly inside the Pictures library.
Windows 11 not saving captured Screenshots in Pictures folder
If Windows 11/10 not saving captured Screenshots in the Pictures – Screenshots folder, do the following:
- Press Win+R to open the Run prompt.
- Type regedit > press the Enter button > click the Yes option.
- Go to Explorer in HKCU.
- Right-click on it and new New > DWORD (32-bit) Value.
- Name it as ScreenshotIndex.
- Double-click on it and select the Decimal option.
- Enter 695 as the Value data.
- Click the OK button.
- Go to the User Shell Folders.
- Double-click on
{B7BEDE81-DF94-4682-A7D8-57A52620B86F}. - Enter this: %USERPROFILE%\Pictures\Screenshots
- Click the OK button.
To learn more about these steps, continue reading.
1. Create a system restore point first and then press Windows Key + R combination, type put Regedt32.exe in the Run dialog box and hit Enter to open the Registry Editor.
2. Navigate to the following location:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer
3. In the right pane of this location look for the ScreenshotIndex named DWORD (REG_DWORD).
Since you’re facing the issue of screenshots not being saved, you’ll find this DWORD missing.
To create the same using Right-click > New > DWORD Value. Double click on the same DWORD to modify its Value data.
4. In the above-shown box, first, select the Decimal base and then input the Value data as 695. Click OK.
Now to point out this registry DWORD to correct user profile settings, you should check out the User Shell Folders entry inside Registry Editor. So move here:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders
5. In the right pane of this location, click on the {B7BEDE81-DF94-4682-A7D8-57A52620B86F} entry which is an expandable string (REG_EXPAND_SZ). Make sure it points to the following Value data:
%USERPROFILE%\Pictures\Screenshots
After confirming the Value data, you can close the Registry Editor and reboot. Now, try to capture screenshots, you’ll observe that screenshots got saved where they should be, which means the issue has been resolved.
Read: Snipping Tool not saving screenshots on Windows 11
Why my screenshot is not saving?
There could be different reasons why your computer is not saving your screenshots upon clicking the Win+PrintScreen button. However, one of the reasons might be the wrong Value data in the Registry file. For that, you need to open the ScheenshotIndex REG_DWORD value and enter 695. You can also check the aforementioned guide to know more about this.
How do I change where my screenshots are saved Windows 11?
To change the default location of where your screenshots are saved, you need to change the location of the Pictures Library folder. It is possible to change the default save location for Pictures, and it is via Registry Editor. Once you change the default save location, your computer will automatically save your screenshots in the new location.
Why can’t I find my screenshots?
Some of the reasons for not finding your screenshots on Windows 11/10 are changing the location of your default folder, Pictures, and corrupted registry file. As mentioned earlier, if the registry file doesn’t contain the correct Value data, you might confront the issues as stated here.
NOTE: Please also read the comments below for more ideas.
Check this post if you want to change the Print Screen folder location in Windows.
