How to Disable Snipping Tool Auto Saving Screenshots 

Snipping Tool has practically revolutionized how you can screenshot in Windows without downloading third-party files. However, it has one little downside: it keeps every single screenshot you take in a dedicated folder. This might not sound like much, but the process is automatic and doesn’t actually depend on hitting the “Save” button, so even a few reshoots can slowly build up your storage usage.

Here’s how to stop that from happening and save up on a bit of storage space and file management.

Disable Snipping Tool Auto Saving Screenshots Step-by-Step

Snipping Tool has its own suite of settings which direct it how it saves screenshots, and you can access them only once you actually take your screenshot.

Step 1. Search for “Snipping Tool” (or just “snip”) in the search bar, then open Snipping Tool. If you haven’t modified your settings from the stock Windows 11 installation, pressing the “Prt Sc” key on the keyboard should also open the app.

Step 2. The Snipping Tool toolbar will open and the selector will show up on the screen. Click and drag over any portion to create a screenshot and get the editing window up. If you’ve screenshotted the desktop, you’ll get a popup notification on the bottom-right of the screen instead, prompting you to open the markup window.

Step 3. In the editing window, click on the three-dots icon on the top-right, then select “Settings.”

Step 4. Uncheck the option “Automatically save original screenshots,” but keep the rest of the settings as-is.

This will prevent auto save on Snipping Tool for unaltered screenshots, copying them only to the clipboard instead of the hard drive. To keep a permanent copy, you can edit it with any of the editing options and hit the “Save” button on the app’s toolbar. You’ll also get the opportunity to choose where you save the file.

How to Remove Previous Screenshots

Once you disable Snipping Tool auto save, you can also go through old files and manually delete the screenshots you don’t need.

By default, the location of the save folder is in the “Pictures” directory under “Screenshots,” where each file will be named as “Screenshot-[year]-[month]-[day]-[hour][minute][second].” While this makes it easy to locate specific files, it also shows just how many screenshots you can take even in a single session, especially if you need them for work or hobbies.

Extra Tip: Preventing Snipping Tool from Automatically Popping Up

If you want to go back to the pre-Windows 10 experience, where pressing the “Print Screen” button copied a snapshot of your entire desktop to the clipboard, you can disable it as a shortcut for Snipping Tool.

Step 1. Open Settings with “Win + I.”

Step 2. Go to “Accessibility,” then scroll down and select “Keyboard.”

Step 3. Toggle off the option “Use the Print screen key to open screen capture.”