How to Recover Deleted Screenshots on Windows 10, 11?

Where do Windows screenshots go?

Users often take screenshots to capture memories of special occasions or needed items, which is convenient. Sometimes, some users want to share their screenshots with others but cannot find where are screenshots saved.

Generally speaking, after pressing Win + Ctrl + S, an activated Windows clipboard will automatically record your recent screenshots and copied content. So you can press Win + V to open the clipboard in Windows to find your screenshots.

Nevertheless, if you’ve deleted certain screenshots from the Windows clipboard, you might need to recover deleted files from clipboards.

You also open the Screenshots folder under the Pictures folder by following this default path C:\Users\UserName\Pictures\Screenshots to locate your saved screenshots as long as you never empty them.

If you’ve pressed the PrtSc key to take screenshots on Windows, these screenshots will be automatically saved to OneDrive.

Where do deleted screenshots go Windows?

To improve the performance of Windows, some users could delete their Screenshots folder or clear all the Pictures folder. But after deletion, there always exist regrets. Thus, several users raise questions:

In theory, recently and permanently deleted screenshots might still be on your Windows PC before overwritten by newly added pictures. Before that, it’s possible for you to find & recover deleted screenshots.

How to retrieve deleted screenshots on Windows 10, 11?

So how to recover deleted screenshots on Windows 10 or 11 computers? You can check three feasible ways below.

Method 1. Recover deleted screenshots from the Recycle Bin

After the first deletion, your Windows operating system can automatically send all your deleted screenshots to the desktop Recycle Bin. In this scenario, retrieving your deleted screenshots from this temporary storage place is pretty easy.

» Please open your desktop Recycle Bin > type screenshot in the search bar > right-click on your desired screenshot among all the recoverable images > Restore it to its original saved path.

Method 2. Recover deleted screenshots from File History

But how to get permanently deleted screenshots back after emptying Recycle Bin? Windows users who’ve made regular backups can restore their needed screenshots from backups. If there’s no backup, please head over to the last solution.

Let’s take Windows File History as an example because this feature is designed to back up Documents, Music, Pictures, Videos, Desktop folders, and offline OneDrive files.

After opening System Security to enable File History, you’re allowed to restore deleted, lost, or damaged original files from backups. Furthermore, you can recover overwritten Excel files.

Step 1. Type “Control Panel” in the search bar and open it. Then click System and Security.

Step 2. Click File History > Restore your files with File History.

Step 3. Click the “Restore personal files” button.

Step 4. “Restore” your desired screenshot to its previous location.

Method 3. Recover deleted screenshots via photo recovery software

Since only a minority of users develop a good habit of making backups, the majority of users haven’t cultivated long-term awareness because they don’t think they are unlucky to lose data.

So how to get permanently deleted screenshots back without backups? If you desire to get rid of necessary backups, the most efficient way is to ask for help from professional photo recovery software for Windows.

Released by AOMEI Tech, MyRecover is good at recovering deleted & lost screenshots from internal HDDs.  

★Other highlights of MyRecover:  

All-inclusive: Apply to a variety of data loss scenarios such as deletion, disk formatting, system crashes, or virus attacks.

High-efficiency: Recover 42 types of images (PNG, JPG, JPEG, BMP, etc), as well as MS Office files and WPS files, folders, compressed files, audio, songs, and videos from HDDs, USB sticks, SD cards, etc.   

Advanced scanning method: MyRecover runs Quick Scan & Deep Scan automatically to search all the recoverable files. Specify the filename, saved path, date, or size to filter your needed files.

Convenience: Retain the original filename, path, and format for all the deleted cropped images.   

Excellent compatibility: Support NTFS, FAT32, exFAT, and ReFS file systems.

How to get permanently deleted screenshots back without backups? The sooner you begin photo recovery via MyRecover, the better chances you’ll be!

Step 1. Launch MyRecover and hover the mouse over the C drive. Then click Scan.

Step 2. Filter your needed screenshots according to Document Type, Name, Date, or Path.

• Name: Type the filenames of your desired files to narrow the search area.
• Date modified: Set the date (today, yesterday, last 7/30 days, and so on) according to your situation.
• Size: Filter the file size (<128KB, 128KB~1MB, 1MB~ 512MB, etc) based on your needs.

Step 3. Go to the Deleted Files/Recycle Bin/Other Missing Files folder and choose the images you want. Then click “Recover x files” to start the photo recovery process.

• After photo recovery, please store your retrieved screenshots in a new drive instead of the original hard drive. 
• Upgrading MyRecover to the Professional or Technician edition is a more cost-effective solution if you want to recover more and more deleted & lost files from local drives.    

Wrapping up

Where do deleted screenshots go Windows? How to recover deleted screenshots on Windows 10, 11 PCs? Please find answers from the above content.

If you’ve realized the importance of regular backups, you’re advised to create backups using this free backup software for Windows, AOMEI Backupper.