How to reset windows 10’s screenshot counter

@wjglenn
Mar 7, 2016, 11:23 am EST | 2 min read

When you take a screenshots in Windows 10 with the Windows+PrtScn shortcut, it automatically saves those pictures by naming them “Screenshot (1),” “Screenshot (2),” and so on. Even if you delete screenshots, that counter just keeps going up. You can use a quick Registry hack to reset that counter whenever you want.

We’ve covered how to take screenshots in Windows 10 using various shortcuts already. For the purposes of this article, we’re talking about shortcuts you take with Windows+PrtScn. Those are automatically saved to a file in a Screenshots folder inside your regular Pictures folder. By default, that’s going to be at:

This process should not be necessary with other screenshot tools, even those built-in to Windows.

Reset the Screenshot Counter by Editing the Registry Manually

If you take a lot of screenshots throughout the day, particularly for different projects, it can be helpful to reset the counter for the saved files. And you’ll do that using a simple Registry hack.

Standard warning: Registry Editor is a powerful tool and misusing it can render your system unstable or even inoperable. This is a pretty simple hack and as long as you stick to the instructions, you shouldn’t have any problems. That said, if you’ve never worked with it before, consider reading about how to use the Registry Editor before you get started. And definitely back up the Registry (and your computer!) before making changes.

To get started, open the Registry Editor by hitting Start and typing “regedit.” Press Enter to open Registry Editor and give it permission to make changes to your PC. In the Registry Editor, use the left sidebar to navigate to the following key:

Next, scroll through the right-hand side and locate a value named ScreenshotIndex.

Double-click ScreenshotIndex to open it up and set the “Value data” box to 1 (or to any number at which you want to start numbering your screenshots).

Click OK and exit Registry Editor. Screenshots should start numbering at the index value you set. If you still have some screenshot files in the folder, don’t worry. Windows will adjust for this and skip over any numbers that are already present.

The Quick Method: Download Our One-Click Registry Hack

If you don’t feel like diving into the Registry yourself every time you want to reset the counter, we’ve created a downloadable registry hack you can use to reset your screenshot counter to 1. It’s included in the following ZIP file. Extract it somewhere safe, then whenever you want to reset the counter, just double-click the Reset Screenshot Index REG file and click through the prompts. It’s a handy way to quickly reset the counter without firing up Registry Editor.

This hack is really just the Explorer key, stripped down to the ScreenshotIndex value we described above, and then exported to a .REG file. Running the hack changes the value for ScreenshotIndex to 1. And if you enjoy fiddling with the Registry, it’s worth taking the time to learn how to make your own Registry hacks.

And there you have it! The screenshot counter is just a small annoyance to some folks, but a super easy one to fix.

In Windows 10, pressing Win and PrtScr keys together results in taking screenshot. When you take a screenshot, the image is stored in a Screenshots folder under Pictures. This is a very useful feature as you don’t have to save each of them manually. In this, the screenshots are named sequentially. They start from 1. But even if you delete the first screenshot, the naming will still resume from the last number. This is shown in the image below.

This is because the screenshot count is stored in the Windows Registry. If you want your screenshots to start from 1 once again, you have to make some edits in the Windows Registry. You can read about methods to launch Windows Registry Editor here. This post talks about how to reset screenshot count. By doing so, you can start naming the screenshots from one. Here’s how:

• Press Win + R to open Run.

• Type regedit in the given field. Press OK. This opens Registry Editor.

• Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER.

• Click on SOFTWARE.

• Then, open Microsoft.

• Go to Windows.

• Open CurrentVersion followed by Explorer.

• On the right side of the Window, you’ll see ScreenShotIndex. Click on it.

• In the Window that pops up, set the value to 1. Click OK and exit Registry Editor.

Now, try taking a screenshot to check the changes. You will see that the new screenshot has started naming from 1.

Instead of resetting the screenshot counter, you can also set it to another number you wish. In place where you entered 1, you can type say 8 and then the screenshots later on will be named as Screenshot (8), Screenshot (9) etc. Make sure that you choose the proper base(Hexadecimal or Decimal) for numbers above 9. One thing to be noted is that if you already have an image called Screenshot (1) saved, then the counter won’t be reset. It will then start numbering from the next smallest number that is missing. Hope it helps!

Sreelakshmi writes on Windows 10 tips and hacks.

Microsoft improved the screenshot taking functionality of Windows in Windows 10 significantly. The operating system comes with plenty of options to take screenshots, and one of the easiest options is to use the keys Windows+Print for that.

A new screenshot is saved to the default Screenshots directory on the system whenever you use the keyboard shortcut. You can open File Explorer manually and select Pictures in the sidebar to open it, or load %userprofile%\Pictures\Screenshots directly instead anywhere provided that an address bar is available.

Windows assigns file names to screenshots automatically. Each file name begins with Screenshot but since file names need to be unique, a counter is added to the file name. Windows increases the counter by 1 each time you take a new screenshot on the system. The index is incremented by 1 automatically so that you end up with names like Screenshot (1).png, Screenshot (2).png and so on.

The counter is not reset, even if you delete files in the Screenshot directory or move all files to another location. Windows remembers the last used number and will increment it by 1 automatically.

Option 1: Resetting the Screenshot Index in the Windows Registry

Windows keeps track of the index in the Registry. You may reset it easily provided that you have elevated privileges on the system to edit the Registry.

Here is how that is done:

Step 1: Opening the Registry Editor

1. Use the keyboard shortcut Windows-R to open the run box.
2. Type regedit.exe and hit the Enter-key. This should load the Registry Editor.

Step 2: Navigate to the right key

1. Paste the following Registry path into the address bar in the editor: Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer
   • You may use the hierarchy on the left to go there manually as well if you prefer that.

Step 3: Backup the Registry key (Optional)

It is recommended that you back up the relevant Registry keys before you make changes to the Registry. The step is optional but recommended.

1. Right-click on Explorer in the left sidebar and select Export from the context menu.
2. Select a filename for the backup of the Registry key and a location on the device.

Step 4: Edit the ScreenshotIndex Registry value

Windows stores the current index in the Dword value ScreenshotIndex under Explorer. All that needs to be done to reset it is to change the data value of ScreenshotIndex.

1. Double-click on ScreenshotIndex in the right pane in the Registry Editor.
2. Replace the value in value data by setting it to 1.
3. Click ok.

The next screenshot that you take using Windows-Print will be Screenshot (1).png. A restart of the system is not necessary, changes apply right away.

Option 2: Reset using a Registry file

You can speed up the resetting of the screenshot index on Windows 10 by using a Registry file instead. All that is required in this case is to double-click the file to reset the counter.

1. Download the Registry file with a click on the following link: Reset Screenshot Counter Windows
2. Verify the Registry file by opening it in a text editor.
3. Double-click on the downloaded file.
4. Windows displays a verification prompt. Select yes to apply the change to the Registry, or no to cancel.

Notes:

Windows picks the next possible number automatically even if you reset the index to 1. If Screenshot (1).png exists in the Screenshots folder, Screenshot (2).png is automatically selected by Windows.

About Martin Brinkmann

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Comments

Windows Ten Forums has a couple of neat tools for doing this:

Having a click in the Context Menu would be helpful, I guess, if folks use the Windows tool a lot–if ever.

Hi Martin, how are you?
Is it possible to make captures in Windows 7 using this keyboard shortcut?
Thank you;)

The shortcut is not available on Windows 7.

I cannot comprehend the need that Microsoft has, to build into its disaster of an OS, Win 10, a screen shot, or capture ability, when this function has been there from the very beginning. No doubt there is some form of telemetry information associated with it, and personally, I wouldn’t trust it as far as I could throw it. Perhaps its intended purpose is to try to prove to the user, that this is “yet another fantastic feature” designed to impress, and falsely instill more appreciation from “dedicated fans”.

To what do I refer ? Its called the Print Screen Key, when this is pushed, whatever is on screen is captured to the clipboard. In order to convert it to file, open up a basic image editor, locate edit, find paste, and use that function to paste the contents of the clipboard into an empty window, then simply save the pasted image as a file.

Why on Earth you would need this function to be elaborated, and built into the OS as a “feature” I will never know. In Linux, the screen capture gives you the option to select regions of the screen, using a cross hair cursor, together with a variety of other options, which makes it more than adequate for the task.

I wonder how many other, inherent and basic options have been exploited in this way, to fool users into thinking that the current OS is the best ever yet ?

Thank you for your attention.

Inconsistent as they’re using a counter, but I like they’re doing something to the filename.

Windows 10 has a built-in screenshot feature. It’s a step up from the Print Screen function that Windows has had since ages. It’s faster than using the Snipping tool even though the tool is feature rich. That said, it’s lacking in a lot of areas if you compare it with the screenshot feature in macOS. On macOS you can save screenshots in two very popular formats; PNG and JPEG, among others. Windows 10 has nothing like that. It numbers your screenshots and lets you change where screenshots are saved. There’s one other thing you can do; restart numbering screenshots in Windows 10. If you take a lot of screenshots, the count can get pretty high. Fortunately, you can reset it from the Windows Registry.

Prep Your Screenshots Folder

When you restart number screenshot in Windows 10, you have to make sure that your screenshots folder is empty. This is because if you want Windows 10 to start naming screenshot files Screenshot (1), Screenshot (2), etc, you can’t have screenshots with the same name already in the screenshots folder. If you do, Windows 10 will not restart the numbering. Move the screenshots elsewhere if you’re going to need them later or delete them.

Restart Numbering Screenshots In Windows 10

You will need administrative rights to edit the Windows Registry. Go to the following location;

Look for the key named ScreenshotIndex. At the end of the key’s name, you will see the number that you’re currently on with respect to your screenshots. Double-click the key and reset the value to 1.

That’s all you need to do. When you take the next screenshot, it will be numbered from 1 again.

If you still have a few old screenshots left in your screenshots folder, Windows will skip their corresponding numbers when you reach them. You can restart screenshot numbering as often as you want just as long as you don’t have the same numbered images in the screenshots folder.

This is the only thing you can change about screenshots in Windows 10. At present, there’s only one format that the screenshots are saved to: PNG. It would be neat if you could change the format to JPEG but there’s no support for it. The Snipping tool is really the only built-in option you have unless you want to use the Print Screen feature and save the file as a BMP and JPEG.

On the upside, since Windows hasn’t had a screenshot feature for so long there have been quite a few third-party apps developed to fill the gap.

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When you press the Win+PrtScr keyboard shortcut, Windows 10 will automatically save a screenshot of your computer screen or desktop in the Pictures\Screenshots folder. These images will be named in a serial order as Screenshot(1), Screenshot(2), Screenshot(3), etc. This screenshot index value or number is stored in the Windows Registry

Now even when you delete some screenshots, Windows will continue to name them from the last number onward. Say you were to delete Screenshot(2) and Screenshot(2) and you were to then take a screenshot, it will get saved as Screenshot(4). This would be the case even if you were to delete all the screenshots.

Reset Screenshot counter

If you take out a lot of screenshots and delete a lot, then this could become inconvenient.

If you wish, you can reset the screenshot counter, and make it start numbering from 1.

To do this, Run regedit to open the Registry Editor and navigate to the following key:

In the right pane you will see ScreenshotIndex. –>

Double-slick on it to open its Value box and give it a value of 1 in the Value Data field.

In my image below, you will see that it has a value of 4. I will have to change it to 1.

Having done this, exit the Registry Editor. –>

This will reset the screenshot counter on your Windows 10/8 PC. Now when you save images, the number 1 or the smallest available number will be used to save the screenshot.

I was attempting to take some screenshots and paste them into paste but that wasn’t working so gave it a Google and saw that people have had similar problems but not like this.

I went to My Pictures to look for the Screenshot folder and then went into the registry Software/Windows/CurrentVersion/Explorer to reset the Screenshot index like had been advised online. When I got there though I have no Screenshot Index.

Can I add one or how do I find it?

much Thanks in advance

Replies (6) 

The correct Registry location is given in one of the entries in your User Shell Folders, see Setting and checking the Screenshots folder.

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Thank you for your reply Denis, I followed your steps and got to 6.4 and I have no serial number GUID matching.

The only serial number I have starts 347DE290

I have the personal name on the right had screen but when I click on it its to edit this.

As you can probably tell I’m never in the guts of my computer

Edit When I print screen my cursor changes but my screen doesn’t dim. Don’t know if that helps

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That entry is created when you make the first screenshot so, taken together with your comment about the screen not dimming, I think you are not actually creating any screenshots.

Considering also your initial comment about not being able to use the PrntSCrn key itself [you were not able to paste an image into Paint], I think the chances are that either that key is faulty or your [laptop?] keyboard requires you to press another key at the same time. Are there two commands written on the key with the PrntScrn one being in blue to indicate that you have to press the Fn key to use it?

Those users of computers and laptops who very often use the operating system of the tenth generation and make screenshots with it, will be interested to learn about how to reset the screenshot counters in Win 10, as this will not be easy for them Another article with some information for thought (although it is present here) – this will be for them a new experience in setting up their OS with the ability to manipulate the counter of screenshots.

Who needs it, reset the screenshot counters in Win 10?

If you do not need this, then this does not mean that there are no people who will take advantage of this function with great joy, and all from the fact that there are those who, for themselves or for work, make a bunch of screenshots every day. Just at such PC users for a month or even a year, the sequence number of the screenshot can grow from the usual unit to hundreds of thousands, which is not very convenient. In addition, there are tasks where it is necessary to take screenshots of the Desktop and each time to assign them names beginning with “1” and if such screenshots are for example 100, then it is very difficult to do, especially if you rename screenshots still, and then more And so on ad infinitum. It is in such situations, it’s best to use the reset of the screenshot counter in Win 10, since everything is configured very quickly and does not require you to have absolutely no additional knowledge other than what you already have.

The process of resetting screenshots in Win 10?

In order to reset the screenshot counters in Win 10, it’s better to log in with Administrator rights and only after that, go to “Taskbar”, then open “Search”, then go to “Registry Editor” Which looks like “regedit.exe”.

If you can get to the last window, then you can go through this path: HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Explorer and in the last subkey, you should find the standard DWORD parameter (the name of the parameter you need is ” ScreenshotIndex »).

If you find the DWORD parameter named “ScreenshotIndex”, then you need to replace the existing numerical value with a number one or with any other number you want to start the numbering of your screenshots. As soon as you figure out the numbers and make their replacement, then click on “Save”.

Thanks to this method, you can get almost limitless possibilities of manipulating the numbering of screenshots, because at any time, when you need it, you have the option to reset the screenshot counter in Win 10 to zero, or to the numerical value that you want to see.

Jeg tager mange skærmbilleder på mine Windows 10 PC og Surface RT systemer. Som standard, når du tager et skud, tilføjes nummeret på hver enkelt rækkefølge. Efter et stykke tid vil jeg nulstille det, så jeg kan holde øje med mine billeder. Der er ingen funktion til at nulstille tællingen i brugergrænsefladen, men det kan gøres med en hurtig tweak af registreringsdatabasen.

Bemærk: Dette fungerer sammen med Windows 8.1, RT og Windows 10

Standard skærmbillede Count

Her er et kig på min billeder mappe efter at have taget skærmbilleder i løbet af de sidste par uger på min Surface Pro og RT (ja jeg har stadig en RT-enhed). Bemærk, at de alle er nummereret i rækkefølge med det generiske navn Screenshot og tallet inden parentes.

Selv når du sletter alle skærmbilleder, når du tager en ny, vil den ikke nulstille tæller nummeret. Det vil bare fortsætte, hvor det sluttede.

Nulstil skærmbillede Count

Brug tastaturgenvejen Windows Nøgle + R for at hente dialogboksen Kør og skriv: regedit og tryk Enter eller klik på OK.

Nu i registreringseditoren navigerer til følgende vej:

• HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Explorer

Nu i den højre rude skal du dobbeltklikke på ScreenshotIndex og ændre decimalværdien til 1 og klikke på OK. Luk ud af registreringseditoren.

Nu, når du tager et nyt skærmbillede, skal du se i Mine billeder> Skærmbilleder, og du kan se de nye billeder begynde med (1), (2) og så videre. Skærmbilleder, du tog før du foretog registreringsdatabasen, vil stadig være det samme nummer, hvor du slap af.

Hver gang du vil nulstille tællingen, kan du gå ind i registreringsdatabasen igen. Eller for at gøre tingene lettere skal du bare downloade denne .bat-fil. Gem det til en bekvem placering på dit drev, højreklik og vælg Kør som administrator. Det tager bare et sekund, og det vil nulstille skærmbilledet tæller tilbage til 1.

Applies to

Describes the best practices, location, values, and security considerations for the Reset account lockout counter after security policy setting.

Reference

The Reset account lockout counter after policy setting determines the number of minutes that must elapse from the time a user fails to log on before the failed logon attempt counter is reset to 0. If Account lockout threshold is set to a number greater than zero, this reset time must be less than or equal to the value of Account lockout duration.

The disadvantage of a high setting is that users lock themselves out for an inconveniently long period if they exceed the account lockout threshold through logon errors. Users may make excessive Help Desk calls.

Possible values

• A user-defined number of minutes from 1 through 99,999
• Not defined

Best practices

Determine the threat level for your organization and balance that against the cost of your Help Desk support for password resets. Each organization will have specific requirements.

Windows security baselines recommend configuring the Reset account lockout counter after policy setting to 15, but as with other account lockeout settings, this value is more of a guideline than a rule or best practice because there is no “one size fits all.” For more information, see Configuring Account Lockout.

Location

Computer Configuration\Windows Settings\Security Settings\Account Policies\Account Lockout Policy

Default values

The following table lists the actual and effective default policy values. Default values are also listed on the policy’s property page.

Security considerations

This section describes how an attacker might exploit a feature or its configuration, how to implement the countermeasure, and the possible negative consequences of countermeasure implementation.

Vulnerability

Users can accidentally lock themselves out of their accounts if they mistype their password multiple times.

Countermeasure

Windows security baselines recommend configuring the Reset account lockout counter after policy setting to 15.

Potential impact

If you do not configure this policy setting or if the value is configured to an interval that is too long, an attacker could attempt to log on to each user’s account numerous times and lock out their accounts, a denial-of-service (DoS) attack might succeed, or administrators might have to manually unlock all locked-out accounts. If you configure this policy setting to a reasonable value, users can perform new attempts to log on after a failed logon within a reasonable time, without making brute force attacks feasible at high speeds. Be sure that you notify users of the values that are used for this policy setting so that they wait for the lockout timer to expire before they call the Help Desk.