Where are the pictures taken using win10's built-in win+shift+s screenshot saved?

The pictures captured using the Windows 10 built-in shortcut Win+Shift+S, which activates the Snip & Sketch tool (now known as Snipping Tool in later updates), are not automatically saved to a permanent location. Instead, the screenshot is copied directly to the Windows clipboard as a temporary image in memory. This is the core operational mechanism of the tool when used in its default mode; the user's immediate action of pasting the image into an application like an email, document, or image editor is the primary intended workflow. Consequently, if the system is restarted or another item is copied to the clipboard, the unsaved screenshot is lost. This design prioritizes quick sharing and editing over archival, distinguishing it from the Print Screen key's traditional behavior, which also copies to the clipboard but without Snip & Sketch's annotation and selection features.

However, a secondary, automatic saving function occurs if the user interacts with the notification that appears after capturing the snip. When the screenshot is taken, a desktop notification typically pops up in the lower-right corner. Clicking this notification opens the image within the Snip & Sketch/Snipping Tool application window. From there, the user can annotate the image and explicitly save it using the standard "Save As" dialog (Ctrl+S), choosing a location such as the Pictures folder, Desktop, or any other directory. More importantly, if the user simply *clicks* the notification to view the snip in the app, the tool automatically creates a temporary save file in a system-managed cache. This file is stored in a user-specific temporary folder, typically along a path like `C:\Users\[Username]\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.ScreenSketch_8wekyb3d8bbwe\TempState`. Images in this TempState folder are not permanently retained and are subject to periodic cleanup by the system's Disk Cleanup utility or other maintenance tasks, meaning they should not be relied upon as a reliable repository.

For users seeking a predictable, saved location without manual steps, the behavior can be modified through a settings change. Within the Snip & Sketch/Snipping Tool app, navigating to Settings reveals an option labeled "Automatically save snips to the Pictures folder" or similar. When this toggle is enabled, the tool's mechanism changes fundamentally: every snip taken with Win+Shift+S is automatically saved as a PNG file directly into the user's `Pictures\Screenshots` folder (creating the folder if it doesn't exist) immediately upon capture, while still also being copied to the clipboard. This provides a permanent, easily accessible file without any further user intervention. The exact default path is `C:\Users\[Username]\Pictures\Screenshots`. Therefore, the answer to the save location is entirely dependent on the user's configuration and actions: it is either transiently on the clipboard, temporarily in a system cache, or permanently in the Pictures folder, with the latter requiring a deliberate one-time settings adjustment to become the default behavior.