Gaming Move or Restore Default Location of Saved Games Folder in Windows 11

Brink · Sep 4, 2022

This tutorial will show you how to move or restore the default location of the Saved Games folder for your account in Windows 10 and Windows 11.

The Saved Games folder (shell:SavedGames) is a component of the user profile that is used as a unified location for storing personal data. By default, the Saved Games folder is a shell folder in the user's profile (%UserProfile%) that is used as a default storage location for saved games.

If you like, you can move the Saved Games folder and its content to a location you want it at instead.

If the current Videos folder path is incorrect or is no longer available, you can use the Restore Default option to restore the default path.

Contents

Option One: Move Location of Saved Games Folder in Properties
Option Two: Restore Default Location of Saved Games Folder in Properties
Option Three: Restore Default Location of Saved Games Folder using BAT file

Option One

Move Location of Saved Games Folder in Properties

1 Open File Explorer (Win+E).

2 Navigate to the location (ex: "D") you want to move your Saved Games folder to, and create a new folder named Saved Games at this location. (see screenshot below)

3 Type shell:SavedGames into the address bar of File Explorer, and press Enter to open the Saved Games folder no matter where it is located.

4 Right click on an empty area in the opened Saved Games folder, and click/tap on Properties. (see screenshot below)

5 Click/tap on the Location tab, and click/tap on the Move button. (see screenshot below)

6 Navigate to and select the new Saved Games folder from step 2, and click/tap on Select Folder. (see screenshot below)

7 Click/tap on OK. (see screenshot below)

8 Click/tap on Yes to move all the files from the old location to the new location. (see screenshot below)

Option Two

Restore Default Location of Saved Games Folder in Properties

1 Open File Explorer (Win+E).

2 Type shell:SavedGames into the address bar of File Explorer, and press Enter to open the Saved Games folder no matter where it is located.

3 Right click on an empty area in the opened Saved Games folder, and click/tap on Properties. (see screenshot below)

4 Click/tap on the Location tab, and click/tap on the Restore Default button. (see screenshot below)

5 Click/tap on OK. (see screenshot below)

6 If prompted to create a Saved Games folder at the default location, click/tap on Yes. (see screenshot below)

7 Click/tap on Yes to move all the files from the old location to the default location. (see screenshot below)

Option Three

Restore Default Location of Saved Games Folder using BAT file

This option can be very useful if Option Two is not available.

This option will not move the contents of the Saved Games folder from the old location to the default location. You will need to manually move the contents after restoring the default location if wanted.

1 Click/tap on the download button below to download the Restore_default_location_of_Saved_Games_folder.bat file.

Download

(Contents of BAT file for reference)

Code:

@echo off

taskkill /f /im explorer.exe

timeout /t 2 /nobreak >nul

if not exist "%UserProfile%\Saved Games" mkdir "%UserProfile%\Saved Games"

reg add "HKCU\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Folders" /v "{4C5C32FF-BB9D-43B0-B5B4-2D72E54EAAA4}" /t REG_SZ /d "C:\Users\%USERNAME%\Saved Games" /f

reg add "HKCU\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders" /v "{4C5C32FF-BB9D-43B0-B5B4-2D72E54EAAA4}" /t REG_EXPAND_SZ /d %%USERPROFILE%%"\Saved Games" /f

attrib +r -s -h "%USERPROFILE%\Saved Games" /S /D

timeout /t 1 /nobreak >nul

start explorer.exe

2 Save the BAT file to your desktop.

3 Unblock and run the BAT file.

4 You will now see a command prompt open and close to kill the explorer process, run the commands to restore the default location and attributes of the Saved Games folder, and restart the explorer process.

5 You can now delete the BAT file if you like.

That's it,
Shawn Brink