[Tip] How to Change or Reset Screenshot Index Counter in Windows 8 and Later

Taking screenshots has become a lot of easier in Windows 8, Windows 8.1 and Windows 10 operating systems. In previous Windows versions, whenever you needed to take a screenshot of your screen, you had to press “PrtScn (Print Screen)” key or if you wanted to take screenshot of a specific program window, you needed to click on it to make it active and press “Alt+PrtScn” keys. After doing this, the screenshot was captured to clipboard and you had to paste and save it using an image editing software like built-in MS Paint, Adobe Photoshop, etc.

In Windows 8 and later Windows versions, you just need to press “Win+PrtScn” keys together and Windows will automatically save the screenshot in your “Pictures” library folder. The screenshot is saved with the name “Screenshot.png“. If you take more screenshots, they are saved with an added index number such as “Screenshot (2).png“, “Screenshot (3).png” and so on as shown in following screenshot:

If you take lots of screenshots, the screenshot index counter in screenshot filenames may get higher with time. There is a small problem! Even if you delete screenshots from “Pictures” folder, the screenshot index counter doesn’t get reset and the next screenshot filename will contain higher index number instead of 1.

If you want to reset the index counter so that screenshot filenames are saved from counter 1, you can reset it with the help of a simple Registry tweak.

Today in this tutorial, we are going to tell you how to reset screenshot index counter in Windows 8/8.1 and Windows 10. Check out following simple steps to reset screenshot index counter number:

1. Press WIN+R keys together to launch RUN dialog box. Now type regedit and press Enter. It’ll open Registry Editor.

2. Now go to following key:

3. In right-side pane, look for a DWORD with the name ScreenshotIndex. This DWORD stores the index number of the next screenshot.

4. Simply select this DWORD ScreenshotIndex and press Delete key to delete the DWORD.

That’s it. It’ll immediately reset the screenshot index counter and if you take a new screenshot, the file will be saved with index counter 1.

PS: If you don’t want to reset the index counter but want to set a custom index counter, double-click on ScreenshotIndex DWORD, select Base as Decimal and change its value to desired number. Now when you take a new screenshot, it’ll be saved with your desired index number.

Also Check:

[Tip] Use “Win+Alt+PrtScn” Hotkey to Take Program Screenshots in Windows 10

[Tip] Use “Win+Shift+S” Hotkey to Take Selected Area Screenshot in Windows 10