Steam is arguably the most popular platform for gaming in the world right now. With more than 30000 games available in the store, Steam offers gamers an all-in-one platform for all types of services. Even though Steam is majorly popular for its frequent sales and events, there is a lot more to browse on Steam apart from the game library.
Steam also offers a built-in shortcut to take screenshots in games. As we all know, games are very fast-paced in nature and every second is important to get the perfect shot. Therefore, it is not possible to use Windows’ screenshot options in-game as it would take a long time which you simply cannot afford while you are in a fast-paced game.
If you have also reached here looking for help with the screenshot system available on Steam, you have come to the right place. Here, we will tell you how you can quickly capture a screenshot on Steam and where it is saved. Thus, you can create your own album of in-game screenshots and share it any way you want.
How To Take Screenshots With Steam
Taking a screenshot in-game via Steam is literally as easy as a press of a button. By default, F12 is the trigger key to take a screenshot in-game. But for that, you must have Steam running in the background, which is pretty common for users who have all their games in their Steam library.
As soon as you press the F12 key in-game, Steam will take the screenshot of that exact moment and save it in the screenshots directory. You will also receive a prompt on the lower side of the screen about successful screenshot capture. If you wish to check the shot, you can click on the prompt and check a full-screen view of the screenshot that you just captured via Steam.
If you were to use any other method for taking a screenshot, you will at least need to use 2 buttons on your keyboard. For example, you can take a quick screenshot by pressing the windows and PRT SC button. But pressing the Windows key might minimize your game. Also, a Windows screenshot freezes the games for a couple of seconds which might turn into a life or death situation in competitive games.
Therefore, taking a screenshot via Steam is the best way to save your favourite moments in-game. As Steam is already running in the background, it instantly takes the screenshot without affecting the performance of the game. In case you are wondering where the screenshots are saved, stick around for the next part of our guide where we will tell you how to find the Steam screenshots with or without Steam.
Location of Steam Screenshots
Steam saves the screenshots captured in-game to a certain location. By default, the location is the same as the installation directory of the Steam app. But, you might have changed it a long time ago, or it might have been changed because of third-party software installed on your computer. In such a case, you will find it troublesome to locate the directory for Steam screenshot.
If you are facing the same, worry not. We are here to tell you where your Steam screenshot library is. If you have captured a rare moment in your game via Steam, it is certainly saved in the directory and you haven’t lost it. You can find out the screenshot location of Steam with or without Steam installed in your system. Therefore, even if you have a really old screenshot captured by Steam, you can still find it unless you have wiped the drive.
How To Find Steam Screenshots With Steam
Finding the saved screenshot becomes really easy if you have Steam installed on your computer. Within the Steam app, you can locate and find the directory of the saved screenshot very easily. Here’s the step by step instructions on how to find the Steam screenshots with Steam installed on your computer.
- First of all, open the Steam app on your PC. You can do that by double-clicking the Steam icon from the taskbar.
- Now, click on the “View” option present in the top right corner. It deals with visual attributes of the application as well as media sharing.
- In the view menu, you will find the “screenshots” option. As the name suggests, this is a dedicated section for screenshot management. Here, you can browse the screenshots as well as share them directly on the Steam community.
- In the screenshot uploader window, you will have to select the game which you were playing while taking the screenshot. Steam automatically categorises the screenshots in dedicated folders named after their respective games.
- Once you select the game from the drop-down menu, you can find the screenshots captured from that particular game.
- Now, simply select a screenshot from the list and click on the “show on disk” option.
- This will open the file explorer and redirect you to the folder where the Steam screenshots are saved.
How To Find Steam Screenshots Without Steam
It is possible that you are looking for a screenshot captured from Steam a long time ago. In case you cannot find the screenshot from the method given above, you have probably uninstalled Steam after that. But, even after uninstalling Steam, you can find the screenshot by following the steps given here.
- Open the file explorer on your computer.
- Locate the installation location where you had previously installed Steam.
- By default, Steam is installed on the same drive as your system drive. On your system drive, you will find the Steam folder inside the Program Files folder.
- Once you have located the Steam folder, open it to find the “Userdata” folder. As the name suggests, the data created by the user is saved in this location. It includes game settings, preferences as screenshots.
- In the Userdata folder, you will find one or more folders with numbers instead of names. These are basically Steam profiles or accounts used on your computers. To find the screenshot, you might have to explore all folders if you use multiple accounts.
- In that folder, you will find a folder called “760”. Open it to proceed further.
- Here, you find a folder called “Remote” which consists of yet another folder designated with numbers that consist of screenshots.
- Finally, open the screenshots folder to find the screenshots that you took from your Steam app.
- You will also notice various folders inside the screenshot folder based on the games that you were playing while capturing the screenshots. This certainly makes it easier to find the specific click you were looking for.
Conclusion
Steam is a fairly popular platform for gaming and it is highly likely that you use steam if you play games on your computer. Along with tonnes of free-to-play games, Steam also has a variety of features that allows you to use it as a social media platform for gaming. If you like sharing your gaming moments with your friends, Steam is the perfect place to do so.
You can easily capture screenshots directly via Steam without even needing to pause the game. Steam allows you easy access to the saved screenshots which you can share on the Steam community directly. And if you wish to share the screenshot externally, you can use one of the 2 methods provided here for finding your screenshot. If you face any further problems with Steam, you can drop your query in the comment section given below.
