Contents
How to hide, move, or delete saved pictures and camera roll in Windows 10

The Camera Roll and Saved Pictures folders are special folders in Windows 10. If they sit empty on your PC, then you would probably like to delete them. However, you won’t be able to remove them successfully by right-clicking on them and selecting Delete. No matter how many times you try, they will again be created automatically.

In this guide, you’ll discover why these folders exist and how to hide, move, or delete them – depending on your preferences.

What Are the Camera Roll and Saved Pictures Folders in Windows 10?

The Saved Pictures and Camera Roll folders exist by default if you are using a Windows 10 PC. They are contained in your user profile’s Pictures library and are associated with the Photos app and Camera app respectively.

If you use the Camera app to create videos or photos, the app saves them to the Camera Roll folder. Likewise, the Photos app uses the Saved Pictures folder.

These apps are the reason why the two folders exist in your system, and whether or not you use the apps, the folders will always be present.

How to Remove Camera Roll and Saved Pictures in Windows 10

If you don’t use the Camera and Photos apps, their associated folders won’t serve any purpose. Users may find the folders unpleasant due to their presence in the Pictures library, and since deleting them by right-clicking and selecting Delete from the context menu doesn’t seem to work – you find them again some minutes later because they are automatically created by the Camera and Photos apps – you might begin to consider uninstalling their related apps so as to remove the folders permanently. However, since the apps come with Windows, you cannot uninstall them the way you would uninstall any other program.

But worry not. We are going to show you how you can hide, move, or successfully delete the Camera Roll and Saved Pictures folders.

How to Move the Camera Roll and Saved Pictures folders to Another Location

You can move the Saved Pictures folder and Camera Roll folder away from your user profile’s Pictures library to any other location of your choice.

There are two easy ways to move them: via a simple cut and paste operation or by using the Location tab in the folders’ Properties window.

Saved pictures and camera roll in Windows 10: easy tips

Method 1: Use the Location Tab

  1. Hold the Windows logo key on your keyboard and press E to open File Explorer.
  2. Under Libraries, in the left panel of the window, click Pictures.
  3. Right-click the Camera Roll folder.
  4. Select Properties from the context menu.
  5. In the window that opens, go to the Location tab.
  6. You’ll see a field that contains the current directory path for the folder (C:\Users\<username>\Picuters\CameraRoll). Delete the path and enter a new path where you want the folder to be moved to. If you are unsure of how to type the new path correctly, simply click the Move… button below the field and navigate to the location you desire and click Select Folder.
  7. Click OK to save the change.

Tip: If you want to return the folder to its default location, repeat the steps above and click the Restore Default button > OK when you get to Step 4.

Repeat the same procedure to move the Saved Pictures folder.

Method 2: Cut and Paste

  1. Press the Windows logo key + E combination to open File Explorer.
  2. Open the Pictures library and right-click the Camera Roll folder.
  3. Click ‘Cut’ from the context menu.

Alternatively, select the folder and press the Ctrl + X combination (which is the shortcut for Cut) on your keyboard.

  1. Go to the new location where you want to place the folder. Right-click on a blank area and click Paste from the context menu. Alternatively, when you get to the location, click on a blank area and then press the Ctrl + V combination (which is the shortcut for Paste) on your keyboard.

Repeat the same procedure to move the Saved Pictures folder.

After you’ve moved the folders to a new location, their paths will be automatically updated in the Windows registry and the Camera app and Photos app will detect the change. So if you use the apps to create photos and videos, the media will be saved to the respective folders in the new location and no longer to the Pictures library.

Pro Tip: The Camera Roll and Saved Pictures folders are special folders (also referred to as Shell folders). This means that you can use the ‘Shell:’ command to open them directly from the Run dialog, Search, or Cortana.

Therefore, if you forget the location you moved the folders to or you want to open them quickly without navigating the paths to them, you can simply invoke them using these steps:

  1. Open the Run dialog. To do this, hold the Windows logo key and press R on your keyboard.
  2. Type ‘shell:camera roll’ in the text field and press Enter or click the OK button to open the Camera Roll folder. To open the Saved Pictures folder, type ‘shell:Savedpictures’ and press Enter or click the OK button. Tip: While typing the command, ensure that you don’t leave any space between ‘shell:’ and the name of the folder. If you do, the folder won’t open and you’ll get an error message.

How to Hide the Camera Roll and Saved Pictures Folders

If you don’t want to move the Camera Roll and Saved Pictures folders to another location, you can force them not to show.

There are two methods you can use to hide the folders: via the View tab in File Explorer or by using Command Prompt.

Method 1: Hide the folders via the View tab

  1. Press the Windows logo key + E combination on your keyboard to open File Explorer.
  2. Go to the Libraries category on the left pane of the window and click Pictures.
  3. Click the Camera Roll folder. Then hold the Ctrl key on your keyboard and click the Saved Pictures folder to select it as well.
  4. Go to the View tab in the ribbon at the top of the window.
  5. In the Show/hide section on the right-hand side, click the ‘Hide selected items’ option.
  6. If you can still see the Camera Roll and Pictures folders when you go back to the File tab but the icons are faded, it means that the Hidden Items option in the View tab is enabled. Thus, go back to the View tab and unmark the checkbox for ‘Hidden items’ in the Show/hide category.

If you want to make the folders visible again, mark the ‘Hidden items’ checkbox from Step 6 to reveal the folders. Then select them and click the ‘Hide selected items’ option from Step 5.

Method 2: Hide the folders using Command Prompt

You can hide the Camera Roll and Pictures folders in such a way that they will not show even if you set hidden items to become visible in File Explorer. If you wish to do this, follow the steps below:

  1. Invoke the Run dialog box. You can do this by pressing the Windows logo key + R combo on your keyboard.
  2. Type ‘cmd’ in the text field and press Enter or click the OK button. This opens the Command Prompt window.
  3. Type or copy and paste the following:

attrib +s +h

Note: If you want to type the above command, there should be no space between ‘+’ and ‘s’ or between ‘+’ and ‘h’.

  1. Minimize the Command Prompt window.
  2. Open File Explorer (Windows key + E) and click on the Pictures library.
  3. Right-click the Camera Roll folder and select Properties from the context menu.
  4. Click on the Locations tab and copy the folder path.
  5. Maximize the Command Prompt window and then paste the path you copied in Step 7. The command you are going to execute should look like this:

attrib +s +h “C:\Users\YourName\Pictures\Camera Roll”

  1. Press Enter to execute the command and hide the Camera Roll folder.

Use the same procedure to hide the Saved Pictures folder.

If you want to unhide the folders, repeat the above steps but type “attrib -s –h” when you get to Step 3. Thus, the command to unhide the Camera Roll folder, for example, will be attrib -s -h “C:\Users\YourName\Pictures\Camera Roll”.

How to Hide the Camera Roll and Saved Pictures Libraries

When you open File Explorer, you will notice that the items listed under Libraries include Pictures, Documents, Music, Videos, etc. If Camera Roll and Saved Pictures are also listed under Libraries, there are two methods you can use to hide them. Both of them involve making changes to your registry. So before you go ahead, make sure you create a Registry backup or a system restore point.

Method 1: Use the Registry Editor

  1. On your keyboard, press the Windows logo key + R combination to bring up the Run dialog box.
  2. Type ‘regedit’ in the text field and click the OK button or press Enter.
  3. Click the Yes button when the User Account Control (UAC) prompt comes up.
  4. In the Registry Editor window that opens, navigate the following path:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FolderDescriptions\{2B20DF75-1EDA-4039-8097-38798227D5B7}\PropertyBag

Tip: To make things easier and get to ‘PropertyBag’ faster, simply click on the Edit tab and click ‘Find…’ from the context menu. Copy the above path and paste it into the ‘Find What:’ box and then click the Find Next button.

  1. On the right-hand side of the window, right-click on a blank area and select New > String Value. Name it
  2. Double-click on the newly created string value (ThisPCPolicy). Type ‘Hide’ into the ‘Value Data:’ field and click the OK button.

Repeat the above procedure for the following locations in the Registry Editor:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FolderDescriptions\{2B20DF75-1EDA-4039-8097-38798227D5B7}\PropertyBag

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FolderDescriptions\{E25B5812-BE88-4bd9-94B0-29233477B6C3}\PropertyBag

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FolderDescriptions\{E25B5812-BE88-4bd9-94B0-29233477B6C3}\PropertyBag

After you have created the ThisPCPolicy string value in all these locations and set Value Data to Hide, the Saved Pictures and Camera Roll libraries will now be hidden. If you wish to unhide them, go back to each of the locations in the Registry Editor and delete the ThisPCPolicy string value you created.

Method 2: Use Notepad

This method involves creating an executable registry file. It is much easier than Method 1. Here’s what you have to do:

  1. Go to the Start menu and type ‘Notepad’ into the Search bar. Click the option when it appears in the search results.
  2. Copy the following text and paste it into Notepad:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FolderDescriptions\{2B20DF75-1EDA-4039-8097-38798227D5B7}\PropertyBag]

“ThisPCPolicy”=”Hide”

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FolderDescriptions\{2B20DF75-1EDA-4039-8097-38798227D5B7}\PropertyBag]

“ThisPCPolicy”=”Hide”

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FolderDescriptions\{E25B5812-BE88-4bd9-94B0-29233477B6C3}\PropertyBag]

“ThisPCPolicy”=”Hide”

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FolderDescriptions\{E25B5812-BE88-4bd9-94B0-29233477B6C3}\PropertyBag]

“ThisPCPolicy”=”Hide”

  1. Click on the File tab and select Save as.
  2. Select the location where you want the file to be saved.
  3. Type ‘reg’ as the file name and click the Save button.
  4. Now, go to the location where you saved the file and right-click on it.
  5. Click Merge from the context menu.
  6. Click the Yes button when prompted.

Once the code is executed, the registry will automatically set Hide as Value Data for ThisPCPolicy contained in each of the above paths. Your Camera Roll and Saved Pictures libraries will now be hidden. To unhide them, open the Registry Editor, navigate to each of those paths and delete the ThisPCPolicy string value.

How to Delete Camera Roll and Saved Pictures in Windows 10

There is no way to delete the Saved Pictures and Camera Roll folders from your PC. This is because the apps they are associated with (the Photo app and Camera app respectively) come with your Windows OS.

Therefore, the only way to remove the folders permanently is to uninstall the Camera app and the Photo app.

However, the apps cannot be uninstalled via Control Panel or the Start menu. We’ll have to do it via PowerShell. Follow the steps below:

  1. Open the Start menu.
  2. Type ‘powershell’ in the Search bar.
  3. Right-click on the option from the results list and select ‘Run as administrator.’

Alternatively, you can quickly open PowerShell with administrator rights through the WinX menu. Simply press the Windows logo key + X combo on your keyboard and then click on PowerShell (Admin) from the list.

  1. Click the Yes button when the User Account Control prompt comes up.
  2. Copy the following line and paste it into the PowerShell (Admin) window and press Enter to uninstall the Camera app:

Get-AppxPackage *windowscamera* | Remove-AppxPackage

  1. Copy and paste the following line and press Enter to uninstall the Photos app:

Get-AppxPackage *photos* | Remove-AppxPackage

  1. Close the PowerShell (Admin) window.

If you’d like to reinstall the apps, go back to PowerShell (Admin), paste the following line, and then press Enter to execute it:

Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers| Foreach {Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register “$($_.InstallLocation)AppXManifest.xml”}

Keep in mind that the command will install not only the Camera and Photos apps but also every other Windows application that you previously uninstalled.

We hope our guide has been useful to you.

If you have any comments, questions, or suggestions, please feel free to share them in the Comments section below.

We would love to hear from you.

Pro Tip: If your system is incredibly slow and prone to hanging, you will find it difficult to perform even the simplest tasks on your computer. If that is what you have to deal with every single day, it can get quite frustrating. We, therefore, recommend you run a full system scan with Auslogics BoostSpeed to clean out junk files and fix other speed-reducing issues on your computer. The tool improves system speed, restores stability, and ensures smooth performance so that you can use your PC with a smile on your face again.