Guild Wars 2

the screenshot folder has been forced to C:\Documents and Settings folder and I can’t find any option to move it back to x:\game folder\screens where it should be.

I don’t know why you would have your screenshot folder within the game folder in the first place, it’s always been at C:\Users\Soulweaver\Documents\Guild Wars 2\Screens for me ever since I joined in the BWE3 for the first time. (And it makes a lot more sense to store them in the Windows account’s personal folders anyway; for example, in such cases where multiple people have their own Windows and GW2 accounts, using a single folder would have the different users’ screens all mixed up together.)

I understand how some people see it as handy but I’ve always preferred to have all the files related to one game in it’s own folder, instead of spread out.

I’m the only user of this machine.

I wasn’t questioning your preference but rather was surprised by the fact that why your game was behaving differently from mine in the first place. I am the only user on my computer as well.

The example was there just to point out that the current behaviour was probably the intended one all along.

My screenshots have always gone to “C:\Users\myuser\Documents\Guild Wars 2\Screens” since the day the game was released. I’m not sure why yours have gone into the game folder until recently.

I also have my GW2 installed on an entirely separate hard drive from my OS, so install location doesn’t seem to affect where screenshots get stored.

edit
I use Windows 7 and was not aware of this fact, but I’ve been informed by some players that previously on Windows XP systems the screenshots would save within the game installation folder. However, this has changed to now be in line with other Windows versions to where screenshots are saved in the Documents folder.
As a possible solution to XP users, if you prefer accessing screenshots from your installation folder, you can place a shortcut within the game folder that points to your “Documents\Guild Wars2\Screens” folder, though they’d still physically be in that location.

That could explain the source of the discrepancy. A better solution, if one doesn’t mind the folder existing in two places at once, would be to make a symbolic/hard link junction from the former screen folder to the new one. Will probably edit a detailed guide how to do so once I’m back from the uni in a few hours.

E: I did some quick testing with non-GW2 related files and this should be working, but nevertheless proceed at your own risk (and make backups!). In this guide, I assume you want to have the files located physically in the GW2 folder; while it is not possible to make the folder not appear at the profile folder, it is possible to have it appear there and in the GW2 folder. This should also work across partitions and even different physical hard disks if you have more than one of either.

For XP, as old as it is, you will need to download a tool to make a junction in the first place, in this case this one from MS themselves. If your screenshots are still under Documents and Settings, move the folder as is to the GW2 folder and make sure the original Screens folder doesn’t exist.

Now, drop the Junction tool you downloaded to C:\Documents and Settings\(user)\My Documents\Guild Wars 2, open command prompt with administrator privileges, navigate yourself to that same folder (navigation help), and type “junction Screens X:\path\to\GW2\Screens” without quotes and substituting the actual path in. After this, the files are still located at the GW2 folder, but any program accessing the screens folder in your own profile folder should be silently redirected to the another folder, effectively making the folder appear at two places at once.

You can now get rid of the downloaded executable after you’re done.

IMPORTANT: Junctions and other similar tricks can confuse programs and users and as such be cautious when modifying the junction link itself. I believe I have heard that Windows Explorer in particular actually deletes the folder (from both places because they’re the same) if you delete the junction, instead of just removing that one reference to the folder. To remove the junction safely, use the same tool you used earlier for creating it.

Attached a screen shot where I tested this with a different folder across different (virtual) disks.

StinVec.3621:

My screenshots have always gone to “C:\Users\myuser\Documents\Guild Wars 2\Screens” since the day the game was released. I’m not sure why yours have gone into the game folder until recently.

I also have my GW2 installed on an entirely separate hard drive from my OS, so install location doesn’t seem to affect where screenshots get stored.

edit
I use Windows 7 and was not aware of this fact, but I’ve been informed by some players that previously on Windows XP systems the screenshots would save within the game installation folder. However, this has changed to now be in line with other Windows versions to where screenshots are saved in the Documents folder.
As a possible solution to XP users, if you prefer accessing screenshots from your installation folder, you can place a shortcut within the game folder that points to your “Documents\Guild Wars2\Screens” folder, though they’d still physically be in that location.

Yes I’m using XP.

How/where did you get the information about “However, this has changed to now be in line with other Windows versions to where screenshots are saved in the Documents folder.” ?

I’ve always disliked the personal folders because of the obvious, unnessecary spreading out of files in a virus-like manner.