Autoplay....how to change default photo download location

Hi,

I wonder if anyone could help me with an issue that is driving me a bit bonkers?

When I first plugged in our camera into the wife's laptop (Windows 7 Home Premium x86), and it started downloading photo's, I was able to temporarily cancel the process and nominate a new location to which the photo's should be downloaded to (Pictures Library as it turns out).

I would now like to change that, but bugger me if I can find out how to do it! I've done some searching here (the tuts too) and MS help, but nothing seems to quite what I'm looking for.....or I've missed it altogether.

This is about as far as I can get....but still, I cannot for the life of me find out how to edit the default downlaod location for photo's. Can anyone point me in the right direction?

Thanks,
Golden

Unless you use a third party photo management app the only thing you can do is click Import settings in the Import Pictures and Videos dialog box, when you plug in the device, and from there you can set a folder of your choice.

There's a snip of the settings window in post #6 of this thread.

Hope that helps.

I'm not sure if this will help, but I have mine set to open folder to view files using windows explorer. That way it allows me to select which I want to save and I can then save them to whatever location I want. Sometimes it is in the camera's software. I had one that when plugged in it would save them automatically to where it wanted (pictures library). I uninstalled it and now do it through autoplay and explorer.

Whatever happened to just copying and pasting them to the folder/location you want.

Copy & paste would work, but I prefer to change the import settings if possible.

Golden, it appears you have it set to automatically download the photos, have you tried 'ask me every time' or view photos using windows explorer'? I think either one would allow you to decide which ones to download an where to download them to.

My wife has her machine set to "ask", as do I, but she also has the camera's software installed which allowed her to select a default location (E\pictures) if she chooses to use said software.

When she plugs the camera in her options are many. She can either click import and it will automatically dump her pics in her Pictures folder and sort them by date, or she can select where to place them, and then there are a few more I forget because she doesn't really let me play with it. Pretty much all I do is follow the directions she's kind enough to provide.

Thanks guys. Having done some digging, I have concluded there is no way to access the change import settings panel, except by re-downlaoding photo's and then cancelling in order to get the panel, or via your suggestions. This is an area that MS could perhaps tidy up in future.

I'll experiment with your suggestions and see what works.

Thanks again,
Golden

My 9 year old granddaughter got a digital camera and wanted to ownloag pivtures on my computer. When we plugged it in it downloaded It's software. After that everytime you plugged the camera in it would automatically download every picture in the camera to where it wanted to. there were no options. I try to be a good Grandfather, but I did not want 1000's of pictures that a 9 year old would take on my SSD every time she came over. So, I uninstalled the software and now download only the pictures she wants to another spinner.

Is this a dumb question, if so I apologise, but: -
Is there no way in your Photo Software to "Import" pictures?
I have an admittedly long in the tooth copy of MS. "Picture It", which for me is a great programme. Whichever medium I use to install the pic's, (USB stick/Optical disk/SD card/camera) I have Explorer set to "View Files", then go to "Picture It Library" and click "Import". There should be a similar Library/Album setup in all Photo processing programmes, I believe, with a similar "Import" facility.

PS: Edited this to say that I too suffer the Grandfather syndrome. My youngest g-daughter (6 next month) has just been given a camera and granddad's PC is a target now, as Big Brother will not let her touch his PC.
Gotta love 'em.

It's been so long since I've used Picture It, I really don't remember, but I think on the file tab there should be an import selection which will allow you to go to wherever the photos are and import them. Like I said, it's been a long time, but it is a good program.

You can change your windows auto photo/video import folder by doing the following.

1) Start->run->type regedit and hit enter
2) In regedit go to "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Photo Acquisition" and edit all the sub/child entries. For each sub/chile entry where ever you see a folder name, edit it to be your import file location or pattern.
3) Repeat(as in step 2) the same process for all users in your machine by editing "HKEY_USERS\<some long value>\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Photo Acquisition" and all its sub elements.
4) Close regedit and Restart your machine.
5) Try auto importing new pictures from your camara and it should go to the directory you have specified in the registry(step 2).

-Prantor