Internet Explorer - Change Default Download Location

How to Change Default Download Location in IE9, IE10, and IE11​

   Information

This will show you how to change the default download location that IE9, IE10, and IE11 saves to by default to be any folder that you select instead of the default C:\Users\(user-name)\Downloads folder.

   Note

In Windows 8, the IE10 Windows UI (Metro) version uses the same download location that you set for the IE10 desktop version below.

OPTION ONE

Change IE Default "Save" Download Location in Download Manager

1. Open IE9, IE10, or IE11.
NOTE: In Windows 8/8.1, you would open the desktop IE version, and not the modern IE version.

2. Click/tap on the gear icon in the upper right corner, then click/tap on View downloads. (see screenshot below)
NOTE: You could also press CTRL + J instead.

3. Click/tap on the Options link. (see screenshot below)

4. Click/tap on the Browse button. (see screenshot below)

5. Navigate to and select (highlight) the folder that you want IE9 or IE10 to use as the default download location, then click/tap on the Select Folder button. (see screenshot below)

6. Click/tap on OK. (see screenshot below step 4)

7. Click/tap on Close. (see screenshot below step 3)

OPTION TWO

Change Internet Explorer Default "Save" Download Location in Registry

1. Press the Windows + R keys to open the Run dialog, type regedit, and press Enter.

2. If prompted by UAC, then click/tap on Yes (Windows 7/8) or Continue (Vista).

3. In regedit, navigate to the location below. (see screenshot below)
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main


4. In the right pane of Main, double click/tap on Default Download Directory to modify it. (see screenshot above)

5. Type in the full path of the folder that you want IE9 or IE10 to save downloads to by default, and click/tap on OK. (see screenshot above)

6. Close regedit.

OPTION THREE

To Manually Select a "Save as" Download Location in Internet Explorer

NOTE: This option is to Save as a file you want to download to any location no matter what you set the default Save location in Option One above.
1. After you click/tap on the file's download link in IE9 oe IE10, click/tap on the drop down arrow on the Save button at the bottom of IE9 or IE10, and click/tap on Save as. (see screenshot below)

2. Navigate to where you would like to save the file to, and click/tap on Save. (see screenshot below)

That's it,
Shawn

Related Tutorials

---

• How to Turn On or Off Notify when Downloads Complete in Internet Explorer
• How to Delete and Clear the Download History in IE9, IE10, and IE11
• How to See Download Speed and Time in Download Manager of IE9 and IE10
• How to Change the Default Download "Save to" Location in Firefox
• How to Change the Default Download Location in Google Chrome
• How to View and Track Downloads in IE9, IE10, and IE11

 

[Just Plain Erik]

I now see the difference between the two procedures. What I wanted to do was to change the default save to location. I followed that procedure and found that IE9 was still, by default, saving downloads to my user download folder. I then moved my download folder and that accomplished what I wanted. I don't mean to run this into the ground; but, shouldn't I be able to have IE9 save downloads to a different location without moving my user downloads folder? What am I not understanding here?

JP Erik

 

[Brink]

It's no problem Erik. I think you may have just misunderstood something. There's no need to move the actual "Downloads" folder to another location. Instead, you should just be able to select a different folder other than the "Downloads" folder for IE9 to use to save to instead.

 

[chesya]

It doesn't seem to apply to saving documents or pictures, ie9 just goes on saving them to library locations regardless of which location I specify in the way outlined above. It is time consuming specifying the desired location in the 'save to' box each time - I only want to do this once as in Chrome. Instead when saving a lot of material to one location I have to specify the location each time I save. I don't like saving everything to Pictures, for instance, and then moving them to desitred locations as this takes a lot of sifting if I've been doing mulitple jobs.

 

[Brink]

Hello Chesya,

Could you go ahead and provide a link to an example of one of these downloads that this happens to you with for us to do some testing with?

Are these files that you downloading trough the IE9 download manager, or items you are right clicking on and clicking on say "Save picture as"?

What location did you specify as your default download location in OPTION ONE?

Are you able to use OPTION THREE to save items where like when you don't want them saved to the default location?

 

[Sonic X]

Thanks for this tutorial, really really helped