Skyrim

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is the fifth installment in the Elder Scrolls video game series, developed by Bethesda. The game is a single-player RPG in which players can explore, liberate and discover the secrets of Skyrim, one of the nine provinces of Tamriel and home of the Nords.

The main questline of the game has two distinct play throughs depending on if you align yourself with the Imperials or the Stormcloaks at the game's beginning.

On top of this, Skyrim is praised for having an abundance of detailed and multi-layered quests that you'll stumble into the more you explore, so there's a whole host of content to play outside of the main story.

The game features third or first-person combat, and players can hone their skills across archery, magic and weaponry to ensure they're a match for the beasts and foes roaming Skyrim's landscape.

Skyrim Game Save Location

Most players of Skyrim probably have a lot of game saves, but few know exactly where on their computer those are located. Whether it's to create a backup, restore an old save, transfer a save to another computer, or another reason, it's always useful to know the folder that your save files are located within - that's why you're here after all. See the save file locations for your operating system below:

Windows

On Windows (10, 8, 7, and Vista), you can find your game saves in the following directory:

%UserProfile%\Documents\My Games\Skyrim\Saves

To quickly jump to this directory, open up a File Explorer window (search for File Explorer in your start menu), paste the above path into the address bar at the top and hit ENTER.

If there are no saves in this folder: Skyrim may have marked the files as hidden. To see hidden files, click View at the top of the File Explorer window and check Hidden items. For more help, see our how to show hidden files in Windows guide.

Windows Special Edition

If you're playing the Special Edition version of Skyrim, you can find your saves in the following folder:

%UserProfile%\Documents\My Games\Skyrim Special Edition\Saves

If you have trouble accessing this folder, or there are no files within it, see the advice for non-Special Edition Skyrim (under the "Windows" heading) above this.

Skyrim Screenshot Location

In Skyrim, there are several ways to take screenshots. The two most common are with the F12 key, which takes a Steam screenshot, and PRINT SCRN which takes a screenshot via Skyrim.

Screenshots Taken Via Steam (F12)

For screenshots taken via Steam (default F12 key), you can find your screenshots within your Steam library at the following path (replace YOUR STEAMID3 ID with the numbers from your steam3 ID):

userdata\YOUR STEAMID3 ID\760\remote\72850\screenshots

If that doesn't mean anything to you, or you need to help locating these screenshots, see our how to find Steam screenshots guide.

Screenshots Taken Via Skyrim (PRINT SCRN)

Thankfully, finding screenshots taken directly via Skyrim with the PRINT SCRN button are a little easier to find. They're located inside your Skyrim installation directory, which is usually:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Skyrim

Or

C:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps\common\Skyrim

If you're struggling to find your Steam installation directory (what the two above paths are), see how to find where a Steam game is installed.

Skyrim INI File

Your Skyrim INI file (Skyrim.ini) is, thankfully, a very easy file to locate. It's found at the following directory:

%UserProfile%\Documents\My Games\Skyrim\Skyrim.ini

If you're playing on the Special Edition version of Skyrim, you'll find it at this path:

%UserProfile%\Documents\My Games\Skyrim Special Edition\Skyrim.ini