A cluttered desktop is not conducive to productivity. We've helped you with desktop organization before, even showing you how the MakeUseOf team keeps their workspaces under control.

If you're a Mac user, there's one particular thing you might find extremely annoying: the fact that whenever you take a screenshot, it automatically saves to the desktop. Windows, by contrast, just copies the image to your clipboard.

Luckily, it's possible to change the default save location. You could even make a dedicated screenshots folder. Let's take a closer look.

How to Change Where Mac Screenshots Are Saved

To stop your Mac from saving screenshots to your desktop, follow the simple step-by-step instructions below.

  1. Open the Terminal app (type terminal into Spotlight if you can't find it).
  2. Type
            defaults <strong>write com.apple.screencapture location</strong>
        
    .
  3. Do not press Enter.
  4. At the end of the command, type your new default save location. For example, if you want a dedicated screenshots folder on your desktop:
            /Users/[username]/Desktop/Screenshots
        
  5. Press Enter.
  6. Type killall SystemUIServer.
  7. Press Enter.

Remember, Terminal also supports drag-and-drop. After typing the command in Step 2, just drag the folder where you want your Mac to save your screenshots into the Terminal window. The app will add the folder's path to the command.

This is just one of many little tweaks you can make to your Mac to make it more enjoyable to use so it's easier to find your Mac screenshots. If you're looking for similarly easy tweaks, check out our guide to tiny but useful Mac features and our list of hidden Mac productivity tricks.