How to Find All Pictures on Your Windows 10 Device

Windows 10 comes with a dedicated pictures folder where all your photos should rightly be stored. But unfortunately, it’s notoriously difficult to keep all of your photos in one place. For instance, photos you’ve downloaded from the internet may get stuck in “Downloads”. Other times, they’ll end up nested in a series of folders. So, is there a way to find all photos saved on your Windows 10 device?

You’ll be relieved to learn that there is indeed a way. In this article, we’re going to show you how to find all pictures on your Windows 10 device in just a few simple clicks.

Why Is It Difficult to Keep Photos in One Place in Windows 10?

Windows 10 comes with a number of features that truly distinguish it from older operating systems in the Windows series. But for all its positives, it would appear that developers at Microsoft haven’t quite come up with a way to ensure that all your pictures saved in one location. Windows 10 stores your photos in different locations depending on where they came from.

But it’s not entirely Windows’ fault. Some third-party apps and services are partly responsible for the problem. A few try to keep things neat, but others like Dropbox, OneDrive, and some photo-editing apps may keep photos in their own folders. In the end, you have photos spread out across different compartments in your hard drive, and finding them can be an uphill task.

But it’s not all doom and gloom. You can actually find all of your photos manually or even use the Windows 10 photos app. The only caveat is that the process can take a while, especially if you have hundreds or thousands of photos.

How to Find All Your Pictures on Windows 10

The Windows 10 Photos app may not be perfect, but it’s certainly a top-level photo management app. For instance, Photos features a facial analysis algorithm that enables it to group together photos of a single person. They call it the People feature. The feature comes in handy when you need to find all photos of a specific person. Think of trying to manually locate all wedding photos featuring the groom, for example.

So can Photos really keep all of your pictures in one place? That’s highly unlikely, but it’s certainly the best-suited photo finder on Windows 10. Here’s how you can use it to find photos stored in multiple locations:

1. Click on the Windows icon in the lower-left corner of the screen. You can also launch this menu by tapping on the Windows key, usually located on the left side of your keyboard, next to the Alt key.
   
2. Scroll down the Start menu until you get to Photos.
   
3. Click on Photos. In a few moments, you should see a list of photos automatically arranged by date. Photos taken, saved, or downloaded recently should appear first, with older ones featuring further down the list.
   
4. If you’re fortunate enough to remember the file name, simply enter it in the search bar at the top and hit Enter.
   
5. To narrow down your search to a specific person, you should try using the People feature. To do so, click on People in the menu at the top. Click on Yes to turn on facial grouping when prompted.
   

To scroll through your photos even faster, you can reduce the size of photo thumbnails by clicking on the most subdivided rectangular icon in the top right corner.

How to Find All Photos Stored on a Windows 10 PC

If the Photos app doesn’t work for you, worry not. There’s another trick you can use to find all photos stored on your device:

1. Click on the Windows icon in the lower-left corner to launch the Start menu.
   
2. Scroll down the Start menu and click on File Explorer.
   
3. Within File Explorer click on This PC in the left pane.
   
4. Now, type kind:=picture into the Search box in the top-right of the window.
   
5. Windows will automatically search all partitions on your hard drive.
   

Perhaps the best thing about this approach is the fact that it searches for images saved in all formats. That includes JPEG, PNG, PDF, GIF, BMP, and others. In the search results, you can find out the location of a file by simply right-clicking on it and then clicking on Open File Location.

How to Find All Your Photos Manually in Windows 10

Rather than trying to reinvent the wheel in your search, you can do things manually:

1. Click on the Windows icon in the lower-left corner to launch the Start menu.
   
2. Scroll down the start menu and click on File Explorer. Alternatively, you can simply type “File Explorer” in the search bar in the bottom left corner, right next to the Windows icon.
   
3. Click on Pictures on the left pane. At this point, you should see all the sub-folders under Pictures. Then, open each sub-folder to see all the photos stored in it.
   
4. Click on Downloads on the left pane. Again, you should see a list of all downloaded photos.
   
5. Repeat the process for all partitions on your computer.

Additional FAQs

How Do I Find Hidden Pictures on My PC?

The Windows 10 Photos app is an incredibly powerful tool when you need to find any hidden pictures on your PC. Its algorithms display pictures from multiple locations on one single collection.

1. Click on the Windows icon in the bottom left corner, and then select Photos from the Start menu.

2. All of the photos on your computer will be available using the app.

How Can I Keep My Photos Organized on Windows 10?

• Always tag imported photos

When importing photos from your camera or some other storage device, Windows will always ask you to tag your files. You should always take up the opportunity and type a few words that will help you to remember what that batch of photos was all about.

• Manually separate files from different photoshoots

Don’t just dump all your photos in one folder. Instead, create a new folder for each photo session and give it a unique name.

• Always rename your photos

Instead of saving your photos in their autogenerated camera names like DG121, DG123, DG124, and so on, try to come up with memorable, meaningful names. If you were vacationing in the Bahamas, for example, you may rename your photos as Bahamas1, Bahamas2, Bahamas, 3, and so on.

A Simple Search

Windows 10 may not offer the perfect solution, but it’s nonetheless equipped with features that, when used together, can help you to retrieve every picture you’ve ever saved on your Windows 10 device. Using the Photos app works for most people, but even if it doesn’t work for you, you’re now aware of several alternative tools – all thanks to this article. And nothing stops you from jumping right in to execute a search.

Which method do you use to find hidden or misplaced pictures on your PC? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.