Sketch and Snip seems to have 'hidden' folder of images.

This is one App I use quite a lot, and I've noticed that there appears to be a 'hidden' cache of all 'Snips' that are being retained in the program files related to the App.

I wonder why these are being created and why are they are being retained, even after a full disk clean ?

The filepath for the App is:

%LocalAppData%\Packages

and located under ScreenSketch in the TempState folder are copies of snips made using the App. My first thought was that these related to the Timeline function but I'm not really sure, and in any case this seems a security issue to me as any images made and fully deleted should not be retained in such an easily accessible form as this.

Any ideas?

That's a neat idea with the batch file, I like that.

I use this App such a lot that I can imagine over the course of 6 months or so (time between new builds and clean installs for me) that I would accumulate hundreds of files here. The above were just one days worth on a new clean install. Makes you think.

Sorry for reviving this thread, beware that some of the images end up in Microsoft.Windows.ShellExperienceHost when they're not handled (ie: screenshot taken but not opened with Sketch & Snip). This really is a poor design choice.

SMF said:

Sorry for reviving this thread, beware that some of the images end up in Microsoft.Windows.ShellExperienceHost when they're not handled (ie: screenshot taken but not opened with Sketch & Snip). This really is a poor design choice.

Try a search such of *.png with a third-party file explorer like 'Everything'. Scroll down to the C:\Users section and you'll see numerous files that have been captured.

Back in the day of Windows 95/98, HDD's used to magically fill up yet checking file and directory sizes wouldn't account for all the used space. It turns out that everything was copied to hidden Windows directories. You could only navigate to these hidden locations using a DOS Prompt window and only if you knew the specific path, none of the path detail would be displayed and using DIR would not display these hidden directories.

In these hidden directories you would see html links, txt, word files, mpg's, jpg's and the url's of anywhere that was visited with IE by anyone using that PC. Those were the days...

Interesting... now I've nothing (images) in the Microsoft.Windows.ShellExperienceHost folder when I look in the Temp State folder.

As to the original folder I was questioning, well I clean installed 2004 a few weeks ago and I have a good handful of images in that folder but nothing like the full number of images I deal with. I can't see the pattern of why some are retained and some not, perhaps it is to do with editing of the images.

With me, when taking a screen grab it saves it in Microsoft.Windows.ShellExperienceHost \TempState\ScreenClip\.
If I don't click on the notification to open the image then it remains there, otherwise it is transferred to Microsoft.ScreenSketch \TempState\, yet still leaving behind a thumbnail and some unimportant JSON data.

I've read somewhere that sometimes Windows does a routine cleanup, don't know if that's legit or not. Also, if you go to Screen & Sketch settings you have the option to toggle asking to save the file when closing, but when asked and you decline it still remains on the disk.

1. It should allow you to delete snaps when in edit mode instead of having OCD make you look for them to delete;
2. It should allow to set the temp/output folder instead of burying them deep in the app path.