Change Defaults in MS Paint

[Dallas Matt]

I'd like to use Paint as a very basic photo editor since it starts up with a
blank canvas that I can paste a image into.

Is there a tweak that will allow me to set it to default "Save As" to a
different location than "MY Pictures" and change the default file type from
BMP to jpeg?

Thanks in advance, all.

Matt

 

[LVTravel]

While I don't know if there are any default settings that can be changed,
there may be a workaround for your issue.

Try this to see if it works for you.

Open a blank screen in Paint and save it as a .jpg in the location you want
as your default with the name "default.jpg".

Now, right click and drag the Paint program from the Start, Programs,
Accessories location onto the desktop and select copy here. Right click on
the Paint icon and then left click Properties. You should see a line like
this "%SystemRoot%\system32\mspaint.exe" (of course without the quotes.)
Without deleting the information on the line, click behind the .exe and
press the space bar one time. Type the full path and filename for the
default.jpg file you saved (if there is any spaces in the path you need to
enclose anything you type in quotes. The final line should look something
like this

%SystemRoot%\system32\mspaint.exe "C:\this is the path here\default.jpg"
Once you have that click OK.

When you double click on the new desktop icon, the file will open and the
Save As default location will be where the file is located. Of course if
you right click on the default.jpg file and then click properties and make
it read only, you won't inadvertently change the file and a Save As will
then pop up for any attempt to Save.

Hope this helps, let us know..

 

[LVTravel]

While I don't know if there are any default settings that can be changed,
there may be a workaround for your issue.

Try this to see if it works for you.

Open a blank screen in Paint and save it as a .jpg in the location you want
as your default with the name "default.jpg".

Now, right click and drag the Paint program from the Start, Programs,
Accessories location onto the desktop and select copy here. Right click on
the Paint icon and then left click Properties. You should see a line like
this "%SystemRoot%\system32\mspaint.exe" (of course without the quotes.)
Without deleting the information on the line, click behind the .exe and
press the space bar one time. Type the full path and filename for the
default.jpg file you saved (if there is any spaces in the path you need to
enclose anything you type in quotes. The final line should look something
like this

%SystemRoot%\system32\mspaint.exe "C:\this is the path here\default.jpg"
Once you have that click OK.

When you double click on the new desktop icon, the file will open and the
Save As default location will be where the file is located. Of course if
you right click on the default.jpg file and then click properties and make
it read only, you won't inadvertently change the file and a Save As will
then pop up for any attempt to Save.

Hope this helps, let us know..

 

[Dallas Matt]

Yes! It didn't work at first but once I put the quotes around the path it
worked like a charm. Thank you very much! I have a follow-up question if
you don't mind.

When I press Ctl-S to get the "save as" dialog, existing files in that dir
always display as thumbnails (even though the directory displays as "list" in
explorere which is what I want. I've tried changing it to list in the "save
as" dialog display, but it doesn't stick.

 

[LVTravel]

While there may be a way to make it revert to the list instead of
thumbnails, I have never been able to find it. I think that this is one
situation where Microsoft thinks it knows better where, in fact, it doesn't.
Since you are dealing with graphical images, I believe that MS has "hard
wired" the display as a thumbnail even though the rest of the computer's
folders are set to list view. I have the same issue when I open my graphic
folders in any other graphic program even though in Explorer the folder
opens in list view.

Hopefully someone else will know of a way, but I'm stumped.

 

[Dallas Matt]

Thanks anyway, and I appreciate the help with my original issue!