How to Enable/Disable Screenshots in Microsoft Edge

This article explains how to turn “Save screenshots for a site for History” on or off in Microsoft Edge.

The Microsoft Edge browser is the default browser in Windows 11. However, users can switch to their preferred or favorite browser anytime. Edge is based on Chromium, similar to Google Chrome and other Chromium-based browsers today.

In the latest version (preview) of Microsoft Edge, a new feature allows Edge to take screenshots of the sites you visit and save them as thumbnails, allowing you to hover over them to identify quickly and revisit your History.

You can use a setting to show a thumbnail of the site you visit on hover in the History hub (Ctrl+H). Turning it off will instruct Edge to no longer collect or save thumbnail images when you visit a site.

Enable or disable Save screenshots for site History in Edge

As described above, a new feature is being added to Microsoft Edge that allows it to take screenshots of the sites you visit and save them as thumbnails, allowing you to hover over them to identify quickly and revisit your History.

Here’s how to turn it on or off.

First, open the Microsoft Edge browser.

Then click on Setting and more (Alt+F) 3 horizontal dots button on the top right corner and select Settings.

On the Settings page on the left panel, click the Privacy, search, and services button.

On the right, under Services, select the “Save screenshots of site for History” tile. Then, toggle the switch to the On position to turn on.

To turn it off, toggle the button to the Off position.

Exit the browser setting when you are done.

Turn On or Off Save screenshots of site for History in Microsoft Edge via the Registry Editor

Another way to turn on or off “Save screenshots of site for History” in Microsoft Edge is by using the Windows Registry editor.

To do that, open the Windows Registry editor, and navigate to the folder key below.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Edge

If you don’t see the Edge folder key, right-click on the Microsoft parent key, then create the subkey (Edge) folder.

Right-click the Edge folder key’s right pane and select New > DWORD (32-bit) Value. Type a new item named ShowHistoryThumbnails.

Double-click the new item you created (ShowHistoryThumbnails) and update the Value data:

• To always save screenshots of site for History in Microsoft Edge, type 1.
• To not save screenshots of site for History, type 0 or delete the ShowHistoryThumbnails to default to Edge.

That should do it. Restart your computer for the changes to apply.

That should do it!

Conclusion:

• In this article, you have learned how to enable or disable the “Save screenshots for site History” feature in Microsoft Edge, giving you greater control over your browsing experience.
• Following the step-by-step instructions, you can easily manage whether Microsoft Edge captures and saves thumbnails of the sites you visit for quick identification and revisiting your browsing history.
• If you encounter any discrepancies or have insights, feel free to utilize the comments section for further discussion and assistance.