How to save Office documents to This PC by default on Windows 10

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Here's a quicker way to save Office documents locally on your computer.

If you're a Microsoft Office user, you probably noticed that saving Word, Excel, and PowerPoint documents locally can be a little confusing as the "Save As" experience can include a number of locations, such as recently used paths, OneDrive and OneDrive for Business, SharePoint, This PC, and many others.

Thankfully, whether you use the apps with an Office 365 subscription or the standalone version, such as Office 2019 or Office 2016, and you store files locally, it's possible to set "This PC" as the default location to save documents on your device.

In this Windows 10 guide, we'll walk you through the steps to adjust your Office settings to specify the local storage as the default save location skipping the path selection.

How to save documents to This PC by default

To save Office documents to your local folders by default, use these steps:

  1. Open an Office app, such as Word.
  2. Create a new blank document.Quick Tip: You can save the extra steps to create a blank document using this tip to skip the start screen in Office.
  3. Click on File.
  4. Click on Options.

  1. Click on Save.
  2. Under the "Save documents" section, check the Save to Computer by default option.

  1. Click the OK button.

Once you've completed the steps, every time you click on the save button (or use the Ctrl + S keyboard shortcut), the "Save As" experience will open to save a document directly to "This PC."

Changing the default save location

Also, to make it a little easier to save documents locally, you can also use the "Save" settings to specify a different default location to store your documents using these steps:

  1. Open an Office app, such as Word.
  2. Create a new blank document.
  3. Click on File.
  4. Click on Options.

  1. Click on Save.
  2. In the Default local file location field, specify a new local path to store your files. For example, C:\Users\YOUR-USERNAME\Documents\Word\

  1. Click the OK button.

After completing the steps, if you enabled the "Save to Computer by default" option, then when you click on the save button (or use the Ctrl + S keyboard shortcut), the "Save As" experience will open to save a document directly to the location you specified above.

Unlike the "Save to Computer by default" option, you need to repeat the above steps on every application that you want to save to a specific folder.

More Windows 10 resources

For more helpful articles, coverage, and answers to common questions about Windows 10, visit the following resources:

Mauro Huculak
Mauro Huculak

Mauro Huculak has been a Windows How-To Expert contributor for WindowsCentral.com for nearly a decade and has over 15 years of experience writing comprehensive guides. He also has an IT background and has achieved different professional certifications from Microsoft, Cisco, VMware, and CompTIA. He has been recognized as a Microsoft MVP for many years.