Is there a registry key for setting default save location of application like notepad?

Question

How to set the default save location for notepad application (or any other application like word) to downloads folder, i.e whenever i try to save a file or open a file using notepad i want file explorer to open downloads folder under quick access or ThisPc. Is there any registry key that we can edit to set this save location

At the registry path HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders, i have tried setting Personal Key to %USERPROFILE%\Downloads, but it didn't work.

Answer 1

There is no system-wide default parameter in Windows for the default save location.

For example, for notepad the default is the folder that is found in the TEMP environment variable.

Many other applications take their installation folder as the default. An example here is Notepad++ whose default is the folder C:\Program Files\Notepad++.

As another example, Microsoft Word uses as default C:\Users\USERNAME\Documents.

Many applications have settings that allow specifying another folder as default.

For example, Microsoft Word in menu File > Options, section Save, allows to modify this default in the field "Default local f‌ile location".