Have you ever wondered where the background images displayed on your Windows PC come from? Windows Spotlight organizes these images. With Windows Spotlight, the computer regularly downloads new images and uses them as the lock screen background. The Spotlight feature also provides tips on how to increase productivity.
Although Spotlight constantly downloads images, the images are not in a format that makes them usable for other purposes. This means they are not regular .JPG or .PNG images. So it will take some work to recover them and use them elsewhere.
So, if you want to use Spotlight Images or keep them for personal use, here is what you need to do.
Finding Previous Spotlight Images in a File Folder in Windows
By default, Windows saves Spotlight images in a folder named AppData. However, this folder is hidden. Here’s how to find it:
Stage 1: Start File Explorer.
Step 2: Select the View tab.
Stage 3: In the Show/Hide group, select the checkbox next to Hidden items to make all hidden folders and files visible.
Step 4: Navigate to the Assets folder by copying and pasting the following path into the address bar of File Explorer:
%userprofile%\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.Windows.ContentDeliveryManager_cw5n1h2txyewy\LocalState\Assets
When you access the Assets folder, you will see several files representing Spotlight Images. However, these files do not have extensions, which becomes unusable unless extensions are added.
Changing the File Extension to an Available Image File Type
To change the extension of Spotlight images and make them available, you need to:
Stage 1: Create a new folder in a preferred location on your PC.
Step 2: Select all the files in the Assets Folder containing the Spotlight images by pressing Ctrl + A on your keyboard.
Stage 3: Copy files by pressing Ctrl + C on your keyboard or by right-clicking on your selection and selecting Copy.
Note: When trying to copy files, you may receive a warning message from Windows that some files may harm your computer. This is because you are moving them from one of the system folders and they have no extensions assigned. Therefore, Windows does not recognize “file types”.
Step 4: Paste the files into the new folder by pressing Ctrl + V on your keyboard. Alternatively, you can right-click the folder and select Paste from the list of options.
Step 5: Select File at the top of the File Explorer window.
Step 6: Click Open Windows PowerShell and select Open Windows PowerShell as administrator.
Step 7: In the new folder containing the imported Spotlight Images, move your cursor over the bar, right-click and copy the Path address.
Step 8: Type cmd in Windows PowerShell, leave a space and paste the copied path.
Step 9: Enter the following command and press Enter on your keyboard; this should change the file extension to jpg.
ren * *.jpg
Step 10: Exit Command Prompt and then press F5 on your keyboard to refresh the folder.
Images should now be in jpg format and ready to use.
Downloading Spotlight Images Automatically
While following the steps above will help find previous Spotlight Images and convert them into usable files, it can be tedious to do this all the time. Windows 11 does not provide a feature that allows automatic downloading; however, you can download third-party apps from the Microsoft Store. The steps to follow are:
Stage 1: Launch the Microsoft Store.
Step 2: Search for Dynamic Theme and select Get.
Stage 3: Launch the Dynamic Theme app from the start menu.
Step 4: Click on the Daily Windows Spotlight image on the left side of the application window.
Step 5: Scroll through the list of options and enable the switch to AutoSave.
Step 6: Select the folder where you want to save your images.
After following these steps, you should have downloaded Spotlight images to your computer daily.
Changing Theme in Windows 11
Now that you know how to save these beautiful backgrounds that appear on your Windows lock screen, you may want to consider changing the theme of your Windows 11 computer as well.
