Ever wondered where the wallpaper displayed on your Windows PC comes from? Windows Spotlight sorts these images. With Windows Spotlight, your computer regularly downloads new images and uses them as your lock screen wallpaper. The Spotlight feature also provides tips on how to improve productivity.
Although Spotlight continuously downloads images, the images are not in a form that can be used for other purposes. That means they are not regular .JPG or .PNG images. So you will have to work a bit to save them and use them elsewhere.
Therefore, if you want to use Spotlight Images or store them for personal use, this is what you should do.
Locate previous featured image in files folder on Windows
By default, Windows saves Spotlight images in a folder named AppData. However, this folder is hidden. Here’s how to locate it:
Step 1: Launch File Explorer.
Step 2: Select the View tab.
Step 3: In the Show/Hide group, tick the checkbox next to Hidden items to make sure all hidden folders and files are visible.
Step 4: Navigate to the Contents folder by copying and pasting the following path into File Explorer’s address bar:
%userprofile%\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.Windows.ContentDeliveryManager_cw5n1h2txyewy\LocalState\Assets
When you access the Assets folder, you will see several files representing Featured Images. However, these files have no extension, making them unusable unless the extension is added.
Change the file extension to a usable image file type
To change the extension of Spotlight images and make them usable, you should do the following:
Step 1: Create a new folder on 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.
Step 3: Copy the files by pressing Ctrl + C on your keyboard or right-clicking your selection and choosing Copy.
Note: When trying to copy files, you may receive a warning message from Windows stating that some files may be harmful to your PC. The reason is that you are moving them from one of the system folders and they are not assigned an extension. As a result, 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: On the new folder containing the newly transferred Spotlight Images, place the mouse cursor at the top of the bar, right-click and copy the Path address.
Step 8: On Windows PowerShell, type cmdleave a space and paste the copied path.
Step 9: Type below command and press Enter on your keyboard and this will change the file extension to jpg.
ren *.* *.jpg
Step 10: Exit Command Prompt and then press F5 on the keyboard to refresh the folder.
The images will now be jpg and ready to use.
Auto-download Spotlight images
While following the steps above helps locate previous Spotlight Images and convert them into usable files, doing it all the time can be tiring. Windows 11 does not offer automatic downloads; however, you can download third-party apps from the Microsoft Store. Here are the steps to follow:
Step 1: Launch Microsoft Store.
Step 2: Search for Dynamic Themes and select Get.
Step 3: Launch the Dynamic Themes app from the Start menu.
Step 4: On the left side of the application window, click the Daily Windows Spotlight image.
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 performing these steps, you should download Spotlight images to your PC daily.
Change the theme in Windows 11
Now that you know how to save those beautiful wallpapers that show up on your Windows lock screen, you might also want to consider changing the theme of your Windows 11 PC.
Categories: How to
Source: thpttranhungdao.edu.vn/en/
