How to set Windows Spotlight images as desktop wallpapers on Windows 10

Initially available on Windows 10 Home and later integrated on Windows 10 Pro, Windows Spotlight is a new personalization option that introduces stunning images that are exclusively curated by Bing to appear in the Lock screen.

When the feature is enabled, new images download automatically every day on your PC, tablet, and phone allowing you to always have a fresh experience every time you unlock your device.

While Windows Spotlight images is a good idea to keep your computer interesting everyday, the desktop could also have a similar feature, but Windows 10 lacks of such functionality. This Windows 10 guide, will walk you through the steps to find the Spotlight images already downloaded on your computer and how to set them as desktop backgrounds.

How to enable Windows Spotlight in the Lock screen

In order to download those beautiful Windows Spotlight images curated by Bing, the first thing you need to do is to enable the personalization feature on your computer.

1. Use the Windows key + I keyboard shortcut to open the Settings app.

2. Click Personalization.

3. Click Lock screen.

4. From the Background drop down menu, select Windows spotlight.

   

5. Use the Windows key + L keyboard shortcut to lock your computer and view the Spotlight images.

Once you enable the feature, at different times of the day, you will see different images on the Lock screen.

You will also notice the “Like what you see?” message on the top-right corner of the screen, which enables you to control the type of images you want to continue to see in the Lock screen. You can hover over message and select “I want more!” or “Not a fan”. Then Windows 10 will use your input to try to tailor images to your liking.

How to find Windows Spotlight images

After enabling the feature and images begin to download automatically on your PC, they will be stored on an special folder inside your user profile folder. To find the Windows Spotlight images that you can later use on your desktop do the following:

1. Use the Windows key + E keyboard shortcut to open File explorer.

2. Click the View tab.

3. Click Options to open the Folder Options.

   

4. Click the View tab.

5. Under Hidden files and folders select Show hidden files, folders, and drives.

   

6. Click Apply.

7. Click OK.

8. Use the Windows key + R keyboard shortcut to open the Run command.

9. Type the following path and click OK.

   %USERPROFILE%/AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.Windows.ContentDeliveryManager_cw5n1h2txyewy\LocalState\Assets

10. Inside the Assets folder, you will find a number of files with random and complicated names without extensions and different sizes. Some of these files contain the Windows Spotlight images that appear on your Lock screen. In order the to get the correct images, while on the View tab, select Details.

11. Use the Sort by button to sort files by Size.

    

12. All of these unknown files are actually JPEG files, but many of them are not part of the Spotlight feature. You want to select only the large files — those files that are 400KB or larger –, right-click the selection and click Copy.

    

13. Create a folder on your Pictures folder or in another location and name it Spotlight images or anything. Inside the folder, right-click and select Paste.

14. On File Explorer, click File.

15. Click Open command prompt.

    

16. On Command Prompt you can now easily convert the files to JPEG by using the rename command. Type the following command and press Enter:

    Ren *.* *.jpg

    

17. If you want to give each image a more meaningful name, select the image, press F2 and rename the file to anything you like.

    

How to set Windows Spotlight images as desktop wallpaper

Once you have changed the file format for the images, you can set a specific image as the Lock screen, you can use them as your desktop background, or you can even create a Windows Theme with a collection of your favorite Spotlight images that you can then use on other devices or share with friends.

1. Use the Windows key + I keyboard shortcut to open the Settings app.

2. Click Personalization.

3. Click Background.

4. Under Background, select Picture to use only one image or Slideshow to use multiple images as desktop background.

5. Click Browse to find and set the images.

   

If you want to create a your very own Windows Theme do the following:

1. While in Personalization, click Themes.

2. Click the Theme settings link.

   

3. Right-click the Unsaved Theme.

4. Click Save theme for sharing.

   

Once you have created the new theme, you can simply double-click the deskthemepack file on another computer to install the new images.

It’s important to note that folder containing the Windows Spotlight images are stored on your computer is controlled by the operating system, which means that you have to make sure to regularly save new images to another folder, when you see images you want to keep.

Do you like to see a similar feature for desktop background images on Windows 10? Tell us in the comments below.