If you are a user of Windows 10 or Windows 11, I am sure you have noticed some of the amazing and sometimes breathtaking images that are used as the backdrop to the lock screen. This feature is known as the Spotlight feature. The Windows Spotlight feature pulls various images from the Internet and uses them as Windows 11 lock screen images. Some of these high-quality photos are nature shots while others are pictures of great cities around the world. The pictures rotate several times a day, but what if you see an image you like and want to keep a copy of it on your laptop? Windows keeps these Windows 11 lock screen images buried deep in a hidden directory, but with a bit of digging, you can find them, save them and even use them elsewhere such as a desktop background or poster for your wall.
Related Content – Windows 11 finally allows using stunning Spotlight images as your desktop wallpaper
Here’s how to find Windows 10’s Spotlight lock screen images:
How to find Windows 11 Lock Screen Images
1. Click View in File Explorer.
2. Click Options. A Folder Options window will appear.
3. Click the View tab.
4. Select “Show hidden files, folders and drives” and click Apply.
5. Go to This PC > Local Disk (C:) > Users > [YOUR USERNAME] > AppData > Local > Packages > Microsoft.Windows.ContentDeliveryManager_cw5n1h2txyewy > LocalState > Assets
You will notice that the list of files is not in a recognised format and are not in a format that can be opened as an image file. This means that they’re not the usual .JPG or .PNG image format, so you’ll have to work a bit to save them and use them elsewhere.
There’s no great method of telling which ones are beautiful photos and which are icons, but youre best bet is to sort by size and look for larger file sizes. This means that they will be the images rather than just simply icons.
6. Copy the most recent large files to another folded (ex: pictures).
7. Rename the files and add the files suffix .jpg to the end of their names.
You should now be able to view the pictures in any image viewer or editor you want.
One more thing: keep in mind that Microsoft adds and removes these at its whim. If you see one you like, pounce on it and make a copy before it goes away, possibly forever.
