Get Great Wallpaper By Turning on Windows 10 Spotlight

THIS TIP IS FOR INTERMEDIATE TO ADVANCED USERS

If you’re not paranoid about Microsoft snooping and you like beautiful pictures you can use for desktop wallpaper, this tip is for you. This works only on Windows 10 Home, so if you have Windows 10 Pro or any other version, you won’t find “Spotlight”.

First, when you turn Windows Spotlight on, Microsoft will download, randomly, new backgrounds for your lockscreen. So you’ll not only have the default choices, but over time you’ll accumulate a nice collection of background photos, for which, you can be sure, Microsoft paid too much. Nonetheless, most of them are beautiful and make great desktop backgrounds.

Before you get started, you’ll need to do is to make sure you have “Open a command prompt here” on your context menu when you right click a folder while holding down the shift key. Here’s some help with that.

So the first thing you’ll need to do is turn on Windows Spotlight.

1. Click on the Start button
2. Click Settings
3. Click Personaliztion
4. Click Lockscreen
5. Under “Background” use the arrow to select “Spotlight” (see below):

Once you’ve turned on Spotlight, all the pictures will be saved to a folder. All the files will have long, incomprehensible names without and extension. Don’t worry. That’s just Microsoft being Microsoft and making things convoluted. We’ll show you how to get all the pictures from that directory.

But first you have to find that directory. Here’s how to do it. Press the Windows Key + R to open the Run command.

Copy & paste the following command in to the Run box and then press Enter.

%localappdata%\Packages\Microsoft.Windows.ContentDeliveryManager_cw5n1h2txyewy\LocalState\Assets

If you did that right, you’ll be staring at a folder of files – all with long, meaningless names (see below).

The next step is to select all the files in that folder. You do this by selecting one then pressing CTRL+A. Or if you have Check boxes enabled, just click the box next to “Name”.

Once they are all selected, right-click on the selected files and click on “Copy”. As soon as you do, you’ll get a warning (see below):

Click OK to dismiss the warning.

Browse to the folder you want to save these files in. We suggest you save them in Pictures. Create a folder in Pictures called Spotlight (or whatever you like). Right-click in the empty folder you created and choose “Paste”.

After you’ve done that, close the folder. We need to change the file extensions on each one of those files, and we don’t want to do that one-by-one, right. So we’ll do them all at once. Right click on the folder you created and closed and choose “Open command window here”.

A command window will open. At the prompt type:

Ren *.* *.jpg

Copy and paste the command above at the command prompt if you’re getting an error when you type it in.

The batch file rename process will complete in a few seconds and all files in that directory will have a JPG extension.

IF YOU DO NOT SEE “Open command window here” in your right-click menu, try holding down the shift key and then right-clicking the folder. You should see “Open a command window here” in your right-click menu. If you do not see it or if you want to have “Open a command window” always show see this page.

After you’ve done that, open the folder and browse the pictures. You’ll have a few there even if you have just enabled Spotlight – a lot more to come. However, we suggest waiting a while after you’ve enabled Spotlight so you’ll have a bigger selection of pictures to choose from. Keep in mind some files will not be suitable for wallpaper and you won’t be able to open some of the files (because they weren’t pictures to begin with).

I just enabled Spotlight on this computer, and here are some of the images I had in that folder:

So now you know about Windows Spotlight, what it does, and how you can use pictures from it for your desktop wallpaper, start screen, lockscreen and more.

And here’s my new desktop – the picture came from spotlight…

---

Introducing our Cloudeight  Direct New PC Setup Service with file transfer*

Many of you will be getting a new PC in the coming weeks and months. And if you are one of them, we are offering a new service especially for you. We can make your new Windows 10 computer easier to use, more like Windows 7, and get it set up right, right from the start.

With our New PC Setup Service we will:

Many of you will be getting a new PC in the coming weeks and months. And if you are one of them, we are offering a new service especially for you.

We can make your new Windows 10 computer easier to use, more like Windows 7 (or Vista or XP if you prefer), and get it set up right, right from the start.

With our New PC Set up Service we will:

1. Make your Windows 10 computer look and work more like you previous Windows computer. We’ll make it look and work more like Windows 7, Windows Vista or Windows XP so you will feel right at home.

2. We will install a Windows 7, Vista or Windows XP-style Start menu (if desired)

3. If you have an external drive, we’ll transfer your documents, pictures, music, videos, contacts and Internet shortcuts from your old computer to your new Windows computer.

4. We’ll optimize and organize your new computer, remove bloatware, to make sure you get the most out of your investment.

5. During this introductory period only–  we’ll reinstall Emsisoft if you are currently using it. If you have never used Emsisoft, we will set up Emsisoft and include a free three-month license. Valid only if you purchase our Cloudeight Direct New PC Setup with file transfer during this introductory period (through March 15, 2016).

We will be offering our special Cloudeight Direct New PC Setup with file transfer service for a limited time only. And we’ll be offering this low introductory price for three days only. Special pricing is good only through Tuesday, March 15, 2016.

Keys never expire – they are good until you use them. So if you’re not sure when you’ll be getting your new computer, you can buy your key for this special price and use it any time you’re ready.

Get all the details and/or get your New PC Setup service key today.