Windows Spotlight lock screen picture won't change

Anonymous
2018-02-09T16:26:33+00:00

Hello,

I have an HP laptop running Windows 10, and usually when my laptop is locked, the picture changes every now and then on my lock screen and I really enjoyed that. But recently for the past month or two, it's been stuck on the same picture and it stopped changing to new pictures. I checked my settings and I still have "Windows Spotlight" set as my lock screen but still nothing happens. It just stopped working and changing pictures for some reason.

If anyone can help, please do!

Windows for home | Windows 10 | Windows Hello, lock screen and sign-in

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Anonymous
2018-05-22T00:04:55+00:00

Just follow these steps of Windows Central:

How to fix Windows Spotlight Lock screen errors Is Windows Spotlight broken or stuck on the same image? If so, this guide details the steps to fix the issue.

Windows Spotlight is a feature included with Windows 10 that uses Bing to automatically download and set new background images on the Lock screen, to keep your experience fresh every time you sign in.

The only caveat with Windows Spotlight is that sometimes it will stop working, or you'll notice that it gets stuck on the same image. Unfortunately, Windows 10 doesn't include an option to reset this feature. However, it's possible to fix the Windows Spotlight settings with this simple workaround.

In this Windows 10 guide, we show you the steps to fix Windows Spotlight on your computer and keep getting fresh images from Bing on your Lock screen.

How to reset Windows Spotlight

If the Windows Spotlight feature is stuck on the same image, or it's not working at all, you can use the following steps to fix the issue:

  1. Open Settings.
  2. Click on Personalization.
  3. Click on Lock screen.
  4. Under "Background," make sure Windows Spotlight is NOT selected and change the option to Picture or Slideshow.
  5. Use the Windows key + R keyboard shortcut to open the Run command.
  6. Type the following path and click OK. %USERPROFILE%/AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.Windows.ContentDeliveryManager_cw5n1h2txyewy\LocalState\Assets
  7. Select all the files (Ctrl + A) and hit the Delete key to clear all old images (if applicable).
  8. Use the Windows key + R keyboard shortcut to open the Run command again.
  9. Type the following path to where the Windows Spotlight settings are stored and click OK. %USERPROFILE%/AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.Windows.ContentDeliveryManager_cw5n1h2txyewy\Settings
  10. Right-click settings.dat and roaming.lock individually, then click Rename and name them settings.dat.bak and roaming.lock.bak.
  11. Restart your computer.
  12. Open Settings.
  13. Click on Personalization.
  14. Click on Lock screen.
  15. Under "Background," make sure to enable Windows Spotlight.

Once you complete these steps, you can lock your PC (Windows key + L), and the Lock screen should show new Bing images.

If everything worked as expected, remember to go back to the Settings folders where Windows Spotlight stores the settings and delete the settings.dat.bak and roaming.lock.bak files.

Alternative method to fix Windows Spotlight

If the steps mentioned above didn't fix Windows Spotlight, you can try to reset the settings using the following steps:

  1. Open Settings.
  2. Click on Personalization.
  3. Click on Lock screen.
  4. Under "Background," make sure to enable Windows Spotlight. (If you don't enable the feature, you're likely to get an error while running the PowerShell command.)
  5. Open Start.
  6. Search for Windows PowerShell, right-click the result, and select Run as administrator.
  7. Enter the following command and press Enter to reset the Windows Spotlight: Get-AppxPackage -allusers *ContentDeliveryManager* | foreach {Add-AppxPackage "$($_.InstallLocation)\appxmanifest.xml" -DisableDevelopmentMode -register }
  8. Restart your computer.

After completing these steps, you should be able to lock your PC (Windows key + L), and the Lock screen should show new Bing images.

Source: https://www.windowscentral.com/how-fix-windows-spotlight-stuck-same-image-windows-10?passport=1526946645

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  1. Anonymous
    2021-02-10T16:11:42+00:00

    Hi. If none of the above didn't worked for you, you always can create new user account and transfer all files and setting to it. It  is 100% windows spot change picture. I did so, because none of the above didn't worked for me.

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  2. Anonymous
    2021-02-10T15:48:55+00:00

    Yeah I mean the settings.dat and roaming.lock files. Delete them.
    And let me clarify something, for the first part that I said to disable spotlight completely via registry, it is done like below:

    • Type regedit in start menu and open registry editor.
      Navigate to : HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\CloudContent
    • Right click the cloud content and select new > Dword-32 bit  value
    • Name it: DisableWindowsSpotlightFeatures. Double click on it and change the value to 1.
    • Confirm the spotlight being disabled by going to personaliztion > lockscreen. There you should see a message saying some of these settings are hidden or managed by your organization. And there should be no windows spotlight option.

    So till now you have deleted settings.dat and roaming.lock (as said in the accepted solution for this thread) and you have spotlight completely disabled and you have installed 1.1.1.1 from this link : 1.1.1.1

    Now just restart your system and then enable warp from 1.1.1.1 app and let it connect. Then go back to regedit and delete the Dword-32bit value you created earlier. Then go back to settings > personaliztion > lockscreen and select windows spotlight. Wait a little bit and keep going to lockscreen and logging back in. After a while you will have the new image!

    Done!

    Hope this works for you!

    Right now tested again without the registry part and it works: (You can apply the registry edit too)

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  3. Anonymous
    2021-02-10T12:49:45+00:00

    Hi, happy to give this a go, as I had the same problem nothing worked.

    Just toclarify, for the settings file is that in settings folder? ie not the folder itself just the settings.dat file. I think I have some files missing in the folder from other attempts. Thanks

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  4. Anonymous
    2021-02-10T12:26:17+00:00

    Alright finally i managed to fix this

    None of these methods worked in my case.

    What i did: 

    Installed 1.1.1.1 app on windows and connected with warp.

    Then search how to disable windows spotlight completely via registry and do it.

    Then go to assets folder and delete all files and delete settings file too.

    Then restart the system and after that reenable spotlight in registry and enable it in windows settings with warp app connected.

    Voila! It will apply new pictures!

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