windows 11 lost Windows Spotlight function and just blue screen

Linda Clark 20 Reputation points
2025-09-28T14:43:37.04+00:00

My older windows 11 suddenly lost Windows Spotlight so I purchased a new product key. Have done Windows reinstall, cleared cache, scannow, restorehealth all to no avail.

Windows for home | Windows 11 | Desktop, Start, and personalization | Other

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  1. Anonimous 30 Reputation points
    2026-04-07T09:17:17.4+00:00

    Do you use a local account in Windows and do you also use OneDrive? In that case it's probably a bug. I'm also impacted. Several clean installs of Windows didn't help. Report it in the Feedback Hub, that's the best you can do.

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  2. Ivan B 121.9K Reputation points Independent Advisor
    2025-09-28T15:16:21.0966667+00:00

    Hi ,

    Go to Start Menu > Settings > Personalization > Lock Screen or Background > Change Windows Spotlight to Photos.

    Go to the folder: C:\Users\YourUsername\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.Windows.ContentDeliveryManager_cw5n1h2txyewy\LocalState\Assets, delete everything in that folder, and also delete C:\Users\YourUsername\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.Windows.ContentDeliveryManager_cw5n1h2txyewy\Settings from that folder.

    After deleting everything, open Windows PowerShell and enter the following commands: Get-AppxPackage -allusers ContentDeliveryManager | foreach {Add-AppxPackage -register "$($_. InstallLocation)\appxmanifest.xml" -DisableDevelopmentMode} , restart your computer.

    Open the command prompt (admin) and run the commands: sfc /scannow and dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth, wait for the process to finish and restart the computer.

    Open Microsoft Store > Library > Get Updates, wait for the entire process to finish and restart the PC. Then, go back to Settings and change the photo lock screen to Windows Spotlight. Without the Weather widget enabled.

    Give feedback if the information was useful or not.

    Thanks

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  3. C. Denninger 5 Reputation points
    2026-09-04T08:22:33.6033333+00:00

    Since the July/August 2026 Windows 11 (Dutch) system update Spotlight (in Windows lock-screen) works again. Note: I did not test the Windows background.

    So it wasn't the use of a local account, nor corruption of an account nor several other things and steps in these posts. In short: It wasn't us. It was indeed a bug in Microsoft's programming and they finally fixed it!

    Thanks for non-acknowledging this @Microsoft and all the help and suggestions of everyone else here!

    Now this bug is finally fixed these feedbacks can be finally closed: https://aka.ms/AA8iflt | https://aka.ms/AAt4ceb | https://aka.ms/AAaslmf | https://aka.ms/AAz1ary | https://aka.ms/AAzt31k | https://aka.ms/AAztamk | https://aka.ms/AAzt31p | https://aka.ms/AAzt31t | https://aka.ms/AAztic7 | https://aka.ms/AAztamr | https://aka.ms/AAzticc

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