Windows 10: Why does my lock screen only show the stock blue image when I select "Windows spotlight"?

When I try to select Windows spotlight in personalization ==> Lock screen, it selects the blue swirl stock Windows 11 image and nothing else. I thought it might not have had enough time to download a new image, but it has been this way for days. I check my other machines running the Windows spotlight, but they are working ok. Am I missing something in the configuration?This machine is running windows 11 pro Version 10.0.22631 Build 22631.

:)

 

How to fix problems with lock screen images (Windows Spotlight)

This Windows 10 Tip
highlights the Windows Spotlight setting, which automatically uploads beautiful images of scenery daily from around the world for the background on the lock screen.

What steps should I try if I’m having trouble with Windows Spotlight?
For example, what should I do if:

• The Windows Spotlight image doesn’t appear on the lock screen.
• The Windows Spotlight image doesn’t appear on the sign-in screen.
• The Windows Spotlight option doesn’t appear in my lock screen settings.
• The Windows Spotlight image isn’t changing. (It shows the same image every day.)
  

 

Windows Spotlight - Lock Screen image will not show on Sign-In Screen

Hi Bastet and Paul Black,

Thanks for such a quick response! I had tried the steps involved in Brink's tutorial already (both manually and running the .bat file, just in case), but I've given them one more try just to see if it worked - no luck, I'm afraid! While Spotlight itself works on the Lock screen, as soon as I press a key to move to the Sign-In screen to enter my PIN, it changes back to a plain flat-colour background - and that's even with "Show lock screen background picture on the sign-in screen" enabled under Personalization.

If I set this to 'disabled', the Spotlight image shows on the Lock screen but not the Sign-In screen.
If I set it to enabled, both Lock and Sign-In show as a plain flat-colour background.


Hi Dalchina,

Thanks for this suggestion as well - I've tried this too (both enabling and disabling the registry key). It seems to get me one step closer. If I create and set 'DisableLogonBackgroundImage' to '1' under Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\System, then the outcome of "Show lock screen background picture on the sign-in screen" under Personalization seems to have a different effect. Regardless of whether "Show lock screen background picture on the sign-in screen", the Spotlight image shows on the Lock screen. However, it still doesn't show on the Sign-In page. That's still just a solid colour.

Do I want DisableLogonBackgroundImage to be 0 or 1? I guessed 1 as I figured that was a 'disable' key - kind of like a double negative

And with HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\SystemProtectedUserData\<your account's SID key>\AnyoneRead\LockScreen, there's the HideLogonBackgroundImage key - which I guess should be set to 0?

I feel like it's just got to be one darn registry key somewhere to fix this, but I've got no idea where to look!

Apologies - I know this is all very trivial but it's irritated me enough that it's getting personal now *Wink

 

Windows spotlight images (Lock screen)

This is really dumb, but if you are like me and use spotlight for your windows lock screen images, I actually tend to like some of them alot. They rotate it seems every few days but it doesn't seem to delete them as often as it gets new ones.

With that said I couldnt find anything similar online so I made a script that would pull the files from the folder buried in app data that keeps the files. They dont have an extension normally so I append the JPG extension too them.

I create a folder on your desktop called spotlight and copy the files too it then run the conversion.

I didn't spend forever on this so be nice but otherwise;

Enjoy

Code for the crazies:
Spoiler Code: @Echo off title Spotlight Image Converter cls :checkPrivileges :: Check for Admin by accessing protected stuff. This calls net(#).exe and can stall if we don't kill it later. NET FILE 1>NUL 2>NUL if '%errorlevel%' == '0' ( goto menu) else ( goto getPrivileges ) :getPrivileges :: Write vbs in temp to call batch as admin. if '%1'=='ELEV' (shift & goto menu) for /f "delims=: tokens=*" %%A in ('findstr /b ::- "%~f0"') do @Echo(%%A setlocal DisableDelayedExpansion set "batchPath=%~0" setlocal EnableDelayedExpansion Echo Set UAC = CreateObject^("Shell.Application"^) > "%temp%\OEgetPrivileges.vbs" Echo UAC.ShellExecute "!batchPath!", "ELEV", "", "runas", 1 >> "%temp%\OEgetPrivileges.vbs" "%temp%\OEgetPrivileges.vbs" exit /B :menu Echo Windows 10 Lock screen image converter Echo. Echo Brought to you by Solaris17 of TPU Echo. Echo This will make a folder on your desktop called "Spotlight" Echo. Echo It will copy the lockscreen images to the folder then convert them to JPEG format. Echo. Echo Let me know when you are ready. Echo. Pause goto copy :copy @Echo off CLS Echo. Echo Converting and copy in progress... Echo. mkdir %userprofile%\Desktop\Spotlight > nul 2>&1 timeout 5 >nul robocopy %userprofile%\appdata\local\packages\Microsoft.Windows.ContentDeliveryManager_cw5n1h2txyewy\LocalState\Assets\ %userprofile%\Desktop\Spotlight /copyall /E > nul 2>&1 ren %userprofile%\Desktop\Spotlight\* *.jpg > nul 2>&1 Echo Done!! Echo. pause[/quote]