Windows 10: Windows Spotlight images suddenly stopped appearing on login screen

All those nice scenic Windows Spotlight images used to always appear when I turned on my computer and logged on.
I have noticed over the last couple days that now one of the stock Windows login screen appears instead.

My setting is set to use Spotlight images. When I lock my computer, the spotlight images appear, but not when I am logging in.


Any idea what is going on?

:)

 

Windows 10 login screen suddenly stopped using Spotlight backgrounds!?

My laptop always used to show the Windows Spotlight backgrounds on my login screen AND my lock screen.

A day or two ago, suddenly it stopped showing Spotlight backgrounds on my login screen. It still shows them on my lock screen, but NOT my login screen.

I have no clue what is going on. My dad's computer still shows Windows Spotlight backgrounds on his login screen and his lock screen, so I am not sure what is causing the sudden change.

 

wallpaper/lock screen

Hi Linda, it is the lockscreen . . .

The Lockscreen is the screen which appears before the Login Screen, which you have to click in order to get to the Login Screen

Open the Settings App

Go to Personalisation - Lock Screen

Change Background from Windows Spotlight to Picture

Choose an appropriate picture

Leave it like that for a day or two until the Windows Spotlight image changes . . .

 

Hi, this is a commonly reported matter which I've experienced. I posted these points in another recent thread, and added them to a couple of older ones, hoping people might find them.

1. In Settings, Lock Screen, obviously you have to select Spotlight, not Picture or Slideshow.
2. A symptom is that you don't see 'Like what you see' on any lock screen.
3. The final trigger that seemed to get it running again for me was to 'Choose an app to show detailed status' - which of course is totally non-intuitive.
4. Probably what stopped it working was when I tried disabling the lock screen.

Hope that gives some clues.

 

2. I do see Like what you see on my lock screens


#3 doesn't work for me. Do you still have the problem? This laptop is overdue for a reformat.

 

It works, although the picture doesn't seem to change as often as I recall it doing.

Some suggest emptying the folder where the spotlight pics are stored. I tried a variety of things, maybe the combination somehow worked.

My Win 10 was new on this laptop when I bought it and installed Win 10 in about March this year. I transferred a lot of programs and settings to it using a Laplink program. I use disk imaging routinely, and over a good number of years haven't found the need to reinstall Windows periodically. I do use Ccleaner before imaging each time.

If applicable, you might consider an in-place upgrade repair install if you have concerns about Windows functions, assuming your idle CPU usage is below, say, 2-3%, and disk and internet usage is near 0, and your disk is sound.

 

None of this is working.

'Choose an app to show detailed status' doesn't change anything, and I have already tried to clear out the folder where the images are stored.

Do you have any other suggestions?

 

If you really are prepared to put the effort in for such a small feature, you could try an in-place upgrade repair install, assuming no suitable restore points or disk images.

There is an app that does give you changing images - I found it had a BING watermark.
Access Denied

My research found no definitive 'fix', just some things that worked for one or two.

 

So my spotlight image refreshed on its own, and when it did my sign-in image came back.

This computer has gone five years without a good clean install. I didn't clean install it when I got it and I didn't during the 7-to-10 upgrade. It should get one at some point, but it will probably be replaced by then.

 

Annoyingly Spotlight stopped working for me. I've tried a number of things to fix this, but Spotlight just got worse *Sad - eventually I couldn't even get the red plane picture. An in-place install got that back, but no new pictures would appear. Then I found...

Windows Spotlight not updating - Microsoft Community

Apparently, for me at least, the answer is 'Yes'.

 

Did you just do the windsock reset Bree or did you follow the whole recommendation including enabling the inbuilt admin to do this?

Thanks,
Virginia.

 

Just the windsock reset from a command prompt (Admin) in my normal logon, then a reboot.

 

I also had the Spotlight problem, not working since the CU.
To resolve it, I changed the "Background" in the Lock Screen to Picture. Rebooted and changed it back to "Windows Spotlight".
My lock screen uses Windows Spotlight since then, and it's working as it supposed to be, changing the image every day.

Although the "Show lock screen background picture on the sign-in screen" is enabled the sign-in screen is stuck to the picture I changed to make the Windows Spotlight to work and never changes.

Looking around, I found that this picture is located in:
C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\SystemData\S-1-5-18\ReadOnly\LockScreen_W folder.
It should be noted that, there are also two more folders LockScreen_X and LockScreen_Z who have one picture each, which seem to be the ones previously used as "Picture" in the Lock Screen setting.
I try deleting this folder to fix the problem (so Windows recreates it, upon restart with hopefully the current "Windows Spotlight" image, but it didn't. It recreated the one I deleted.)
Mind you that the current "Windows Spotlight" image is in "My User" folder:
C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\SystemData\S-1-5-21-1406889123-3007147302-2813535181-1001\ReadOnly\LockScreen_O

Any ideas?

And BTW neither the solution with the 'netsh winsock reset' command, nor Shawn's @How to Reset and Re-register Windows Spotlight in Windows 10 fix this problem!

 

Show Lock Screen Background on Sign-in Screen in Windows 10 Windows 10 Customization Tutorials

- or use Winaero's free tweaker - with full explanation (expect it to do exactly the same as above)

Please feel free to search and browse the tutorials...
Windows 10 Tutorial Index Windows 10 Tutorials

 

Thanks a lot, for the suggestion, but I have already done what Shawn is saying in the recommended tutorial.
The sign-in (NOT the Lock screen) has the problem. The Lock screen works with Windows Spotlight, the sign-in doesn't.
And yes, I have "Animate windows when minimizing and maximizing" enabled. I toggled it to be sure and is enabled.
As for WinAero, I'll give it a try...although I don't believe it does anything else than Shawn's recommendation.