How to Find Windows Spotlight Images

Microsoft displays beautiful photos on your screen every time your computer locks if you have Windows Spotlight turned on. Because these images are so impressive, a lot of people want to use them for their desktop background image. There are two ways to access Windows Spotlight images stored on your computer; manually or using a Windows Store app.

Find Windows Spotlight Images on Your Computer

Windows Spotlight images are saved on your hard drive, but they're buried in an obscure folder that's hard to find.

If you don't have Windows Spotlight enabled, there won't be any of the latest Bing images on your PC. Make sure Windows Spotlight is working before you continue with the procedure below.

Open Windows Explorer and navigate to %systemroot%\Users\[your username]\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.Windows.ContentDeliveryManager_cw5n1h2txyewy\LocalState\Assets\.

If your Windows folder settings still have folders hidden, you won't be able to navigate to this directory. Make sure to change your Windows folder settings to show hidden files.
These are a mix of Windows Spotlight photos and other miscellaneous files. The names are random codes and seemingly meaningless. To copy them all, right-click, then select Copy.
Create a folder in a location you'll remember and name it Windows Spotlight Images. Paste all of the files into that folder.
None of these files have file extensions, so you won't be able to view the images until they do. You'll need to rename all of the images with the correct .jpg extension. Open the Windows' command prompt, navigate to the folder you've created, and type the command ren * *.jpg.
Now that the files are renamed, you can view the images. To see them easier, in Windows Explorer, select View > Extra large icons in the Layout section.
Now you can set any of these images as your desktop background image. Open Windows Settings and select Personalization.
Select Background from the left navigation and change the Background dropdown to Picture.
Select Browse, then select one of the pictures from the directory you created.
Now your desktop background image is the same as your favorite Windows Spotlight image.

How to Use Lockscreen as Wallpaper App

One of the downsides to using the Windows Spotlight images already stored on your PC for your background images is that you have to check the folder for any new images each time Bing updates the folder.

Instead, you could download the free Lockscreen as Wallpaper app from the Windows Store.

Screenshot of using the Lockscreen as wallpaper window

This app will do everything for you, including:

Checks for your current Windows Spotlight lockscreen image.
Lets you set that as your current background image.
Automatically syncs your background image with the latest Windows Spotlight lockscreen image.

Using this app automates the whole process and you don't have to do a thing.

Use Spotlight Wallpapers to Download Windows Spotlight Images

If you'd like a little more control over which images end up on your desktop, the Spotlight Wallpapers app is a good option.

Screenshot of Spotlight and Bing images in Spotlight Wallpapers

This app lets you download any of the Windows Spotlight or Bing images that you want to use as your wallpaper.

Once you select an image you like from the list, you can select the menu and choose either Set As Wallpaper, Set As Lockscreen, or Set Both. You can also download the image, save it to a folder, and use it as your desktop image.