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Where, or what format, are the images used by Windows 10 when logged out or in lock-screen?

I searched the entire drive for *.jpg, *.bmp, *.png, and *.tif but the one I was looking for did not appear.

At first glance, Path to current desktop backgrounds in Windows 10?, although not exactly a duplicate, appeared to have the path I wanted. But when I went there, the pre-login image was there, but the lock-screen image was not. (And contrary to the claim in that answer, the files there did have extensions.)

UPDATE: I just did a lockscreen, and got an image that IS in that directory, but earlier today, it was consistently an image of an interesting footbridge that is not in that directory.

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    Possible duplicate of Path to current desktop backgrounds in Windows 10?
    – DavidPostill
    Sep 20, 2016 at 17:06
  • 2
    Sorry, the lock-screen image was not in that ...\web directory. It did look like a duplicate, and I almost agreed, but then thought I should look first. It's unfortunate (just my opinion) that most of the time, the "suggestions" contain no real duplicate, yet as soon as I submit the question, several actual duplicates appear in the right sidebar.
    – WGroleau
    Sep 20, 2016 at 18:54
  • 2
    @DavidPostill, 'Lock screen image' != 'desktop background papger'
    – diverger
    Sep 28, 2019 at 10:51
  • C:\Users\USER\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.Windows.ContentDeliveryManager_cw5n1h2txyewy\LocalState\Assets
    – aderchox
    Sep 27, 2020 at 16:30
  • 1
    @aderchox that shows other Microsoft images, but not user images.
    – Neil Roy
    Nov 22, 2020 at 21:53

5 Answers 5

57

If you are not finding the images in the typical locations, you likely have Windows Spotlight turned on. Spotlight offers random images on the lock screen, as well as other features.

These Windows Spotlight images aren’t stored in the same location as regular Windows wallpaper, however, so here’s how you can find them.

The images are hidden deep, so you will need to change settings before you can view them. To do this, open File Explorer and go to the View tab. On the far right is an Options button, click it.

In the window that opens, select the View tab. Under Advanced Settings, select Show hidden files, folders and drives, then click Apply and then OK to close the open window.

Now it is time to navigate to the following directory (which was hidden before).

This PC > C: > Users > [Your User Name] > AppData > Local > Packages > Microsoft.Windows.ContentDeliveryManager_cw5n1h2txyewy > LocalState > Assets

In this directory you will see a bunch of files without extensions. These are the incognito image files. These are jpeg images of various resolutions to meet the needs of multiple devices screen sizes. You can copy the files to another location and rename them to have the jpeg extension, then you can open them with your default image viewer.

source

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    I am not sure saying MS was trying to hide then is fair, the directory, matches the naming convention of a UWP. Pretty sure it's more like they didn't expect anyone to care where the images were
    – Ramhound
    Sep 21, 2016 at 11:40
  • 11
    If you have copied the files (that are JPEG files but have no extension) to a temporary directory, where you don’t have any other files, you can rename them all from the Command Prompt with ren *. *.jpg Jun 5, 2018 at 1:20
  • 3
    note perhaps microsoft changed something but this answer doesn't work for me anymore as of fall 2018. The Assets folder exists, and there are dozens of long random-char names without extensions, and they are pictures when renamed to jpg, but they are all under 150 kb, and the largest ones are a bunch of candy-crush game art, not the gorgeous lock screen wallpapers.
    – xdavidliu
    Oct 23, 2018 at 20:16
  • 1
    Im using windows 1903 and this still works for me.
    – rollsch
    Oct 30, 2019 at 0:26
  • 1
    These are NOT lockscreen images. It also doesn't contain any user created lockscreen images.
    – Neil Roy
    Nov 22, 2020 at 21:57
35

All above did not worked for me at all. Lock screen was still that annoying-cave-entrance.

No matter if I overwrite that Packages\Microsoft.Windows.ContentDeliveryManager_cw5n1h2txyewy\LocalState\Assets folder.

No matter if I replace\edit anything in Windows\Web\Screen folder.

Even gpedit.msc did not help.

Lock screen/logon screen was still that frakin annoying-cave-entrancescreen.

If it shows that screen, then it has to be somewhere on the disk.

I found it eventually in C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\SystemData.

That SystemData folder have to be changed with security edits (you need to take ownership of that folder and its content through properties window, Security tab)

After that you will have to edit picture files within subfolders (depending on how many users are set on the computer).

There will be several folders which could look like:

- S-1-5-18\ReadOnly\LockScreen_X (and other LockScreen_Y, LockScreen_Z)

- S-1-5-21-...\ReadOnly\LockScreen_O

- S-1-5-21-...\ReadOnly\LockScreen_O

Hope it will help to some :)

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    I didn't have access to that folder nor the ability to change permissions through windows explorer, but I was able to do whatever I want (including overwriting files and successfully changing my background image!) via git bash instead. Thanks!
    – adamdport
    Jun 24, 2019 at 14:27
  • You have to "take ownership" of the folder in Windows and you can edit files then. You can do so with command line (takeown && icacls) or you can find some "registry hacks" online
    – GChuf
    Sep 15, 2019 at 10:21
  • Exactly what I needed - THANK YOU!! Feb 22, 2020 at 0:13
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    I had to take ownership of the SystemData folder. Running from an Administrator command prompt I issued the following command: takeown /F C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\SystemData\ /r /d Y
    – Joe B
    Apr 13, 2020 at 14:31
  • Thank you! This is the right answer. Also thanks to @JoeB, that worked perfectly.
    – Neil Roy
    Nov 22, 2020 at 22:10
6

In addition to the answer(s) given, I'd like to provide you with a script that instantly copies and renames the file to *.jpg. If you change the view to medium icons or to large icons, then you can instantly see the pictures when you run the script (let's name it LikeWhatYouSee.cmd):

:: Batch script, which copies "Like what you see" 
:: pictures to %userprofile%\Pictures\Saved Pictures\ and opens it in explorer
cd /D %userprofile%\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.Windows.ContentDeliveryManager_cw5n1h2txyewy\LocalState\Assets
mkdir "%userprofile%\Pictures\Saved Pictures\" 1>nul 2>&1
copy * "%userprofile%\Pictures\Saved Pictures\*.jpg"
explorer "%userprofile%\Pictures\Saved Pictures\"

The pictures are saved to the subdirectory Saved Pictures in your user profile's Pictures folder. You can run the script multiple times without harm, the pictures have unique filenames. Over time, you will get a lot of nice pictures in that folder. The pictures will not be removed from there, unless you delete them manually.

Note: After you ran the script above, you can change the lock screen image to any of the liked pictures you saved easily. To do this:

  1. Press Windows + I to open Windows settings
  2. Click "Personalization"
  3. In the side bar, select "Lock screen"
  4. In the lock screen settings, select "Picture" (always the same image) or "Slideshow" (alternating images) as background
  5. If you selected "Picture", you can click "Browse" to find and select your picture. If you selected "Slideshow", you can click on "+" to add a folder. For the folder, browse to Pictures --> Saved Pictures, where you can find the pictures saved by the script

Note: You might have noticed that the script above copies all images. Sometimes there are also icons included in the Windows content delivery folder, which you don't want to copy. One simple way is to limit the size and copy only larger files.

With this modified script you can do that (for a more detailed description how it works, look here):

:: Batch script, which copies larger "Like what you see" 
:: pictures to %userprofile%\Pictures\Saved Pictures\ and opens it in explorer
cd /D %userprofile%\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.Windows.ContentDeliveryManager_cw5n1h2txyewy\LocalState\Assets
mkdir "%userprofile%\Pictures\Saved Pictures\" 1>nul 2>&1
for /r ".\" %%F in (*) do @if %%~zF geq 35000 copy "%%F" "%userprofile%\Pictures\Saved Pictures\*.jpg"
explorer "%userprofile%\Pictures\Saved Pictures\"
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    Using the %userprofile% is the best way to get the location, works regardless of what the user's username is
    – user324747
    May 15, 2018 at 0:54
3

For my company win10 locked locked screen background, i did not have access to Windows\Web\Screen folder because I'm not admin.

But

In the photo win10 app, i coul right click and choose MY picture and then select : choose as (français: établir en tant que...) locked screen background.

Hope this helps any of you change annoying locked admin parameters!!

0
2

As others pointed out already, the images are located at %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.Windows.ContentDeliveryManager_cw5n1h2txyewy\LocalState\Assets.

This location does not only contain the desktop wallpapers, but also icons, wallpapers in portrait format and other files. All files do not have file extensions, so you cannot view them by double clicking or having a preview.

The following PowerShell script will copy all desktop wallpapers (image width >= 1920) to your desktop, while renaming the files and adding the .jpg extension:

$folder = New-Item -Path "$env:USERPROFILE\Desktop" -Name "Windows_Wallpapers_$((Get-Date).ToString('yyyy-MM-dd_HH-mm-ss'))" -ItemType Directory
$files = Get-ChildItem -Path "$env:USERPROFILE\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.Windows.ContentDeliveryManager_cw5n1h2txyewy\LocalState\Assets"
$counter = 0
foreach ($file in $files) {
    $image = New-Object -ComObject WIA.ImageFile
    try {
        $image.LoadFile(($file.FullName))
        if ($image.Width -ge 1920) {
            Copy-Item -Path $file.FullName -Destination "$($folder.FullName)\Image_$($counter.ToString('0000')).jpg"
            $counter++
        }
    } catch {}
}

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