Where is my Lock screen image file--

Question

1. Apologies to the group. I got interrupted while I was working on the original, and decided to post it. On second look I see it was singularly uninformative. Original still quoted below:

2. Here's a more complete picture: I set the image as the lock screen image, in May 2013. In answer to one of the questions, at the time I saved it to my hard drive. My hard drive files are automatically backed up to NAS. The NAS backup is periodically copied and saved to another hard drive that is kept off line except when the off-line back-up process is being done. So, I'm confident that I still have the original image file backed up somewhere.

3. When Windows 10 installed, the image still appeared. The problem occurred when I wanted to share the image with a friend, and discovered that I could not find the original file.

4. I've been looking for a solution to this on-line for more than a month now. The on-line forums are flooded with variations of the basic question "where is my wallpaper/image file stored." So far I've only see a couple of questions about a user-specified image. Nearly all of Q & A presume that the only images in question are MS Spotlight or Windows default. The more responsive answers involved searches for Transcoded files in various different subdirectories many levels down. These files are then copied and renamed with a .jpg suffix so they can be displayed. Insanely labor intensive (the block rename function does not appear to function the same way in W 10 as I remember it, and I haven't taken the time to figure it out. At this point I estimate I have at least 60 hours of effort in this. (Yes, I'm Irish.)

In fact, the consensus on a couple of the forums is simply that "this information is not available in Windows 10."

At this point, as noted in the original, I have exhausted all the suggestions.

5. I also have the original file name from the e-mail. It has the original attachments, but the last time I tried to load them, the search process went on interminably. I have tried searching the entire C: Drive for the filename and no files were found. In the process of putting this edit together I tried again. The Windows search returned no file found. This time, the attachment image displayed. I can right click on it, and display File Info (which I surmise is what Properties have become in W 10. The Source is "This PC" and the Location is not specified.

6. As to why I find this outrageous...The PC I am working on is my property. The picture is someone else's intellectual property, but in an IP sense I "own" the rights to personal use of the image. Had I not saved the e-mail without detaching (as opposed to saving) I would have lost all further use of it. The fact that the image still appears as my lock screen shows that it is saved as part of the Windows 10 OS resources. The fact that the effect of the W10 update has effectively hidden a piece of intellectual property that had I saved on my own system prior to the update, and hid it so that I can't find and use it, is what's outrageous. And it's outrageous whether or not I backed it up properly. But blaming the victim being all the rage. . .

7. One of the respondents asked if I was saying that MS stole the image. Not at all. I am saying that the net result of the W10 update was to deny me my ability to access and use this image as I had previously.

Again apologies to the group for the inadequate initial post. Even though I was able to get the image by other means, I hope the group will still take on the question. This is a very real issue, and none of the suggestions that I've seen or tried have addressed it adequately. The vast majority simply assume that the user will never want to use anything but the Spotlight files and point them there.

James.

PS. Kudo's on the design of this site. The real-time preview is a tremendous help. I don't fully understand why seeing the same thing in a different context makes such a difference, but it does. The Register does something similar and it shows in the quality of the discussion. Thanks.

After many days, I have exhausted all options. My lock screen image is a very special astronomical image, created by a close friend that I went to high school with over 50 years ago. Have been through a couple of dozen different "solutions" from the different "expert" forums.

The image an thumbnail shows up in t the Settings>Personalize>Lock Screen, but the Right Click does not reveal properties.

This image was a gift for my personal use. Rights to it remain the exclusive property of the originator. I cannot express how outrageous this situation it.

Answer 1

I've been able to accomplish this by opening a folder here:

C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\SystemData\<SID>\ReadOnly\LockScreen_A

In this path, the <SID> is the security identifier for the user in question. This could be found by executing the following in a Command Prompt assuming this user is currently logged on:

whoami /user

In the end, the path would look something like:

C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\SystemData\S-1-5-55-555555555-555555555-5555555555-555555\ReadOnly\LockScreen_A

Also note that the LockScreen_A could be LockScreen_B (or alphanumerically incremented) if this is not the first lock screen background.

Though I work for Microsoft, I'm posting this as a user and not as an official endorsement of this method.