In one of our previous articles titled how to turn Windows Spotlight lock screen on or off in Windows 10, we discussed what Windows Spotlight is and how to turn on or off it. After going through the article, a reader has asked us how to save these Windows Spotlight pictures featured on the lock screen of Windows 10.
For those who are not aware, the Windows Spotlight feature automatically downloads and sets beautiful pictures as Windows 10 Lock Screen background picture. Although the feature is turned off by default, it can be enabled by under the Personalization section of the Settings app. You can refer to our how to turn on or off Windows Spotlight feature for step-by-step instructions.
If you have happened to come across a beautiful Windows Spotlight picture featured on your lock screen and you would like to set it as your Windows 10 desktop background picture, please follow the instructions given below to locate Windows Spotlight lock screen pictures downloaded on to your PC.
Tip: Did you know that you can capture your Windows 10 lock screen? Yes, unlike previous Windows versions, Windows 10 allows you to capture the lock screen.
All you need to do is, press the PrtSc key on your keyboard when you are at the lock screen, sign-in, open Paint or any other image editing program, press Ctrl + V hotkey to paste the captured image, and then save it.
Windows 10 spotlight picture location
C:\Users\YourUserName\AppData\Local\Packages\ Microsoft.Windows.ContentDeliveryManager_cw5n1h2txyewy\LocalState\Assets
All downloaded spotlight pictures are saved in the location mentioned above.
To save Windows Spotlight lock screen images
Step 1: Open File Explorer either by clicking File Explorer icon in the Start menu/taskbar or using Windows + E hotkey.
Step 2: Click the View tab, then check the box labeled Hidden items to make the operating system show all hidden files and folders. 
Step 3: Open up the drive where Windows 10 is installed. For instance, if Windows 10 is installed on the “C” drive, open up the same.
Step 4: Navigate to C:\Users\YourUserName\AppData\Local\Packages\ Microsoft.Windows.ContentDeliveryManager_cw5n1h2txyewy\LocalState\Assets.
Note that in the above path, YourUserName is your user account name on Windows 10 PC.
Step 5: Under the Assets folder, you will see several files. These files are nothing but Windows Spotlight images downloaded from Microsoft. To view them, rename each file and use .JPG as an extension. To view the file extension, click on the View tab and then select File name extensions.
For instance, right-click on a file and then click Rename (or use F2 hotkey), enter 1.JPG, and then press Enter key to rename the selected file as 1.JPG. You can now open it in the default Photos app or Windows Photo Viewer (if enabled). Rename all files in the folder one after another to view all saved lock screen images downloaded as part of the Windows Spotlight feature.
And if you want to set the latest Bing homepage picture as your desktop background, please download and install the Bing desktop toolbar from Microsoft.
To know where a picture was captured, refer to know where a spotlight picture was taken guide.
Midori King says
This helped out a lot! I can keep all my favorite windows spotlight photos now. I didn’t know it was downloading them though, and they have a good resolution, won’t this take up a bit of storage after a while?
Isabelle says
As others have said, I would like to know where the pictures were taken and by whom. Google Chrome also displays photographs, but Google is careful to credit the artists for their work. Microsoft should follow their example.
Mike B. says
I’m pretty sure that the photo of a wooden boat on a blue lake with an island in the upper left is on Lake Bled, Slovenia.
Martin says
I don’t want a picture, any kind of picture. I just want to start my computer and login. Anyone know where I can disable it?
Jeff Graf says
I too am looking to find out where the photos, many of them quite beautiful, are taken? Can anyone help on this?
r1s2 says
thanks for your howto
maybe this code could help (cut & paste in powsershell)
$tmpAssets=”$($env:tmp)\assets”; mkdir $tmpAssets; ls C:\Users\$($env:username)\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.Windows.ContentDeliveryManager_cw5n1h2txyewy\LocalState\Assets\|% { cp “$($_.fullname)” “$tmpAssets\$($_.name).jpg” }; explorer $tmpAssets;
easy way to view pictures in explorer
Rebecca says
I really would love to get information on where all these pictures were taken, too.
alexander says
Copy then rename them, or you will encounter what angela described.
angela says
I followed these instructions exactly and now I can use the photos are background pictures however they no longer show as locked screen photos….its just a blank screen. not sure why it did this but not cool.
Ribal says
Got some images but non of which i saw on spotlight.
ridley says
these nice pictures should be presented in few words: where is it taken? what is it?
Grania Wright says
why don’t you tell us where these pictures are taken? I’d love to know.
Florin says
Thank you, i was looking for a way to save those pictures, and i don`t really understand why MS makes it so hard to get them.