When The lock page comes on and I need to hit Ctrl+Alt+Del, there are pretty pix that come up as background.
Is there a way to find those pix and download any of them?
The quickly changing background and lock screen images can be found in this folder: C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.Windows.ContentDeliveryManager_cw5n1h2txyewy\LocalState\Assets (do not forget to replace USERNAME with the name you use to log-in). The images are not recognisable as such when you open the folder.
If you see no such files, make sure that your Windows File Explorer shows hidden items.
Copy the newest images to a different folder and add .jpg as the file extension. With that little change Windows recognises those files as images. All you have to do is to scroll through them and find the one you want to keep.
Do you have anything in C:\Windows\Web ?
Because little or no information is provided about those images, it may be difficult to figure out what location is depicted in some of them. Some people have apparently taken this as a challenge, a puzzle to be solved. I was amused a few months ago when someone figured out where the pair of rocks in the ocean were located, and took some photos of their own on the northeast coast of Australia or New Zealand.
Using Google image search usually finds them for me.
I take a photo with my phone and search from that. Yes, it is “analog clunky” but most of the time I find them. Then I read about them and learn something new!
In Windows 11 at least, there’s a camera icon in the top right of the screen that says “like the picture that you see?” If you hover over that, it tells you the location, photographer and source (e.g., Shutterstock).
I found the most recent 2 images in this folder. It must get purged regularly. It’s also used for other assets so you might have to sift through a bit - I had 38 images, of which two were from the lock screen. Start by looking at the largest files.
There are sites that informally (ie without Microsoft’s cooperation) publish about these photos. One of them is About the site | Windows 10 Spotlight Images There is a few days delay before the site has the most recent ones.
If I move the mouse when that screen is up there’s a description and a search icon in the center of the screen. If I accidentally click on that, the first thing that happens after login is that Windows opens Edge and goes to a page about these images. I know this because I hate it.
Does that not happen for you guys, and if so can you help me turn it off? 