Personalization Reset and Re-register Windows Spotlight in Windows 11


Windows_Spotlight-new_header.webp

This tutorial will show you how to reset and re-register Windows Spotlight for your account in Windows 11.

In Windows 11, you can have Windows Spotlight as a theme and display different background images on your desktop and lock screen, and occasionally offers suggestions on the lock screen.

If Windows Spotlights stops working and/or stops changing the background image, you can reset and re-register Windows Spotlight to fix it.


Windows Spotlight will not work while connected to a metered network (ethernet or wireless), or in Battery Saver mode.

Windows Spotlight requires Background Apps to be turned on.

Country or region and Device setup region must be the same for Spotlight to work.

Region.webp


Sometimes it may take 24 to 48 hours after resetting for Windows Spotlight to sync again.


Another option is to use the Windows spotlight, dynamic images theme.

OR:


apps.microsoft.com

Dynamic Theme - Free download and install on Windows | Microsoft Store

This application is your ideal companion to personalize your experience with a new beautiful picture for your wallpaper and/or your lock screen each day. The pictures are coming from the Bing and Windows Spotlight sources. You can also incrust the description of each picture directly into the...
apps.microsoft.com

EXAMPLE: Windows Spotlight on Desktop and Lock screen

Windows_Spotlight_desktop_background.jpg
Windows_Spotlight_lock_screen.jpg



Here's How:

1 Change your desktop background to something other than Windows Spotlight. (see screenshot below)

www.elevenforum.com

Change Desktop Background to Spotlight, Picture, Solid Color, or Slideshow in Windows 11

This tutorial will show you different ways to change the desktop background to a picture, solid color, slideshow, or Windows Spotlight image for your account in Windows 11. You can change your desktop background in Windows 11 to be a picture, solid color, a slideshow, or Windows Spotlight...
www.elevenforum.com www.elevenforum.com

Windows_Spotlight_desktop_background-1.png

2 Change your lock screen background to something other than Windows Spotlight. (see screenshot below)

www.elevenforum.com

Change Lock Screen Background to Spotlight, Picture, or Slideshow in Windows 11

This tutorial will show you different ways to change the lock screen background to Windows Spotlight, a picture, or slideshow for your account in Windows 11. The lock screen (aka: welcome screen) is the screen you see at startup and when you lock (Win+L) the PC. You will need to dismiss the...
www.elevenforum.com www.elevenforum.com

Windows_Spotlight_lock_screen_background-1.png

3 Click/tap on the download button below to download the file below.

Reset_and_re-register_Windows_Spotlight.zip​


(Contents of BAT file for reference)
Code: 
:: Turn on background apps
reg delete "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\BackgroundAccessApplications" /v GlobalUserDisabled /f
reg delete "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Search" /v BackgroundAppGlobalToggle /f

:: Reset Windows Spotlight
DEL /F /S /Q /A "%USERPROFILE%/AppData\Local\Packages\MicrosoftWindows.Client.CBS_cw5n1h2txyewy\LocalCache\Microsoft\IrisService"
DEL /F /S /Q /A "%USERPROFILE%/AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.Windows.ContentDeliveryManager_cw5n1h2txyewy\LocalCache\Microsoft\IrisService"
DEL /F /S /Q /A "%USERPROFILE%/AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.Windows.ContentDeliveryManager_cw5n1h2txyewy\LocalState\Assets"
DEL /F /S /Q /A "%USERPROFILE%/AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.Windows.ContentDeliveryManager_cw5n1h2txyewy\Settings"

:: Re-register Windows Spotlight
PowerShell -ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted -Command "& {$manifest = (Get-AppxPackage *ContentDeliveryManager*).InstallLocation + '\AppxManifest.xml' ; Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register $manifest}"
PowerShell -ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted -Command "& {$manifest = (Get-AppxPackage *MicrosoftWindows.Client.CBS*).InstallLocation + '\AppxManifest.xml' ; Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register $manifest}"

4 Save the ZIP file to your desktop.

5 Unblock the ZIP file.

6 Extract the BAT file from the ZIP file.

7 Run the BAT file.

8 Restart the computer to apply.

9 After you sign in, you can change your desktop background back to Windows Spotlight if wanted. (see screenshot below)

www.elevenforum.com

Change Desktop Background to Spotlight, Picture, Solid Color, or Slideshow in Windows 11

This tutorial will show you different ways to change the desktop background to a picture, solid color, slideshow, or Windows Spotlight image for your account in Windows 11. You can change your desktop background in Windows 11 to be a picture, solid color, a slideshow, or Windows Spotlight...
www.elevenforum.com www.elevenforum.com

Windows_Spotlight_desktop_background-2.png

10 Change your lock screen background back to Windows Spotlight if wanted. (see screenshot below)

www.elevenforum.com

Change Lock Screen Background to Spotlight, Picture, or Slideshow in Windows 11

This tutorial will show you different ways to change the lock screen background to Windows Spotlight, a picture, or slideshow for your account in Windows 11. The lock screen (aka: welcome screen) is the screen you see at startup and when you lock (Win+L) the PC. You will need to dismiss the...
www.elevenforum.com www.elevenforum.com

Windows_Spotlight_lock_screen_background-2.png


That's it,
Shawn Brink


Related Tutorials

 

Attachments

Last edited:
Click to expand...
Bradavon said:
I've followed guides across various websites, as usual for Eleven Forums has the best guides and do know whilst this is the folder the Lock screen images. It isn't for the Wallpaper images.

My current Wallpaper images remain when I run the batch file, so know they're being stored elsewhere, but have never been able to find out which folder. The lock screen images get deleted from the folder/from the lockscreen and return in minutes.

For me it cycles through about 5 images but never downloads further ones. Lock screen images cycle fine. I've followed the instructions exactly as written three times.

Any thoughts? Thanks.

p.s. Windows 11 25H2: Build 26200.8246
Click to expand...

Hello, :alien:

You might consider using the Windows spotlight, dynamic images theme or this below for more reliable Spotlight images.

apps.microsoft.com

Dynamic Theme - Free download and install on Windows | Microsoft Store

This application is your ideal companion to personalize your experience with a new beautiful picture for your wallpaper and/or your lock screen each day. The pictures are coming from the Bing and Windows Spotlight sources. You can also incrust the description of each picture directly into the...
apps.microsoft.com
 

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Brink said:
You might consider using the Windows spotlight, dynamic images theme
Click to expand...
Hi Brink,

Thanks. This seems to do the same really, just enable Spotlight via a theme instead of manually turning it on.

Brink said:
or this below for more reliable Spotlight images.

apps.microsoft.com

Dynamic Theme - Free download and install on Windows | Microsoft Store

This application is your ideal companion to personalize your experience with a new beautiful picture for your wallpaper and/or your lock screen each day. The pictures are coming from the Bing and Windows Spotlight sources. You can also incrust the description of each picture directly into the...
apps.microsoft.com
Click to expand...
Dynamic Theme is great. Thanks. I've not replied for a day or so to see if it's working.

It's fixed my issue perfectly. I like how much you can customise it. I'm not using it for the Lockscreen as this isn't broken.

I'm unsure how it runs in the background when it's not visibly in Task Manager/Services. It's in TM when the App is open, not when closed I can see. I suspect it's in TM when closed but isn't an obvious name.
 

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Bradavon said:
Hi Brink,

Thanks. This seems to do the same really, just enable Spotlight via a theme instead of manually turning it on.

Dynamic Theme is great. Thanks. I've not replied for a day or so to see if it's working.

It's fixed my issue perfectly. I like how much you can customise it. I'm not using it for the Lockscreen as this isn't broken.

I'm unsure how it runs in the background when it's not visibly in Task Manager/Services. It's in TM when the App is open, not when closed I can see. I suspect it's in TM when closed but isn't an obvious name.
Click to expand...

Great news.
 

My Computers My Computers

System One System Two

  • At a glance

    Windows 11 Pro for WorkstationsIntel i7-8700K 5 GHz64 GB (4x16GB) G.SKILL TridentZ RGB DDR4 3600...ASUS ROG-STRIX-GTX1080TI-O11G-GAMING (11GB GD...
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    Custom self build
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    64 GB (4x16GB) G.SKILL TridentZ RGB DDR4 3600 MHz (F4-3600C18D-32GTZR)
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For me spotlight was not working because the device region (the one you setup in oobe) was different from the "country or region" you have in windows settings.
 

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Lenovo
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32GB
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Intel Arc
I just had to reset Spotlight for Desktop as it got stuck for a couple days.
Did the reset command, followed by reregister after reboot:
Powershell: 
Get-AppxPackage -allusers *MicrosoftWindows.Client.CBS* | Reset-AppxPackage
Get-AppxPackage -allusers *MicrosoftWindows.Client.CBS* | Add-AppxPackage -Register -DisableDevelopmentMode
And waited something like a day and a half before I got a new, non-stock image. Sometimes you just have to wait.

I do have another (minor) annoyance, though: Spotlight for Lock Screen works with no issue, as images have been unerringly updated every single day, but for some reason, I only see one widget (Weather) out of four. Daily Wonder, Daily Discovery and This Day in History are missing in action. Any suggestions as to how to bring them back? These options do not even show up in the Personalization > Lock Screen window; I only have the option to use Weather or nothing at all.


Also, for those interested, I made a small .bat file to retrieve Lock screen pictures, as I like to collect them.
Inside a new folder on your desktop, create a SpotlightRetriever.bat file and fill it with the following instructions:
Batch: 
xcopy "%LOCALAPPDATA%\Packages\Microsoft.Windows.ContentDeliveryManager_cw5n1h2txyewy\LocalState\Assets\*" "%~dp0" /E /H /K /Y
powershell.exe -NoProfile -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Command "Get-ChildItem -File '%~dp0' | Where-Object { $_.Extension -eq '' } | Rename-Item -NewName { $_.Name + '.jpg' }"
It'll fetch the pictures and rename them to .jpg.
 

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Osmium said:
Also, for those interested, I made a small .bat file to retrieve Lock screen pictures, as I like to collect them.
Inside a new folder on your desktop, create a SpotlightRetriever.bat file and fill it with the following instructions:
Batch: 
xcopy "%LOCALAPPDATA%\Packages\Microsoft.Windows.ContentDeliveryManager_cw5n1h2txyewy\LocalState\Assets\*" "%~dp0" /E /H /K /Y
powershell.exe -NoProfile -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Command "Get-ChildItem -File '%~dp0' | Where-Object { $_.Extension -eq '' } | Rename-Item -NewName { $_.Name + '.jpg' }"
It'll fetch the pictures and rename them to .jpg.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the .bat file.
 

My Computer My Computer

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Windows 11 Pro 25H2Intel i5-1450016 GBIntel
OS
Windows 11 Pro 25H2
Computer type
PC/Desktop
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Intel i5-14500
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Intel
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1 TB WD HDD
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