Personalization Reset and Re-register Windows Spotlight in Windows 11

Brink · May 7, 2026

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

Hello,

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

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

Bradavon · May 9, 2026

Brink said:
You might consider using the Windows spotlight, dynamic images theme

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.

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

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.

Brink · May 9, 2026

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.

Great news.

stzan · May 23, 2026

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.

Osmium · Jun 16, 2026

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.

Chuck99 · Jun 16, 2026

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.

Thanks for the .bat file.

HHH03 · Aug 5, 2026

There's something different with Desktop Spotlight on 25H2 build 26200.8973. I have two user accounts, my Desktop spotlight is working correctly, but the second account is working basically except the desktop images aren't being updated and only using the default images. Lock Screen Spotlight is working perfectly in both accounts. All the normal fixes listed here don't seem to work... it seems Microsoft has to decide to download images to the IrisService folder for any new images and if it decides not to download the images, you get the standard default images.

The Desktop registry entry shows the registry state value is false for the non working account. But how can we get Microsoft to download the images? I prefer not using Bing Wallpapers or any other program to do this. Is the fix simply to wait for Microsoft to download the images or is their another way to nudge it to do so.

Osmium · Aug 6, 2026

Okay, this is starting to vex me.
Less than a month ago, I performed a motherboard swap on my PC and, as part of the due process, went for a clean Windows install, thinking going clean slate would also do a world of good for me on the UX side of things.
But...not quite.

Desktop Spotlight works without any issue.
However: lockscreen Spotlight just isn't updating - it's still displaying the blue stock wallpaper. I tried the batch script on front page many times and made sure both LocalCache locations had a "Microsoft/IrisService" folder inside of them. Did proper resets and registers.
Still nothing being downloaded into Microsoft.Windows.ContentDeliveryManager_cw5n1h2txyewy\LocalState\Assets\

I just had a new batch of four desktop wallpapers this morning, but lockscreen is still stock blue.

Additionally, I have also noticed that I no longer have the ability to decide _which_ widgets can figure at the bottom of the lockscreen. I'm only given three options: "None", "Dev Home" and "Weather and more". No further personalization allowed. I know Windows is overhauling the way it presents widgets on its UI, but my mother's laptop is also up to date and still allows customizing widgets, so I'm not sure what's wrong here.

I did several Powershell resets of Microsoft.LockApp, Microsoft.Windows.ContentDeliveryManager and MicrosoftWindows.Client.CBS just to be sure, but no joy.

May I ask for some help?

Brink · Aug 6, 2026

Hello @Osmium,

You might see if using the Windows spotlight, dynamic images theme or this below may work better for more reliable Spotlight images.

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

HHH03 · Aug 6, 2026

Osmium said:
May I ask for some help?

Maybe not much help… perhaps some of my experiences with something similar.

The new Widget Panel from my experience is actually the old Widget panel with a new button “New Look”. I had the new Widget panel for about 5 minutes and then it turned into the old Widget with the “New Look” button.
I did a clean install about 4 days ago. In my case, lock screen works perfectly. From all the diagnostics and PowerShell scripts I’ve run, the possibilities are simply the last two Windows builds have issues with their features not enabling… The second is Microsoft likes turning things on A/B testing, and nothing is being told to enable. Microsoft did have a big outage about 2-3 weeks ago, perhaps things aren’t working right yet. That’s the only answer I have because all the known fixes don’t seem to help right now.

HHH03 · Aug 12, 2026

Osmium said:
Okay, this is starting to vex me.
Less than a month ago, I performed a motherboard swap on my PC and, as part of the due process, went for a clean Windows install, thinking going clean slate would also do a world of good for me on the UX side of things.
But...not quite.

Desktop Spotlight works without any issue.
However: lockscreen Spotlight just isn't updating - it's still displaying the blue stock wallpaper. I tried the batch script on front page many times and made sure both LocalCache locations had a "Microsoft/IrisService" folder inside of them. Did proper resets and registers.
Still nothing being downloaded into Microsoft.Windows.ContentDeliveryManager_cw5n1h2txyewy\LocalState\Assets\

I just had a new batch of four desktop wallpapers this morning, but lockscreen is still stock blue.

Additionally, I have also noticed that I no longer have the ability to decide _which_ widgets can figure at the bottom of the lockscreen. I'm only given three options: "None", "Dev Home" and "Weather and more". No further personalization allowed. I know Windows is overhauling the way it presents widgets on its UI, but my mother's laptop is also up to date and still allows customizing widgets, so I'm not sure what's wrong here.

I did several Powershell resets of Microsoft.LockApp, Microsoft.Windows.ContentDeliveryManager and MicrosoftWindows.Client.CBS just to be sure, but no joy.

May I ask for some help?

I did another clean install last weekend and It's Wednesday making it 4 days since the clean install. Still no new images for the desktop spotlight. Lock screen is working perfectly and every attempt to reset everything always results in lock screen being updated and working... with no images for the desktop being downloaded. My system has never created the "Microsoft/IrisService" folders where the desktop images are stored. I have to assume windows spotlight isn't working currently. After the big Microsoft Server crash on July 23, 2026, desktop spotlight hasn't worked for me since. I've been using Theme content for the time being like I did long before Spotlight was introduced.

Osmium · Aug 12, 2026

HHH03 said:
I did another clean install last weekend and It's Wednesday making it 4 days since the clean install. Still no new images for the desktop spotlight. Lock screen is working perfectly and every attempt to reset everything always results in lock screen being updated and working... with no images for the desktop being downloaded. My system has never created the "Microsoft/IrisService" folders where the desktop images are stored. I have to assume windows spotlight isn't working currently. After the big Microsoft Server crash on July 23, 2026, desktop spotlight hasn't worked for me since. I've been using Theme content for the time being like I did long before Spotlight was introduced.

Huh.
So it's the reverse of what I'm seeing. Desktop!Spotlight is working as intended - batch of four with a daily rotation - and Lockscreen!Spotlight is, for all intents and purposes, deader than yesterday's fish and still defaulting to the stock blue wallpaper.
I've tried re-registering Microsoft.Windows.ContentDeliveryManager and Microsoft.LockApp (both through cmd.exe and PowerShell), but no change. Even resetting them or deleting the /Settings files doesn't seem to do anything.

I was hoping yesterday's patch to 26200.9168 could have given Spotlight a wee push in the right direction, but nope.

...I'm not expecting much, but I'll wait a couple more days. I noticed that, after some resets and sometimes after 24-48h, *something* clicks.
It certainly hasn't clicked since I swapped motherboards, but who knows.

HHH03 · Aug 12, 2026

Osmium said:
Huh.
So it's the reverse of what I'm seeing. Desktop!Spotlight is working as intended - batch of four with a daily rotation - but Lockscreen!Spotlight is, for all intents and purposes, deader than yesterday's fish and still defaulting to the stock blue wallpaper.
I've tried re-registering Microsoft.Windows.ContentDeliveryManager and Microsoft.LockApp (both through cmd.exe and PowerShell), but no change. Even resetting them or deleting the /Settings files doesn't seem to do anything.

I was hoping yesterday's patch to 26200.9168 could have given Spotlight a little push, but nope.

My desktop Spotlight works with the 4 default images, but no new images have been downloaded since I did a clean install.

Osmium · Aug 12, 2026

HHH03 said:
My desktop Spotlight works with the 4 default images, but no new images have been downloaded since I did a clean install.

Resetting MicrosoftWindows.Client.CBS doesn't do anything? Mine just rotated to a new wallpaper not even 15m ago.
Also, are MicrosoftWindows.Client.CBS and Microsoft.Windows.ContentDeliveryManager supposed to work independently of one another or are they connected/chatting together? I find it strange that one works while the other stalls or vice versa, despite having similar duties and pulling content from more or less the same digital repository.

HHH03 · Aug 12, 2026

Osmium said:
Resetting MicrosoftWindows.Client.CBS doesn't do anything? Mine just rotated to a new wallpaper not even 15m ago.
Also, are MicrosoftWindows.Client.CBS and Microsoft.Windows.ContentDeliveryManager supposed to work independently of one another or are they connected/chatting together? I find it strange that one works while the other stalls or vice versa, despite having similar duties and pulling content from more or less the same digital repository.

If you have the procedure to do the reset, I’d like the commands that you used. I’ve tried a few different methods, perhaps I missed something.

Osmium · Aug 12, 2026

I believe I used:

Powershell:

Get-AppxPackage -allusers *Microsoft.Windows.ContentDeliveryManager* | Reset-AppxPackage
Get-AppxPackage -allusers *MicrosoftWindows.Client.CBS* | Reset-AppxPackage

Do note that, IIRC, after using Reset on either Client.CBS or ContentDeliveryManager, the targeted folder itself (within %LOCALAPPDATA%\Packages\) will be deleted and only re-created after rebooting, so any re-register command will fail afterwards because there is no folder to operate on. Then, for good measure after a reboot:

Powershell:

Get-AppxPackage -allusers *Microsoft.Windows.ContentDeliveryManager* | Add-AppxPackage -Register -DisableDevelopmentMode
Get-AppxPackage -allusers *MicrosoftWindows.Client.CBS* | Add-AppxPackage -Register -DisableDevelopmentMode

If you're using cmd.exe:

Batch:

PowerShell -Command "Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers *Microsoft.Windows.ContentDeliveryManager* | Reset-AppxPackage"
PowerShell -Command "Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers *MicrosoftWindows.Client.CBS* | Reset-AppxPackage"

Batch:

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

Only other recourse past that, that I could think of, is fiddling with the Registry. Maybe some key got borked?

HHH03 · Aug 12, 2026

Osmium said:
I believe I used:

Powershell:

Get-AppxPackage -allusers *Microsoft.Windows.ContentDeliveryManager* | Reset-AppxPackage Get-AppxPackage -allusers *MicrosoftWindows.Client.CBS* | Reset-AppxPackage

Do note that, IIRC, after using Reset on either Client.CBS or ContentDeliveryManager, the targeted folder itself (within %LOCALAPPDATA%\Packages\) will be deleted and only re-created after rebooting, so any re-register command will fail afterwards because there is no folder to operate on. Then, for good measure after a reboot:

Powershell:

Get-AppxPackage -allusers *Microsoft.Windows.ContentDeliveryManager* | Add-AppxPackage -Register -DisableDevelopmentMode Get-AppxPackage -allusers *MicrosoftWindows.Client.CBS* | Add-AppxPackage -Register -DisableDevelopmentMode

If you're using cmd.exe:

Batch:

PowerShell -Command "Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers *Microsoft.Windows.ContentDeliveryManager* | Reset-AppxPackage" PowerShell -Command "Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers *MicrosoftWindows.Client.CBS* | Reset-AppxPackage"

Batch:

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

Only other recourse past that, that I could think of, is fiddling with the Registry. Maybe some key got borked?

I’ve been using AI to help me research the problem and did about 20 PowerShell scripts it suggested. The results are nothing is broken… all internet connections are present. The only finding is that Windows just hasn’t run the request to build the “Microsoft/IrisService” folder for the desktop images. It has done so for the Lock Screen.
Seems like these Spotlight systems used two different delivery methods to get images… maybe the reason one works and other doesn’t. Idk.

Osmium · Aug 16, 2026

Possibly related question: does localization play a role in which wallpapers you get, if at all?

I redid the whole re-register shebang, and once again, desktop produces a new batch of four wallpapers, but the lockscreen remains as dead as this year's hopes of getting decently-priced RAM sticks.
I'm just stumped.

HHH03 · Aug 16, 2026

Osmium said:
Possibly related question: does localization play a role in which wallpapers you get, if at all?

I redid the whole re-register shebang, and once again, desktop produces a new batch of four wallpapers, but the lockscreen remains as dead as this year's hopes of getting decently-priced RAM sticks.
I'm just stumped.

I have two user accounts on my computer… my account is working now with both desktop and lock screen. I did a reinstall of Windows on Friday evening and my account started working Saturday morning. The second user account had lock screen working, but stopped suddenly and the blue wave background appeared even with the asset folder full of images. I ran the script at the beginning of this thread, and it started working again within 5 minutes. But, the desktop background hasn’t changed or updated yet... stuck with the default 4 images right now.
I guess I have to wait until whatever is needed from Microsoft decides to enable the feature and download the images. Maybe a reinstall is needed too… idk.

Edit… in the past a Window install had these Spot Light features working right away before all the updates were even installed. Seems like after that Microsoft server crash on July 23rd, things haven’t worked as they did before.

dave56 · Aug 17, 2026

Osmium said:
I believe I used:

Powershell:

Get-AppxPackage -allusers *Microsoft.Windows.ContentDeliveryManager* | Reset-AppxPackage Get-AppxPackage -allusers *MicrosoftWindows.Client.CBS* | Reset-AppxPackage

Do note that, IIRC, after using Reset on either Client.CBS or ContentDeliveryManager, the targeted folder itself (within %LOCALAPPDATA%\Packages\) will be deleted and only re-created after rebooting, so any re-register command will fail afterwards because there is no folder to operate on. Then, for good measure after a reboot:

Powershell:

Get-AppxPackage -allusers *Microsoft.Windows.ContentDeliveryManager* | Add-AppxPackage -Register -DisableDevelopmentMode Get-AppxPackage -allusers *MicrosoftWindows.Client.CBS* | Add-AppxPackage -Register -DisableDevelopmentMode

If you're using cmd.exe:

Batch:

PowerShell -Command "Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers *Microsoft.Windows.ContentDeliveryManager* | Reset-AppxPackage" PowerShell -Command "Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers *MicrosoftWindows.Client.CBS* | Reset-AppxPackage"

Batch:

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

Only other recourse past that, that I could think of, is fiddling with the Registry. Maybe some key got borked?

You need to run both commands if Desktop Spotlight is not working?

Personalization Reset and Re-register Windows Spotlight in Windows 11

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