Solved System folder with my previous lock screen wallpapers

When customizing my theme and changing the lock screen background I see 'recent images' with previous wallpapers I had. I want to locate one particular image but not sure where Windows stored it. I checked Windows > Web folder, then Users > AppData > Microsoft > Local > Themes. The image is not there. Am I seeing the cached image in the personalization settings? I might have deleted that wallpaper so now how do I clear the cache for those 'recent images'?

forneus said:

When customizing my theme and changing the lock screen background I see 'recent images' with previous wallpapers I had. I want to locate one particular image but not sure where Windows stored it. I checked Windows > Web folder, then Users > AppData > Microsoft > Local > Themes. The image is not there. Am I seeing the cached image in the personalization settings? I might have deleted that wallpaper so now how do I clear the cache for those 'recent images'?

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%AppData%\Microsoft\Windows\Themes only holds a jpeg copy of the current wallpaper as a file named TranscodedWallpaper. The list of recent images shown in Settings, along with the path to each, is held in the Registry at HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Wallpapers. See this tutorial for more details.

Bree said:

%AppData%\Microsoft\Windows\Themes only holds a jpeg copy of the current wallpaper as a file named TranscodedWallpaper. The list of recent images shown in Settings, along with the path to each, is held in the Registry at HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Wallpapers. See this tutorial for more details.

Delete Desktop Background Wallpaper History in Windows 11

This tutorial will show you how to delete all or specific recent images from desktop background wallpaper history for your account in Windows 11. You can change your desktop background in Windows 11 to be a picture, solid color, a slideshow, or Spotlight collection. Windows keeps the last 5...

www.elevenforum.com

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Thanks for the reply. The tutorial shows how to delete desktop wallpaper history, but what about the lock screen history? I don't see the wallpapers whose small copies are displayed under 'recent images' in Personalization > Lockscreen

forneus said:

Thanks for the reply. The tutorial shows how to delete desktop wallpaper history, but what about the lock screen history? I don't see the wallpapers whose small copies are displayed under 'recent images' in Personalization > Lockscreen

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These ones, you mean.



The first image above is C:\Windows\Web\Screen\img100.jpg but I cannot find any reference to that file in the Registry, so I can't find out where Windows keeps its list of recent lockscreen images. Perhaps @Brink can help.

Hello,

You could check the location in the tutorial below to see if the image you want is still in the cache.

Brink said:

Hello,

You could check the location in the tutorial below to see if the image you want is still in the cache.

Find and Save Custom Lock Screen Background Images in Windows 10

How to Find and Save Custom Lock Screen Background Images in Windows 10

www.tenforums.com

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Hello,
Thanks for the tutorial, I managed to find those folders and deleted the wallpapers that were visible in the 'recent images'. For that I needed to activate the bult in administrator. Now the strange thing - I cannot set a picture or a slideshow as a lockscreen. In Administrator account I can do it in the settings but it still doesn't show when I lock the screen. In my regular account I can't even choose a picture for a lockscreen, only windows spotlight. The preview image just stays gray.

UPD. It started showing after I gave Full Control of System Data folder to my regular account.

Thanks all.

Glad we could help.