Windows Spotlight Extractor is a tool that lets

you view and save the wallpapers downloaded

by Spotlight
by Ashwin on July 28, 2020 in Software - 9 comments

The lock screen is one of the best looking elements in Windows 10. And that's thanks to the Windows Spotlight feature that
displays a new wallpaper from time to time.

If you've ever wanted to save the image easily, there is a free tool that you can use. It's called Windows Spotlight Extractor.

Run the application and you will see a bunch of thumbnails. The program lists each image that has been saved by Windows
Spotlight. Right-click on an image and select "Extract", a pop-up window opens, which you can use to choose the folder where
the image should be saved to. You can use the File Menu > Extract option for the same purpose.
The image is saved in the JPG format in the resolution of your computer's screen. If you have a Full HD display, the image is in
1920 x 1080, you get the idea. That's perfect because now you can use the saved picture as your desktop background.

Click on the view menu and enable the "file names" option. Toggling it displays the picture's filename, which is not particularly
helpful since Spotlight has random strings for the names.

Of course, there is no way to view the interesting fact about the wallpaper (history of the featured location, fact about an
animal/bird, etc) hat Spotlight displays on the lock screen. So unless you recognize the landscape/wildlife in the picture, you may
have to do a reverse image search on the web to learn more about it.

How does Windows Spotlight Extractor work?

The program doesn't try to hide its secret. Click on the File menu in Windows Spotlight Extractor, and select the option that says
"Open Cache Folder". The directory is loaded in Windows Explorer, this is where the images that are downloaded by the Spotlight
service are saved.

Windows Spotlight Extractor runs the following command to open the folder:

%USERPROFILE%/AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.Windows.ContentDeliveryManager_cw5n1h2txyewy\LocalState\Assets

Try it yourself by pasting the above address in the Run command window (Win + R).

Yes, you don't need to the program to get the images. That being said, there are at least 2 options which make Windows Spotlight
Extractor quite useful in my opinion.
Take a look at this screenshot. There's just one thumbnail that's being displayed in Explorer. The rest are random files with no
extension, aka file type, yet some of these are wallpapers.

I tried opening the folder directly in image viewers, but the pictures weren't displayed in those either. The only way to check if one
of these is a wallpaper is by opening each of these manually, or use a viewer like Irfan View to select one image at a time (after
clicking on "all files" in the drop-down menu).

That takes time, while Windows Spotlight Extractor displays the preview of all the images in a scrollable manner. The other useful
option is basically what the application was designed for, to extract, i.e. save the images. Select and save and you're good to go.

The program is portable, which is another reason for using it.

Windows Spotlight Extractor is an open source software. If you like it, you may like BingSnap which is a similar application that
can download the wallpaper of the day from Bing.

Summary

Author Rating

5 based on 1 votes

Software Name

Windows Spotlight Extractor

Operating System

Windows

Software Category

Multimedia

Price

Free

Landing Page

https://github.com/dotcomboom/Windows-
Spotlight-Extractor
Advertisement

ABOUT ASHWIN

Ashwin has been blogging since 2012 and is known among his friends as the go to tech geek. He is a self-proclaimed Android
expert, a PS4 and PC Gamer, a Firefox fanboy, a Nintendo aficionado, and an iOS tinkerer

View all posts by Ashwin →

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