Find the Current Lock Screen Spotlight Wallpaper File Name in Windows 10/11

Windows 10/11 Spotlight wallpaper images that appear on the lock screen are stored deep inside the Local Application Data folder, under the Assets folder, as we’ve seen in the article, How to Backup Windows Spotlight Images.

We’ll see how to find the file name of the currently displayed Lock Screen (Windows Spotlight) image so that you don’t have to preview 50+ files in your Assets folder to locate a single wallpaper file.

Find the Current Spotlight Wallpaper File Name

Instructions for Windows 10 v1803 through v21H2 and Windows 11

To find the current lock screen image file in Windows 10/11, follow these steps:

1. Find your user account SID by opening a Command Prompt window and running this command:

   whoami /user

   

2. Note down the SID for your account.
3. In the Registry Editor, go to the following key:

   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Authentication\LogonUI\Creative\

4. Please select the appropriate SID subkey that corresponds to your user account, and double-click to expand it.
   Under your SID key, there may be more than one subkey underneath. Each subkey refers to a different wallpaper image file. The highest-numbered subkey, which is the last one, stores the file name of the currently used Windows Spotlight wallpaper in a value named landscapeImage. The other two or more subkeys contain references to recently used wallpaper images.
5. Select the highest-numbered subkey or the last one listed.

   

6. Double-click landscapeImage and copy the path. That’s your current lock screen wallpaper image file path.
7. Right-click Start, click  Run, and type this:

   explorer /select, [filepath]

   Replace [filepath] with the actual Lock Screen image path you copied from the Registry Editor in step 6, and press ENTER

8. That command opens the Assets folder with the current Windows Spotlight wallpaper file already selected.
9. You can copy it to your Desktop or Pictures folder, add the .JPG extension and use it.
   

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Authentication\LogonUI\Creative\<your SID>\<random-key-name>

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Lock Screen\Creative

For Windows 10 versions earlier than 1803

To find the current lock screen picture’s file and Path in Windows 10 v1803 and earlier, follow these steps:

1. Start the Registry Editor (regedit.exe) and go to the registry path mentioned above.
   
   The value data for LandscapeAssetPath is what you need, if using a computer. PortraitAssetPath image applies to mobile devices. These two values hold the file name of the current Windows Spotlight wallpaper image.
2. Double-click the LandscapeAssetPath value and copy the data to the clipboard.
3. Right-click Start, click Run, and then type this:

   explorer /select, [filepath]

   Of course, replace [filepath] with the actual Lock Screen image path you copied from the Registry Editor, and press ENTER

   That command opens the Assets folder with the current Windows 10 Spotlight wallpaper file already selected. You can copy it to your Desktop or Pictures folder, add the .JPG extension and use it.

4. Exit the Registry Editor.

Using Script to Find the Current Lock Screen Image File

To find and open the current lock screen (Windows Spotlight image) wallpaper, here is a VBScript.

For Windows 10 v1803 & higher and Windows 11

'File: find_curr_spotlight_wallpaper.vbs
'---------------------------------------

'Find current lock screen wallpaper file in Windows 10
'For Windows 10 build 17134 (v1803) and higher.
'Created on 14-May '19 - (c) Ramesh Srinivasan
'Reviewed on 4-Nov '20

Option Explicit
Const HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE = &H80000002
Dim sWallPaper, oReg, strKeyPath, sCurWP
Dim arrSubKeys, subkey, GetOS, GetBuild

GetVersion()
If InStr(LCase(GetOS), "windows 10") = 0 Then WScript.Quit
If CInt(GetBuild) < 17134 Then WScript.Quit Dim objFSO: Set objFSO = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject") Dim WshShell : Set WshShell = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell") Dim strUser : strUser = CreateObject("WScript.Network").UserName Set oReg=GetObject("winmgmts:{impersonationLevel=impersonate}!\\" & _ "." & "\root\default:StdRegProv") strKeyPath = "SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Authentication\" & _ "LogonUI\Creative\" + GetSID(strUser) oReg.EnumKey HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, strKeyPath, arrSubKeys For Each subkey In arrSubKeys sWallPaper = subkey Next strKeyPath = strKeyPath & "\" & sWallPaper oReg.GetStringValue HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, strKeyPath, "landscapeImage", sCurWP If objFSO.FileExists(sCurWP) Then Dim sWPTarget sWPTarget = WshShell.ExpandEnvironmentStrings("%userprofile%") & _ "\Desktop\lockscreen_wallpaper.jpg" objFSO.CopyFile sCurWP, sWPTarget, True WshShell.Run sWPTarget WScript.Sleep 1000 If MsgBox ("Locate wallpaper file in the Assets folder?", vbYesNo, "Find Wallpaper") = 6 Then WshShell.run "explorer.exe" & " /select," & sCurWP End If Else WScript.Echo("The wallpaper image does not exist on the disk!") WScript.Quit End If Function GetSID(UserName) Dim DomainName, Result, WMIUser If InStr(UserName, "\") > 0 Then
      DomainName = Mid(UserName, 1, InStr(UserName, "\") - 1)
      UserName = Mid(UserName, InStr(UserName, "\") + 1)
   Else
      DomainName = CreateObject("WScript.Network").UserDomain
   End If
   On Error Resume Next
   Set WMIUser = GetObject("winmgmts:{impersonationlevel=impersonate}!" _
   & "/root/cimv2:Win32_UserAccount.Domain='" & DomainName & "'" _
   & ",Name='" & UserName & "'")
   
   If Err.Number = 0 Then
      Result = WMIUser.SID
   Else
      Result = ""
      WScript.Echo "Can't determine the SID. Quitting.."
      WScript.Quit
   End If
   On Error GoTo 0
   GetSID = Result
End Function

Function GetVersion()
   Dim objWMIService, colOSes, objOS
   Set objWMIService = GetObject("winmgmts:" _
   & "{impersonationLevel=impersonate}!\\" & "." & "\root\cimv2")
   Set colOSes = objWMIService.ExecQuery("Select * from Win32_OperatingSystem")
   For Each objOS In colOSes
      GetOS =  objOS.Caption
      GetBuild = objOS.BuildNumber
   Next
End Function

For Windows 10 v1709 and earlier

'File: find_curr_spotlight_wallpaper_old.vbs
'-------------------------------------------

'Finds current lock screen wallpaper file, copies it to Pictures folder and previews it.
'Ramesh Srinivasan, Winhelponline.com
'Created on 1 Sep, '16
'For Windows 10 v1709 and earlier
Dim WshShell: Set WshShell = Createobject("Wscript.Shell")
Dim objFSO: Set objFSO = Createobject("Scripting.Filesystemobject")
On error resume next
sCurrLSI = WshShell.RegRead ("HKCU\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Lock Screen\Creative\LandscapeAssetPath")
On error goto 0
sDstFL = WshShell.ExpandEnvironmentStrings( "%USERPROFILE%" )
sDstFL = sDstFl & "\Pictures\" & objFSO.GetFileName(sCurrLSI) & ".jpg"
if objFSO.FileExists(sCurrLSI) then
	objFSO.copyfile sCurrLSI, sDstFL
	WshShell.Run sDstFL
else
	Msgbox "Lock Screen image file doesn't exist in the specified location."
end if

Script Download links:

• find_curr_spotlight_wallpaper.vbs (Windows 10 v1803 & higher and Windows 11)
• find_curr_spotlight_wallpaper_old.vbs (for v1709 & earlier)

The script does the following things:

1. Finds the current lock screen image wallpaper file from the registry.
2. Copies current lock screen wallpaper file to Pictures folder and adds a .jpg extension.
3. Previews the wallpaper using your default image viewer.
4. Opens File Explorer and selects the current wallpaper image file.

I hope the above methods to find the current Windows 10 lock screen (Windows Spotlight) wallpaper image were useful. Let’s know your comments.

(This article was last reviewed on July 30, 2022. The methods are verified to work on Windows 10 v21H2 and Windows 11 v21H2.)