How to Use Windows Spotlight as Desktop Wallpaper Slideshow

The Windows Spotlight brings fresh wallpaper images for your lock screen daily. The wallpapers are stored in the Assets folder wherein the older wallpaper images will be purged automatically as the new set of images get downloaded. We saw how to save the lock screen wallpapers using various methods, including a scripting method.

This post tells you how to save Windows Spotlight images to a folder and use it as the wallpaper source for desktop slideshow in your account.

How to Use Windows Spotlight as Desktop Wallpaper Slideshow?

The procedure to set Windows Spotlight images as desktop wallpaper slideshow, you need to first collect the spotlight images and then set the background option to slideshow in Personalize settings. Let’s use a VBScript with Task Scheduler to collect Windows Spotlight lock screen images to a folder on a daily basis.

Step 1: Create VBScript file that copies the Spotlight images

Make a VBScript using the code provided in the article Save Windows Spotlight wallpapers

Name the script file as spotlight_collect.vbs and save to a folder — e.g., d:\tools\spotlight_collect.vbs

Step 2: Create a Scheduled Task that runs the script

1. Open an admin Command Prompt window and type:

   SCHTASKS /create /SC HOURLY /MO 6 /TN "Save Spotlight Images" /TR "wscript.exe d:\tools\spotlight_collect.vbs"

   This creates a scheduled task that will run the script every 6 hours, indefinitely.

   You should see the message SUCCESS: The scheduled task “Save Spotlight Images” has successfully been created. after running the command.

   A new task appears in the Task Scheduler window.

   

2. Then, in the Command Prompt, run the following command to start the task. You’ll need to do this for the 1st time only.

   schtasks /Run /TN "Save Spotlight Images"

3. Open Task Scheduler and double-click the Save Spotlight Images task.
4. In the Settings tab of the task, enable the option Run task as soon as possible after a scheduled start is missed
   
5. Click OK.

Every time the Task Scheduler runs the script file, the new lock screen images are copied to the Spotlight Collection folder.

Once you collect enough wallpaper images, set a desktop background slideshow pointing to the Spotlight Collection folder as the source.

Step 3: Set the Desktop Background Slideshow

1. Open Settings → Personalization → Background
2. Select Slideshow in the drop-down box
   
3. Click Browse and select the Pictures\Spotlight Collection folder.

That’s it! Your desktop background slideshow will use your Windows Spotlight collection folder as the source.

Using Dynamic Theme app from Microsoft Store

If you don’t want to collect Spotlight images and use it as desktop slideshow, you can use the Dynamic Theme app from Microsoft Store to set Windows Spotlight or Bing images as your desktop wallpaper or slideshow. Dynamic Theme app downloads images from Microsoft Spotlight and Bing servers directly.

Dynamic Theme can set your desktop background or lock screen image with daily Bing or Windows Spotlight pictures, one Bing or Windows Spotlight picture or personal pictures. It lets you save daily Windows Spotlight or daily Bing images in a folder of your choice. It can also synchronize your wallpaper across your devices.

Dynamic Theme also has an option to show a notification when a new Bing image or Spotlight image is downloaded. By default, the Dynamic Theme app downloads images only on non-metered connections. But, you can configure it to download wallpapers even on metered networks.

Dynamic Theme is a wonderful app with plenty of options for setting Lock Screen images, Desktop wallpapers, sync the settings across devices, choose a regional culture (for getting Bing images), etc.