At present many apps tin proceed your Windows lock screen looking fresh every bit perfectly as Windows Spotlight. Once it is enabled, information technology is hard to get back to the traditional style of setting a lock screen wallpaper.

But similar so many other Windows features, Spotlight is not perfect and may stop working. Let's have a await at the possible reasons why Windows Spotlight stops working and await at some fixes to resolve the issue.

What Is Windows Spotlight?

Windows Spotlight is a service congenital into Windows ten that fetches new pictures from Bing and displays them on the lock screen. The images rotate every few days and feature location information too.

In addition to images, Windows Spotlight likewise shows ads on occasion. Unfortunately, if you don't want to see ads with Windows Spotlight images, you are out of luck. At that place is no mode to disable ads without disabling Windows Spotlight altogether.

Common Causes For Windows Spotlight Errors

Windows Spotlight occasionally stops working. While there is no concrete reason for this, common causes include:

  • No Internet connection, since Spotlight needs a connection to download images.
  • Windows updates sometimes suspension Windows Spotlight, and y'all may need to restart the service manually.
  • Images used by the Windows Spotlight feature tin can also get corrupted, resulting in Windows Spotlight errors. In this case, you lot tin make clean the Spotlight images folder and allow the service populate it once again.
  • Windows Spotlight setting files can also get corrupted requiring you to reset the service.

1. Restart Windows Spotlight

The simplest fix to attempt when Windows Spotlight is not working is to restart the service.

To do this:

  • Navigate to Windows Settings past pressing Win + I.
  • Click on Personalization and then striking Lock screen located in the left-paw panel.
  • Under Background, open the dropdown menu and choose Flick or Slideshow.
  • Shut the Settings app and restart your figurer.

Re-enable Windows Spotlight by retracing the above steps and enabling Spotlight instead of Motion picture and Slideshow.

Now, exam if the set up has worked past locking your estimator and seeing if you get new backgrounds on the lock screen. If Spotlight still doesn't work, try deleting the assets.

2. Manually Delete Spotlight Avails

Manually deleting Spotlight avails requires you to navigate to the binder where Spotlight'south avails are stored.

To do this:

  • Hit the Windows keys, type Run, and choose the appropriate option.
  • When the Run dialogue box appears, paste "%USERPROFILE%/AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.Windows.ContentDeliveryManager_cw5n1h2txyewy\LocalState\Avails" and click Ok.
  • Subsequently the binder opens, press Ctrl + A to select all files, and hitting the Delete key to remove all the files.

Finally, enable the Spotlight characteristic if you lot've disabled information technology, and restart your computer.

Meet if the characteristic has been fixed. If not, then try manually resetting Windows Spotlight.

iii. Manually Reset Windows Spotlight Settings

To manually reset Windows Spotlight:

  • Printing the Windows key, type Run, and choose the appropriate selection to open the Run dialogue box.
  • Paste "%USERPROFILE%/AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.Windows.ContentDeliveryManager_cw5n1h2txyewy\Settings" path into the dialogue box and printing Ok. This will open the Settings folder.
  • You lot'll observe ii files settings.dat and roaming.lock in the Settings folder. Rename these files to settings.dat.bak and roaming.lock.bak respectively, by right-clicking on each file and pressing Rename.
  • Close the folder and restart your computer.

Hopefully, Windows Spotlight will get-go working now. If Spotlight still doesn't work, you may need to install a fresh copy of Windows.

A Fresh Windows Install Can Fix a Lot of Issues

Windows features suspension a lot and, frequently, without any apparent reason. Moreover, fixes that are intended to resolve issues don't seem to piece of work.

In such cases, a fresh installation of Windows becomes necessary.

And so, if you lot've tried all the fixes listed above and Windows Spotlight still doesn't work, install a new copy of Windows.