Use Windows Spotlight background as the Start Page / Window background

[pafflick]

Inspired by the feature request by @yes-aravind

Use Windows 10 Logon Screen background image (AKA Windows Spotlight) in Vivaldi (as the Start Page / Speed Dial / Window background image).

1. Create a new text document.
2. Paste the code (provided at the bottom of this post) into the text file's content.
3. Save the file and rename it to something like eg. logon-background.bat (make sure that file extensions are visible, as you have to change the file's extension from *.txt to *.bat).
4. Run the file to extract the image (double-click it) - you have to do this only once, to create the image for the first time.
5. Copy the file ([CTRL]+[C]) and go to the following path using the File Explorer: %AppData%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup\
6. Don't paste the file itself, but rather choose "Paste shortcut" from the context menu (right click anywhere inside the folder).
7. Go to Vivaldi settings and change the Start Page or Window background (or both) by pointing to the file created by the batch script (by default it will reside on the C:\ drive, but you can change that directory to whatever you like, by editing the last line in the batch code).

Done! Now, the batch script will run on each system startup to update the background image with the latest one from the Windows Spotlight. This way you can match your Vivaldi background with the one from the Windows 10 Logon Screen.

---

Here's the code that you should paste into the batch file:

@echo off
set "query=HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Authentication\LogonUI\Creative\"
for /F "TOKENS=1-2* delims= " %%G in (
    'REG QUERY %query% /F landscapeImage /S /V ^|find /I "landscapeImage"'
) DO (
    set "image=%%I"
)
copy %image% "C:\logon-background.jpg" /Y

[LonM]

I had some trouble with it pointing to the root c: directory due to admin permissions, but it works if I change it to be my user folder.

Nice work!

[pafflick]

@lonm Thanks for pointing that out. I didn't think about it, I just wanted to use a path that is simple and available on most computers - initially, I used D:\ but not all computers have more than one partition or disk...

Besides, it's just an example, everyone can use a path of their choice.

[Kobi]

@pafflick said in Use Windows Spotlight background as the Start Page / Window background:

@lonm Thanks for pointing that out. I didn't think about it, I just wanted to use a path that is simple and available on most computers - initially, I used D:\ but not all computers have more than one partition or disk...

Besides, it's just an example, everyone can use a path of their choice.

%UserProfile%\Desktop

[pafflick]

@kobi said in Use Windows Spotlight background as the Start Page / Window background:

%UserProfile%\Desktop

I have my Desktop folder stored on another drive and that causes the image to appear on the "wrong" desktop (in the default location), meaning that the file won't appear on the actual Desktop (the one that I'm actually seeing).

Plus I don't think that it is neat to keep such file on the desktop. Documents are a better choice, but again - for some reason, Windows sometimes decides to keep duplicated folders within the User Profile (if you choose to store them in other location as I do).

[Kobi]

@pafflick said in Use Windows Spotlight background as the Start Page / Window background:

@kobi said in Use Windows Spotlight background as the Start Page / Window background:

%UserProfile%\Desktop

I have my Desktop folder stored on another drive and that causes the image to appear on the "wrong" desktop (in the default location), meaning that the file won't appear on the actual Desktop (the one that I'm actually seeing).

Plus I don't think that it is neat to keep such file on the desktop. Documents are a better choice, but again - for some reason, Windows sometimes decides to keep duplicated folders within the User Profile (if you choose to store them in other location as I do).

You asked for a folder everyone has, I gave you (very few people know and change the Desktop folder location). User will have easy and fast access to the wallpaper to do whatever they want with it, they don't have to keep it on the Desktop.

As for Windows 10 keeping duplicates is a known bug caused by KFR.

Microsoft actually finally fixed this on October Update, but due to kids not knowing how to use KFR, they lost their files and Microsoft was forced to keep the duplicate folders bug as well as rollback the Update.

[yes.aravind]

@pafflick Thank you so much for coming up with this.

@pafflick @LonM @kobi
Will this work even if you don't use the spotlight by default for the lockscreen?

[LonM]

@yes-aravind I tried it without having spotlight turned on. It seems that Windows will only download the latest images if you have spotlight turned on.

There are probably other programmatic ways you could get the latest images without spotlight being turned on (e.g. From bing via the Internet) , but I don't know any off the top of my head.