How To Reset Spotlight In Windows 10

Windows 10 features the Spotlight feature which allows you to have a random image on the Lock screen every time you see it. It downloads beautiful images from the Internet and shows them on your lock screen. So, every time you boot or lock Windows 10, you will see a new lovely image. The images are breathtakingly beautiful. If Spotlight got stuck for you and doesn't change the image, you should try resetting it. Here is how.

In Windows 10, Spotlight is a Universal app (UWP) which is deeply integrated with the OS. It is responsible for the image slideshow you see on the lock screen when Spotlight is enabled. Like any other modern app, it can be managed with PowerShell. You can also reset it using a special PowerShell command. In this article, we'll see how to reset it and clear its settings and cache.

To reset Spotlight in Windows 10, do the following.

Before you reset Spotlight, turn it off and select a static picture for your Lock Screen background. You might want to read the following article first: Change Lock Screen Background in Windows 10.

1. Open Settings.
2. Go to Personalization -> Lock screen.
3. Under Background on the right, select Picture. Set a single image to be used as the lock screen background. You can pick a specific image which is available out-of-the-box:

Now, open a new command prompt window and type or copy-paste the following command:

del /f /s /q /a "%userprofile%\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.Windows.ContentDeliveryManager_cw5n1h2txyewy\LocalState\Assets"

Next, type or copy-paste the following command:

del /f /s /q /a "%userprofile%\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.Windows.ContentDeliveryManager_cw5n1h2txyewy\Settings"

Now, open PowerShell.

Copy-paste or type the following command to execute in the PowerShell console.

$manifest = (Get-AppxPackage *ContentDeliveryManager*).InstallLocation + '\AppxManifest.xml' ; Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register $manifest

To save your time, you can create a batch file with the following contents:

del /f /s /q /a "%userprofile%\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.Windows.ContentDeliveryManager_cw5n1h2txyewy\LocalState\Assets"

del /f /s /q /a "%userprofile%\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.Windows.ContentDeliveryManager_cw5n1h2txyewy\Settings"

PowerShell -ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted -Command "& {$manifest = (Get-AppxPackage *ContentDeliveryManager*).InstallLocation + '\AppxManifest.xml' ; Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register $manifest}"

Paste the text above in a new Notepad window and save it to a file with the ".bat" extension.

Alternatively, you can download the ready-to-use batch file from here:

Download Batch File

That's it.