Lock your screen to build your reference library!

Spotlight Lock screen

What I really like about Windows 10 is the option to show spotlights when locking your computer. It’s a new feature that the developers added in Windows 10, next to the option of having an image or slideshow.
For me it’s a great opportunity to build my reference library with images of subjects I maybe never heard of. You can click on one of the accompanying texts so Internet Explorer opens automatically when logging in. It will fill in a search query in Google so you can research the subject further and look for the image shown in the lock screen.

Remember my post on how to study, paint and render rocks digitally? I got inspired by an Windows spotlight image of Ronda, Spain.
The problem though, sometimes it’s a hard to find that exact image that you liked in the first place.

Locate the Spotlight Lock Screen images

If you want to find the exact image displayed, there is a way to find it in the file explorer on your computer. Follow the steps below to find the images:

• Because the files we are looking for are hidden files, the first thing you might want to do is show all your hidden files. Do so by going to View – Show hidden files in your File explorer
• Go to This PC > Local Disk (C:) > Users > [YOUR USERNAME] > AppData > Local >  Packages > Microsoft.Windows.ContentDeliveryManager_cw5n1h2txyewy > LocalState > Assets
• You will find a list with files that don’t make any sense. Sort the files on their size
• Copy those files to a new folder
• Rename the files and add the .JPG suffix to them
• Save the images to your reference library

Remember, having a reference library that you build on while working and studying will help tremendously with future projects and building your visual library. I would advice to put your reference library on a cloud service so it is always accessible.