Groups > alt.comp.os.windows-10 > #182476

Windows Spotlight shows picture information data on lock screen of one PC, but not others.

From	Java Jive <java@evij.com.invalid>
Newsgroups	alt.comp.os.windows-10
Subject	Windows Spotlight shows picture information data on lock screen of one PC, but not others.
Date	2025-02-22 16:26 +0000
Organization	A noiseless patient Spider
Message-ID	<vpctqt$1jqq$1@dont-email.me> (permalink)

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As previously described, I have a series of Dell Precision M6[3|7|8]00s 
running the same builds of W7P (one Ultimate) 64-Bit, W10P 64-Bit 
upgraded from the W7, 32-Bit either W7, M6[7|8]00s, or XP, M6300, and 
Ubuntu 22.  This posts concerns any of these PCs running W10P, and as a 
comparison one of them running the original W10P build that it came 
with, previous history unknown, but can't have been a straight install, 
as it came with a weird and lurid dart-board desktop background and 
Firefox as the default browser.

The problem is simply this ...

While all of the PCs run Windows Spotlight as the desktop background 
successfully, complete with the desktop link to provide the information 
as to where a given photo was taken, and all of them run Windows 
Spotlight as the lock screen, only the one with its original build shows 
the "Like what you see?" icon in the top right-hand corner, the clicking 
of which correspondingly for the lock screen supplies the information as 
to where the photo was taken.  In what follows, I shall refer to this as 
the Spotlight icon.

This seems to be a common situation, for example ...

There is an unintentionally comical thread in Microsoft's Windows forum 
dating from 2016 where one of a number of posters all with the same 
problem shows screenshots from two PCs in his household both recently 
clean-installed with Windows 10 where one shows the icon and even the 
photo's title on the lock screen, but the other does not.  As the thread 
is entitled something like "Where were these pictures taken", the 
unintended comedy comes from a number of probable chatbots failing the 
Turing Test by telling the various posters 'where' the photos are 
located in their user profile!  This extends over 8 pages of 
increasingly frustrated and angry posts with absolutely no useful reply 
ever coming from Microshit.

A common 'solution' touted online, which so far has never worked with 
me, is to temporarily disable Windows Spotlight by choosing a fixed 
picture in the Personalisation settings, delete the previous Spotlight 
images and settings files in the user profile, re-register and 
re-install the app, reboot, and re-enable Spotlight.

After trying all, I think, of the various 'solutions' found online 
without any success whatsoever, I reloaded the original build of one of 
the PCs as described above, and found that it had no problem displaying 
the information on the lock screen, so I set about systematically 
comparing two builds, that and a fresh upgrade in place from W7U -> W10P 
on the Precision M6300.  Here's what I have discovered so far ...

1  At least on my own build, Windows Spotlight on the lock screen can be 
enabled immediately  -  I mean from straight after performing the 
upgrade from Windows 7  -  under Personalisation, Lock screen and it 
will work in the sense that it will display the images, but it may not, 
won't in my case, work completely in that the Spotlight icon may be missing.

2  Again at least on my own build, Spotlight did NOT work immediately as 
the Desktop background.  You could select it in the Personalisation, 
Background setting, but nothing would happen, and if you navigated away 
from that setting and then returned to it, it would revert to its former 
setting.  To get Spotlight to work as a Desktop background, I had to 
install the Spotlight app from the Windows Store, and sometimes also 
install a theme saved from a PC where it was working.

3  Again at least on my own build, Microsoft Edge was not immediately 
left in a working state.  I had to ensure that Windows Store was 
working, then go into Apps, Apps & features, select Microsoft Edge and 
click Modify, which reinstalled it.  It was then left in a working state.

4  Even when between two PCs the following are identical, or at least 
identical in anything apparently remotely relevant, there is no 
guarantee that they will both show the Spotlight icon:

-  All Personalisation settings, including copying theme from working to 
non-working PC;

-  Privacy, Background apps;

-  Services running;

-  Tasks shown running in Task Manager.

Yesterday, on my trial upgrade build I allowed Edge to take over as the 
default browser, even though on the comparison build, which works, 
Firefox is the default browser.  That initially seemed to make no 
difference, even after a reboot, but ...

Last night I launched GPEdit.msc on the problem build and disabled all 
settings, then launched SecPol.msc and began to do the same, but got 
tired before I'd really got into the latter, hibernated the PC, and went 
to bed.

This morning, I powered it up, and lo, the Spotlight icon is there!

So I'm guessing that it's either the default browser or the GPEdit 
settings, most probably the latter if I manage to nail it down further, 
I'll post back.

-- 

Fake news kills!

I may be contacted via the contact address given on my website: 
www.macfh.co.uk

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