Reset Windows Spotlight

I am using Windows Spotlight on the lock screen of my Windows 10 laptop, and I have accidently liked some photos, and the keep coming up. is there a way to 'change your mind' about a photo, or just reset the whole thing?

Answer

I was also frustrated by this very same issue with the Windows Spotlight Lockscreen image on Windows 10.

Being unable to "change your mind" after having previously selected either "I want more" or "Not a fan" is a real pain. I've described below what worked for me. It may not be a full solution, especially if Microsoft change the way Spotlight works, but for now it seems to be a good enough work around.

WARNING: This involves changing values in the Windows Registry so be warned that it is generally considered a dangerous practice if you're not sure of what you're doing. Proceed at your own risk. Don't hold me liable if you break your machine.

The basic idea is that the current lockscreen image is stored at the following registry path: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Lock Screen\Creative

1. Open the Windows Registry


2. Follow the registry path:
   HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Lock Screen\Creative


3. Find the key "CreativeJson" and double click on it. The 'Edit String' dialog will open.
   
   
   
   • Go to the 'Value data' field. It contains a rather long json string with parameters affecting how the lockscreen image operates.
   
   
   • Start scrolling through the json string from the very left and you'll find a lot of key-value pairs in there including: "creativeId", "placementId", "impressionToken" among others. (These are not very useful for what we need, but i've pointed them out just as a check-point to see if you're on the right track)
   
   
   • The important ones for this process start approaching when you see "onHover", "onPositiveFeedback", "onNegativeFeedback" and the one that will solve our problems 'feedbackProvided'.
   
   
   • If you've previously given feedback it will have value of "true". If you have not it will be "false". So in our case where we want to change the decision we made, it should already read "true", so it will involve changing the value from "true" to "false".
   
   
   • Change this particular value and it should read now "feedbackProvided":false
     (NB: Don't change anything else. The entire rest of the string should remain the same)
   
   
   
   


4. Once you've done this click "Ok" and you can close the registry.


5. If you lock your screen now the current image should now allow you to make a choice again.

Note: As this registry path holds the settings for the current lock screen image, several parameters will obviously change when the Windows decides to change the lock screen for you. I think among these many parameters they have some sort of "Time-to-Live" for the current lockscreen.

Note2: The location of where the images are stored is also found at the registry path mentioned above, but at the Registry Key "HotspotImageFolderPath". On most Win 10 machines at the moment, the default should be:

C:\Users\[USERNAME]\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.Windows.ContentDeliveryManager_cw5n1h2txyewy\ LocalState\Assets

Update: Here is a Powershell script to update the feedback flag:

$creativeJson = (Get-ItemProperty 'HKCU:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Lock Screen\Creative').CreativeJson | ConvertFrom-Json
$creativeJson.cdm.feedbackEvents.feedbackProvided = $false
New-ItemProperty -Path 'HKCU:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Lock Screen\Creative' -Name CreativeJson -Value ($creativeJson | ConvertTo-Json -Depth 100 -Compress) -Force