Path to current desktop backgrounds in Windows 10?
A copy of the current wallpaper can be found by typing the below path in Windows File Explorer address bar.
Path 1 -%AppData%\Microsoft\Windows\Themes\CachedFiles
If you don’t find a copy of your current desktop background image at the above location, try the path below instead.
Path 2 -%AppData%\Microsoft\Windows\Themes\TranscodedWallpaper
Note: The file TranscodedWallpaper in Path 2 does not have a file extension. Use "Open With" or "How do you want to open this file?" dialogue box and select any image viewer, such as, "Windows Photo Viewer", "Honeyview" or the "Photos" app.
Note for Windows 10: The above locations have limitations. For example, if the wallpaper you’re looking for is no longer visible in the ‘Background’ tab in the Settings app, you can’t recover it. It will work for your last five wallpapers but nothing older 1.
Path 3 [default Windows wallpapers] -%SystemRoot%\Web
Check in one of the below folders -
- "4K" for 4K wallpapers,
- "Screen" for lock screen backgrounds,
- "touchkeyboard" for colorful abstract backdrops in Windows 11 2
- "Wallpapers" for default Windows wallpapers
Path 4 [wallpapers from installed themes (Aero, etc.)] -%SystemRoot%\Resources\Themes
Path 5 [wallpapers from per-user installed themes (including pre-installed from OEM)] -%LocalAppData%\Microsoft\Windows\Themes
If you are looking for the location of Lock Screen images, visit this SuperUser question.
Personally, I use John's Background Switcher to manage my desktop background.
John's Background Switcher has an option to view the current/previous desktop background (if set by the app itself). Follow below steps -
- Right click on the tray icon and select View Current Picture and the current desktop background opens in Windows Photo Viewer (or your default image viewer).
- In Windows Photo Viewer, you can right click on the image & select Open File Location to view the original location of current desktop background in windows File Explorer.
To activate Windows Photo Viewer in Windows 10 visit this article on HowToGeek
I have Windows 10, version 1709. One of the other answers got me looking in the registry and I found exactly what I needed in clear text at
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\WallPaper
No decoding needed.
Windows 8 and 10 still store the original path of the current background image - rather than the cached / transcoded file as in xypha's answer:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\TranscodedImageCache
Microsoft doesn't want things to be easy though: this isn't plain text so you have to decode it from binary.
The Winhelponline website has compiled a couple of scripts (VBA and PowerShell) which can print the image name, and launch Explorer to point to the image file.
http://www.winhelponline.com/blog/find-current-wallpaper-file-path-windows-10/
To get the "Transcoded" PATH in cleartext, do this in PowerShell:
$TIC=(Get-ItemProperty 'HKCU:\Control Panel\Desktop' TranscodedImageCache -ErrorAction Stop).TranscodedImageCache
[System.Text.Encoding]::Unicode.GetString($TIC) -replace '(.+)([A-Z]:[0-9a-zA-Z\\])+','$2'
To complete xypha's answer I have to note that:
Windows 10 Personalize Settings shows 5 wallpapers used recently, IF THE ORIGINAL FILES STILL EXIST but, if you set your wallpaper using the Windows 10's Photos app, a copy of the image will be kept in this location (only 1 photo will be kept):
%LOCALAPPDATA%\Packages\Microsoft.Windows.Photos_8wekyb3d8bbwe\LocalState\PhotosAppBackground\
Similarly, for the Lock Screen background:
%LOCALAPPDATA%\Packages\Microsoft.Windows.Photos_8wekyb3d8bbwe\LocalState\PhotosAppLockscreen\
If the directories do not exist, It's most likely that for each version of Windows, the Photos app version might be different so mind the trailing characters in this folder name: Microsoft.Windows.Photos_8wekyb3d8bbwe, look around and in the parent directory (%LOCALAPPDATA%\Packages\) and you will find the folder related to the Photos app Microsoft.Windows.Photos_RandomCharacters. My version of Windows 10 is 1803.