How to Find the Current Wallpaper File Name and Path in Windows 10

If you’re using the Desktop background slideshow or third-party wallpaper changer software and want to find the file name of the currently displayed desktop wallpaper, then this article is for you. The current wallpaper path is are stored in the registry but is not displayed in the modern Personalize settings page in Windows 10.

This post tells you how to find the current wallpaper file name and path in Windows 8 and Windows 10.

How to Find the Current Desktop Wallpaper in Windows 10

Here are five different methods to find the current desktop background (wallpaper) file name, starting with the easiest option.

Find the wallpaper image in your Themes folder in Windows 10

When you set a wallpaper of any image format, Windows converts that file to JPEG format and also sometimes reduces its quality. The converted wallpaper image may exist in one of the three different locations mentioned below, depending upon the method you used to set the wallpaper.

When you right-click on an image file and choose Set as desktop background in the context menu, a copy of the image file is converted and stored as TranscodedWallpaper without file extension. The transcoded wallpaper is stored here:

Type the above folder path in the Run dialog or Explorer address bar to access the location.

All you need to do is copy the transcoded image from the above to a different location, add the .jpg extension and use it.

If you used the Browse.. option in Personalize settings to set the desktop background, then the converted and up-scaled (matching your display resolution) version of the image is stored in the following directory.

The file naming convention is like CachedImage_1920_1080_POS0.jpg where the numbers indicate the current display resolution of 1920 x 1080. POS0 may indicate the monitor number (if using multiple monitors.)

In case you used neither methods above, but set the desktop background wallpaper via Windows Photo Viewer, then the transcoded JPEG file stored in the following folder as Windows Photo Viewer Wallpaper.jpg , and the file path is written to the registry.

Note that the quality of the transcoded and converted (to JPEG) wallpaper may not be exactly the same as the original.

The registry value TranscodedImageCache is updated in all of the above cases.

Find the Current Wallpaper using Desktop Background applet in Windows 10

The classic Desktop Background applet in Windows 10 shows the currently selected desktop background file name with full path.

1. Right-click Start, and click Run to bring up the Run dialog.
2. Type the following command and press ENTER

In Windows 10 this opens the classic desktop background applet, showing the current wallpaper image file and the folder path.

Find the current wallpaper file via Registry Editor in Windows 10

The reference to the current desktop wallpaper may exist in one or more locations in the registry.

Open the Registry Editor ( regedit.exe )

In the Registry Editor, there are the keys you need to check.

Look for the value named Wallpaper (Type: REG_SZ).

Look for the value named TranscodedImageCache (Type: REG_BINARY)

TranscodedImageCache is a binary value, but you can easily make out the file path by double-clicking the value and reading the data.

Another history location in Windows 10

Go to the following registry key which stores your desktop background history.

The BackgroundHistoryPath0 value lists the current wallpaper.

The values BackgroundHistoryPath1, BackgroundHistoryPath2, BackgroundHistoryPath3, BackgroundHistoryPath4 refer to the previous 4 wallpapers you used. The wallpaper history thumbnail images are shown on the Personalize background settings page in Windows 10.

Find the current wallpaper file using a script in Windows 8 and Windows 10

We have an article that determines the Wallpaper source in Windows 7 (REF: Add “Desktop Background File Location” Context Menu in Windows 7) but that script doesn’t work in Windows 8 and 10. This is because in Windows 8 and 10 the current Wallpaper source path is stored in a different registry branch. Moreover, in Windows 8 (and in early versions of Windows 10) Microsoft decided not to store the Wallpaper source path in plain-text.

The following script methods are especially useful for Windows 8. This is because the previously discussed registry values don’t exist in Windows 8, except the TranscodedImageCache binary value.

Find the current wallpaper file using PowerShell script (via the right-click menu)

Note that Unicode isn’t supported by the above VBScript (nor does my earlier script for Windows 7). These scripts won’t function correctly if the Wallpaper path contains non-English characters.

Thanks to John Dangerbrooks for the PowerShell script that helps you find the wallpaper location in Windows 7, 8, and 10. You may check them out in his blog post Finding wallpaper location in Windows | Confidential Files!.

The TranscodedImageCache registry value shows the original/source image file name in the following cases:

1. Set the desktop background via the image file’s right-click menu.
2. Set the desktop background via Personalize settings.
3. Set the desktop background via the classic Desktop Background applet.

The location of Windows 10 wallpapers for the Desktop and the Lock Screen

Windows 10 uses impressive pictures for the desktop background and for the Lock Screen. Some of them look great, and we especially like the new default wallpaper for Windows 10 May 2019 Update. If you want to know the location of those images, so that you can use them as wallpapers for other PCs and devices, read this article:

Where to see the background pictures used by Windows 10

Windows 10 uses a set of wallpapers that are found on every PC or device where it is installed. When you open the Settings app, go to Personalization.

When you select Background on the left, the right side of the window lets you see the pictures used as desktop wallpapers for Windows 10, in the area highlighted below.

Click or tap on Lock Screen in the column on the left, and on the right side of the Settings window, you see the pictures used by Windows 10 for the Lock Screen.

Next, let’s see how to find all these wallpapers on the disk.

The location of the wallpapers used by Windows 10 for the desktop

The location for Windows 10 desktop wallpapers is “C:WindowsWeb”. Open File Explorer, go to the C: drive, double-click on Windows and then on Web. There you find several subfolders: 4K, Screen, and Wallpaper.

If you open the 4K folder and all its subfolders, you find the wallpaper with the Windows logo, at different resolutions, and aspect ratios. This is the wallpaper used by default for Windows 10 May 2019 Update or newer.

When you open the Wallpaper subfolder, you find other folders:

• Flowers – it contains the standard Windows 10 wallpapers with flowers. There are six of them, all in Full HD resolution or higher.
• Windows – it contains the standard wallpaper with the Windows 10 logo.
• Windows 10 – it has five wallpapers at different resolutions, featuring nature scenes.

If you have purchased your Windows 10 PC, laptop or device from a manufacturer like HP, Dell, Lenovo, and so on, you may also find a folder created by the manufacturer, with their own default wallpapers. For example, our laptop has an HP Backgrounds folder with a wallpaper created by HP.

The location of the wallpapers used by Windows 10 for the Lock Screen

Windows 10’s Lock Screen wallpaper location is “C:WindowsWebScreen.” There you find six wallpapers, all in Full HD resolution or higher.

Which Windows 10 wallpapers do you like best?

Navigate through all the wallpapers that are bundled with Windows 10, and tell us which you like best. What do you think about the new wallpaper from Windows 10 May 2019 Update? We like it a lot more than previous versions, as it looks more optimistic and modern. Comment below and let’s discuss.

Where are Windows 10 desktop wallpapers stored? [duplicate]

I plugged in a thumb drive to my pc, right-clicked on an image, and chose ‘Set as desktop background’. The thumb drive was subsequently stolen. Windows obviously creates a copy on the image since it remains as the desktop background even after the thumb drive is removed. My question is, where exactly is this file stored?

5 Answers 5

Open regedit and go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Desktop\General key

The name of the key you are looking for is WallpaperSource

While the answers from duDE & CharlieRB is correct

I also think what OP is looking for is in %AppData%\Microsoft\Windows\Themes\

There would be a file called TranscodedWallpaper.jpg which is the currently set wallpaper

Some wallpapers are also stored in this location: C:\Users\xxxx\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.Windows.ContentDeliveryManager_cw5n1h2txyewy\LocalState\Assets

The images don’t have an extension but paint will open them. The larger files are the wallpapers. Copy the ones you want to another folder and add .jpg . List by date so you know when you get new ones.

Path to current desktop backgrounds in Windows 10?

There is another question on here that allows users to find the path to their current background image through a cmd command.

In Windows 10 this no longer works. It only returns the first image in the folder, it does not change with the backgrounds as they transition. I need a similar command that returns the path(s) to the current image on the desktop background(s) that actually works in Windows 10 if one exists.

5 Answers 5

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 here, try below path 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. (Source)

Default Windows wallpapers can be found in

You will see 3 folders

• «4K» for 4K wallpapers,
• «Screen» for lock screen backgrounds, &
• «Wallpapers» for Default Windows wallpapers

Installed themes (Aero, etc):

Per-user installed themes (including pre-installed from OEM):

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 (set by the app itself). Follow below steps —

1. 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).
2. 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

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:

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.

To get the «Transcoded» PATH in cleartext, do this in PowerShell:

You don’t explain exactly what is the FINAL purpose of this, so I can give some tips here based on a guess: you want to change your wallpaper in certain conditions (for example, one wallpaper every time you restart your computer) or to use a custom file as wallpaper.

In Windows 7 the wallpaper was usually found in %AppData%\Microsoft\Windows\Themes\TranscodedWallpaper .
In Windows 10 you will find it in %AppData%\Microsoft\Windows\Themes\CachedFiles .

You can also interrogate the registry at

but note the warnings below about programs that are NOT writing a file to disk!

If you want to build your own CMD script, this might be unreliable IF you set the wallpaper not from Windows but from an external program. For example, if I see a nice image in my browser, I set it as wallpaper directly from there. Same for IrfanView. I can easily name another 10 popular programs that could change the wallpaper to a custom path.

Note that some programs are changing the wallpaper without actually writing a file to disk. This can be done by hooking to the Microsoft Windows Desktop window and drawing directly on its canvas. This is how GIF/AVI animations are drawn on desktop.

There is another issue if you build your own script: How to you handle images that don’t have same aspect ratio as your desktop, or when desktop resolution changes?

The solution (if I guessed your problem correctly) would be to use a program like John’s Background Switcher or BioniX Desktop Background Changer. The latter is much more customizable and can be controlled via command line. It also has auto-detection to detect the best way to resize the image (fill/fit/tile). BioniX can also draw GIF without writing anything to disk (as explained above).

A even better way would be to use the «Lock on folder» option. Set BioniX to change your wallpaper every 60 seconds (don’t worry, you won’t see a new wallpaper every 60 seconds since you will use only one file). Set BioniX to lock on any folder (let’s say C:\Wallpapers ). Inside that folder you put a single file called something like My Wallpaper.jpg . BioniX will use that file as wallpaper every 60 seconds. Now, every time you want to change the wallpaper you replace the old My Wallpaper.jpg with your new file. BioniX will see the change you have done to the folder and apply the new file (within 60 seconds).

Let us know what you want to achieve with your script to get a better solution.