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Photos at start of Win 10



 
 
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  #16  
Old June 24th 18, 07:31 PM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-10
Arlen Holder
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Posts: 466
Default Photos at start of Win 10

On Mon, 25 Jun 2018 01:40:20 +0800, Mr. Man-wai Chang wrote:

Ken wanted to know the actual geographical locations at which those
wallpapers were photographed, not file locations of those wallpapers.

Anyway, your reply might still help.


Heh heh ...

It's all good as we're helping everyone by helping each other.

To your first point, I clearly *knew* you'd say what you just said (in a
way), which is why you'll note that my response to your post very obviously
and very purposefully uses the phrases below repeatedly:
* "Further building upon that answer";
* "Googling further";
* "Building upon that answer";
* "Googling further, we find this related folder";
* and that this topic "is a good one to flesh out".

So, we agree.
a. You answered the question directly, while,
b. The rest of us helpfully fleshed the topic out even further.

That's how Usenet works when it works well (as it did here).

I'm not complaining about your response, as I'm *agreeing* with you that
you *directly* answered the OP's question, where I took great pains to
clearly and repeatedly state that I was simply further fleshing out the
topic overall of OS-based lockscreen image peculiarities.

The fact you ended your post with "Anyway, your reply might still help"
shows that we both understand two very clear points:
1. You directly and succinctly answered the OP's question, and,
2. I purposefully fleshed out the overall topic in far greater detail.
(as did others, like Paul, Char Jackson, Auric__, & Monty)

Neither of us is wrong.
a. You answered the question; and,
b. The rest of us fleshed out the topic further from there.

Since you already answered the question, I took it upon myself to learn
more and dig deeper into the overall lock-screen problem set, where I
clearly stated in my post that I hadn't delved into the details before but
that my curiosity was piqued by the OP's question.

In the end, after reading a score of articles on the Usenet, I *still*
needed Paul's help to flesh out some of those details, as noted by this
screenshot, so, we all benefit from the interaction, where our useful
information is now available in the tribal archives for others to benefit
from as they stand on our shoulders.
http://img4.imagetitan.com/img.php?image=18_lockscreen01.jpg

It's all good as we're helping everyone by helping each other.
Ads
  #17  
Old June 25th 18, 12:50 AM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-10
Ken[_8_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 166
Default Photos at start of Win 10

Ken wrote:
I know this is not very important, but it is a curiosity.Â* When Windows
10 starts a photo is shown before the desktop appears.Â* These photos
change frequently.Â* Some of the photos are stunning, and I wonder where
they were taken.Â* Is there a site or way of fining out where they were
taken?

I had no idea that the answer was so complex. I appreciate the
responses of those who did respond, but I was hoping for a simple
location or answer to my question. Some of the responses were quite
lengthy, and I am sure they were valid. They were however more complex
than I thought I would receive. What was thought to be a simple
question became a very complex answer. I am sorry to have created so
much trouble, and appreciate your efforts to answer my question.
  #18  
Old June 25th 18, 01:02 AM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-10
Paul[_32_]
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Posts: 11,873
Default Photos at start of Win 10

Ken wrote:
Ken wrote:
I know this is not very important, but it is a curiosity. When
Windows 10 starts a photo is shown before the desktop appears. These
photos change frequently. Some of the photos are stunning, and I
wonder where they were taken. Is there a site or way of fining out
where they were taken?


I had no idea that the answer was so complex. I appreciate the
responses of those who did respond, but I was hoping for a simple
location or answer to my question. Some of the responses were quite
lengthy, and I am sure they were valid. They were however more complex
than I thought I would receive. What was thought to be a simple
question became a very complex answer. I am sorry to have created so
much trouble, and appreciate your efforts to answer my question.


The answer is quite simple.

C:\Users\UserName\AppData\Local\Packages\
Microsoft.Windows.ContentDeliveryManager_cw5n1h2tx yewy\LocalState\Assets

ff782ce3c9a149c1a13d00b69219712970f9f85d549afb5e4c 66c213aa072f41 === a JPEG etc.

Open an Irfanview window, drag and drop one of the bigger (higher byte
count) files in the directory onto Irfanview. If it asks to
put a file extension on the file, *deny* this request, since you
don't want to affect the file in any way while visiting. I tried
turning off that Irfanview request dialog, and the control for it
didn't work.

The people answering the question, knew what they were
getting into when they started. As it's like Microsoft
to obfuscate stuff. Nothing to apologize for.

I'm surprised there's a usable answer. I was expecting to
find a Jet Blue database file with all the images hidden
inside. That's what I would do if I was a Junior Programmer
sitting in a Microsoft cubicle, is make a real challenge
for the customers.

Now, your task, is to see if you can find the comment text
English that appears on those images :-) That should be
a fun project.

Also, once you have a filename, such as the sample above,
do a search in Regedit and see if the filename in question
is stored in there. If it's in there, the name "ContentDeliveryManager"
should be part of the keys you find.

Finding that folder, is just the first part of the adventure.

Paul
  #19  
Old June 25th 18, 04:39 AM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-10
Paul[_32_]
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Posts: 11,873
Default Photos at start of Win 10

Paul wrote:
Ken wrote:
Ken wrote:
I know this is not very important, but it is a curiosity. When
Windows 10 starts a photo is shown before the desktop appears. These
photos change frequently. Some of the photos are stunning, and I
wonder where they were taken. Is there a site or way of fining out
where they were taken?


I had no idea that the answer was so complex. I appreciate the
responses of those who did respond, but I was hoping for a simple
location or answer to my question. Some of the responses were quite
lengthy, and I am sure they were valid. They were however more
complex than I thought I would receive. What was thought to be a
simple question became a very complex answer. I am sorry to have
created so much trouble, and appreciate your efforts to answer my
question.


The answer is quite simple.

C:\Users\UserName\AppData\Local\Packages\

Microsoft.Windows.ContentDeliveryManager_cw5n1h2tx yewy\LocalState\Assets

ff782ce3c9a149c1a13d00b69219712970f9f85d549afb5e4c 66c213aa072f41 === a JPEG etc.


That's still not it. The identifier here, the x-y-z part is a SID (security
identifier) which is a random function of a particular OS install. The
1001 is a user account (normally they start at 1000).

This would have come into the machine at a larger size, and been
downsized to fit my screen. And that means, I can't do a simple search
on file size, to see it come in via BITS.

C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\SystemData\S-1-5-21-xxxxxxxxx-yyyyyyyyyy-zzzzzzzzzz-1001\
ReadOnly\LockScreen_O\LockScreen___1440_0900_notdi mmed.jpg

It's also stripped of EXIF. The text that comes with it,
perhaps it was contained in the source photo, which I
can't find.

The LockScreen_W folder, contains your normal login background.

By using the camera icon here, you can upload the image
to the google image search, and the picture I had
in my folder was "Medvednica Croatia Forest".

https://www.google.ca/imghp?hl=en&tab=wi

That worked better than it normally does, as previous
attempts to search for images got me "mostly crap"
for results. This time I got multiple exact hits,
which is some kind of miracle.

*******

I used Procmon and did boot logging to catch the path
in question above.

Paul
  #20  
Old June 25th 18, 05:06 AM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-10
...w¡ñ§±¤ñ
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 79
Default Photos at start of Win 10

"Ken" wrote in message news

I know this is not very important, but it is a curiosity. When Windows 10
starts a photo is shown before the desktop appears. These photos change
frequently. Some of the photos are stunning, and I wonder where they were
taken. Is there a site or way of fining out where they were taken?


See
https://www.intowindows.com/know-whe...ure-was-taken/


....w¡ñ§±¤ñ
ms mvp windows 2007-2016, insider mvp 2016-2018

  #21  
Old June 25th 18, 05:07 AM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-10
Arlen Holder
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Posts: 466
Default Photos at start of Win 10

On Sun, 24 Jun 2018 20:02:35 -0400, Paul wrote:

The answer is quite simple.

C:\Users\UserName\AppData\Local\Packages\
Microsoft.Windows.ContentDeliveryManager_cw5n1h2tx yewy\LocalState\Assets

ff782ce3c9a149c1a13d00b69219712970f9f85d549afb5e4c 66c213aa072f41 === a JPEG etc.


Hi Paul,
I think there are a few locations for "lockscreen" files, where the
location matters depending on the particular question asked about them.

%WINDIR%\Web\Screen\.
%LOCALAPPDATA%\Packages\Microsoft.Windows.ContentD eliveryManager_cw5n1h2txyewy\LocalState\Assets\.
C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\SystemData\S-1-5-21-*\ReadOnly\LockScreen_0\.

Open an Irfanview window, drag and drop one of the bigger (higher byte
count) files in the directory onto Irfanview. If it asks to
put a file extension on the file, *deny* this request, since you
don't want to affect the file in any way while visiting. I tried
turning off that Irfanview request dialog, and the control for it
didn't work.


In my "Assets" folder, mine were all PNGs, where very few (almost none)
were even remotely related to the lock screen images (but a couple were the
current lock screen AFAICT).
http://img4.imagetitan.com/img.php?image=18_assets.jpg

The people answering the question, knew what they were
getting into when they started. As it's like Microsoft
to obfuscate stuff. Nothing to apologize for.


Exactly. While I don't normally bother with decorative niceties such as a
lockscreen photo, my interest was piqued by the question where I tried to
dig further into what Microsoft was actually doing, what they were
changing, where they were storing the files, when they changed those files,
etc.

It's all part of Usenet working well together, as it did on this thread,
where the worthless trolls, surprisingly, have shied away from this thread
(perhaps partly due to the strategic troll-shaming effort underway).
  #22  
Old June 25th 18, 05:38 AM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-10
Arlen Holder
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 466
Default Photos at start of Win 10

On Sun, 24 Jun 2018 23:39:18 -0400, Paul wrote:

C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\SystemData\S-1-5-21-xxxxxxxxx-yyyyyyyyyy-zzzzzzzzzz-1001\
ReadOnly\LockScreen_O\LockScreen___1440_0900_notdi mmed.jpg
I used Procmon and did boot logging to catch the path
in question above.


Hi Paul,
You did far better than I when I was trying to figure out what is inside
that cryptically secured "Lockscreen_0" folder earlier today, so kudos to
you on that successful delving effort.

For the tribal record, here are my screenshots of the related locations:

1: %WINDIR%\Web\Screen\.
http://img4.imagetitan.com/img.php?image=18_lockscreenimage1.jpg

2. %LOCALAPPDATA%\Packages\Microsoft.Windows.ContentD eliveryManager_cw5n1h2txyewy\LocalState\Assets\.
http://img4.imagetitan.com/img.php?image=18_lockscreenimage2.jpg

3. C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\SystemData\S-1-5-21-*\ReadOnly\LockScreen_0\.
http://img4.imagetitan.com/img.php?image=18_lockscreenimage3.jpg

I presume Microsoft will change the data in these three locations upon each
reboot, but I haven't tested that out to be sure.
  #23  
Old June 25th 18, 05:52 AM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-10
Paul[_32_]
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Posts: 11,873
Default Photos at start of Win 10

....w¡ñ§±¤ñ wrote:
"Ken" wrote in message news

I know this is not very important, but it is a curiosity. When
Windows 10 starts a photo is shown before the desktop appears. These
photos change frequently. Some of the photos are stunning, and I
wonder where they were taken. Is there a site or way of fining out
where they were taken?


See
https://www.intowindows.com/know-whe...ure-was-taken/

...w¡ñ§±¤ñ
ms mvp windows 2007-2016, insider mvp 2016-2018


The descriptive information doesn't seem to be stored inside
the lockscreen picture itself, nor as a separate file.

At some point, a higher resolution picture must be
getting downloaded, then it's adjusted to fit the
current screen (1440x900 on my test machine) and
stored in the Lockscreen_O folder.

Running Procmon, so far I haven't been able to spot
the picture coming in over the network. I presume it's
delivered dynamically, rather than being "canned"
in the installer DVD. As that would be a waste of
install-time space.

The nice thing though, is the descriptive text for the
one I've got now, is pretty unique.

A search with HxD spotted the annotation text, but
figuring out which file that is, isn't particularly easy.
Fortunately, the hit isn't Unicode. Which will make finding
it a tiny bit easier with a second method.

Paul
  #24  
Old June 25th 18, 07:57 AM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-10
Paul[_32_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 11,873
Default Photos at start of Win 10

Paul wrote:
...w¡ñ§±¤ñ wrote:
"Ken" wrote in message news

I know this is not very important, but it is a curiosity. When
Windows 10 starts a photo is shown before the desktop appears. These
photos change frequently. Some of the photos are stunning, and I
wonder where they were taken. Is there a site or way of fining out
where they were taken?


See
https://www.intowindows.com/know-whe...ure-was-taken/

...w¡ñ§±¤ñ
ms mvp windows 2007-2016, insider mvp 2016-2018


The descriptive information doesn't seem to be stored inside
the lockscreen picture itself, nor as a separate file.

At some point, a higher resolution picture must be
getting downloaded, then it's adjusted to fit the
current screen (1440x900 on my test machine) and
stored in the Lockscreen_O folder.

Running Procmon, so far I haven't been able to spot
the picture coming in over the network. I presume it's
delivered dynamically, rather than being "canned"
in the installer DVD. As that would be a waste of
install-time space.

The nice thing though, is the descriptive text for the
one I've got now, is pretty unique.

A search with HxD spotted the annotation text, but
figuring out which file that is, isn't particularly easy.
Fortunately, the hit isn't Unicode. Which will make finding
it a tiny bit easier with a second method.

Paul


This file may be coincidental.

C:\Users\UserName\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft .Windows.ContentDeliveryManager_cw5n1h2txyewy\
LocalState\ContentManagementSDK\Creatives\338387\1 529806393

This one seems to be the lock screen. Googling the Lockscreen JPEG file
got me "Medvednica Croatia Forest". And this is some file content
to put the text on the image.

C:\Users\UserName\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft .Windows.ContentDeliveryManager_cw5n1h2txyewy\
LocalState\TargetedContentCache\v3\338387\4cd2d8e8 8326405d94842f58316a3718_1

These are the incoming files, which apparently don't stick around
after they've been scaled down.

"properties": {
"landscapeImage": {
"fileSize": 464806,
"height": 1080,
"sha256": "xsI2WxxouGtykzi5yQWHhUfOweWFwTcj61lyvTQqEKU=" ,
"width": 1920,
"image": "C:\\Users\\UserName\\AppData\\Local\\Packages \\
Microsoft.Windows.ContentDeliveryManager_cw5n1h2tx yewy\\
LocalState\\Assets\\
ca71ba93a33da65caca9412983185a7c787590b7e39382b560 56ed16a06785d1"
},
"portraitImage": {
"fileSize": 532518,
"height": 1920,
"sha256": "sZ/9M7Cidqy7UaYhSCezprA45ulCiioWYOWngtyzslM=",
"width": 1080,
"image": "C:\\Users\\UserName\\AppData\\Local\\Packages \\
Microsoft.Windows.ContentDeliveryManager_cw5n1h2tx yewy\\
LocalState\\Assets\\
70ada7d4ff3e358b8fec327b51552e0138f2cfe89b097c5e81 3dc9ef4995e68b"
},

Then comes the comment on the screen.

"properties": {
"template": {
"text": "basicHotspot"
},
"title": {
"text": "It may be hard to imagine that just south of this tranquil forest lies…"
},
"actionText": {
"text": "One of the liveliest capital cities in Central Europe"
},
...

"description": {
"text": "Medvednica, Croatia"
},

The file is a bit of a mess. I loaded it into jsbeautifier.org
to clean it up (a formatter that runs locally in your browser).

Paul
  #25  
Old June 25th 18, 10:44 AM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-10
mechanic
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Posts: 1,064
Default Photos at start of Win 10

On Sun, 24 Jun 2018 18:50:44 -0500, Ken wrote:

What was thought to be a simple question became a very complex
answer.


Often the case, e.g. in 'Why is the sky blue?'
  #26  
Old June 26th 18, 10:59 AM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-10
Patrick[_9_]
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Posts: 116
Default Photos at start of Win 10

On 23/06/2018 17:02, Ken wrote:
I know this is not very important, but it is a curiosity.Â* When Windows
10 starts a photo is shown before the desktop appears.Â* These photos
change frequently.Â* Some of the photos are stunning, and I wonder where
they were taken.Â* Is there a site or way of fining out where they were
taken?


I just found that there was a magnify glass by one of the icons, I
clicked it and was with the Password/Pin box. When I was signed-in,
'Edge' opened and gave all the gumph on the pictures.
  #27  
Old June 26th 18, 05:13 PM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-10
Arlen Holder
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 466
Default Photos at start of Win 10

On Tue, 26 Jun 2018 10:59:05 +0100, Patrick wrote:

I just found that there was a magnify glass by one of the icons, I
clicked it and was with the Password/Pin box. When I was signed-in,
'Edge' opened and gave all the gumph on the pictures.


I have a question about the pictures that can only be answered by others.

I don't play games, but the whole Microsoft lockscreen image seems to be a
"game" that Microsoft Marketing devised, because most people love to play
silly games. Hence, the screen has those magnifying glasses all over it
where people can "find Waldo", which, I assume Microsoft marketing thinks
people will find amusing.

I only wonder the algorithm and locations of how it works.

For example...
Does everyone on the planet get the _same_ lockscreen images each day?
(Or are they random, per machine, or per person, or per selections?)

That is, if we never change the settings ... do we all get the same images?
If not, how does the algorithm work to select our lockscreen images?
Do we all see the same images if we never set any other settings?

For example, today, after rebooting, Microsoft gave me a lockscreen of:
Rab Island, Croatia (C) Geribody / Getty Images

If you don't know ... that's fine. Then it just means we don't know.
But did those of you who never hit the icons get the Croatia image today?
 




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