Reset and Re-register Windows Spotlight in Windows 10  

djbillyd said:

Three and a half years from now, we still won't know why Windows Spotlight sometimes stops working and needs to be reset.

Maybe the issue will go away when the Chromium-based Edge browser is released.

Ground Sloth said:

Maybe the issue will go away when the Chromium-based Edge browser is released.

...and maybe the moon is made out of green cheese! The issue may "go away" in that it's replaced by another issue!!!

djbillyd said:

...and maybe the moon is made out of green cheese! The issue may "go away" in that it's replaced by another issue!!!

Or it could just break Windows Spotlight completely.

My experience is that in 1703 it broke easily, plus it never gave a Spotlight picture at a cold boot as it was supposed to. 1709 was little better, but at least...

Bree said:

...for the first time ever the Spotlight picture appears at boot up - previously it was always the default Windows picture (the cave up to 1703, a mountain lake in 1709)

win 1709 spotlight in lock screen - Windows 10 Forums

Since 1803 and now 1809 it has worked reliably for all my machines. Though whether that's due to software, or the fact I've turned off metered connections I can't say. I suspect Spotlight used to break if it ever ran out of pictures and wasn't allowed to download any new ones...

Ground Sloth said:

Or it could just break Windows Spotlight completely.

See if that'll help!

Hi Shawn,
Thanks for your solution with the bat-file, it worked for me.
But indeed, one has to be patient since it can take some time until the folder ...\Assets will be loaded with new images.
But after that, Spotlight is back on.
Thank you!

Thank you as usual for fixing my computer Shawn. It went black, reverted to the image it was stuck on after reboot, then after ten minutes got back to syncing normally and showing descriptions, "like this?", etc.

Ground Sloth said:

Maybe the issue will go away when the Chromium-based Edge browser is released.

I switch the default to Chromium-based Edge browser and the stuck spotlight screen is back!