orelio/spotlight-downloader

Download Spotlight images and define them as wallpaper and lockscreen image.

spotlight-downloader's Issues

Incorrect screen resolution on custom DPI scaling

On custom DPI scaling (e.g. 125%), lockscreen.png gets a lower resolution than actual screen resolution. Investigate this issue and find a way to get the raw screen resolution.

locale collections

Greetings, I have successfully downloaded several images with Spotlight-Downloader

How am i able to know which country provide different images from mine?
Is there a list of available locales?
Is there a way to achieve as much images as possible from all locales in the world?
Thanks for your work!

Download Data stage results in connection termination

I found that Spotlight Downloader would fail upon trying to connect to the Spotlight API via https. I believe this is due to the servers requiring TLS 1.2.

I added the following at line 50 of Spotlight.cs

System.Net.ServicePointManager.SecurityProtocol = (SecurityProtocolType)3072;

just prior to the call to webClient.DownloadData(request); . That did the trick and files were properly returned.

Ignore a Locale

Hello
I Use SpotligtDownloader with -alllocales....
But : the locale 70 have a problem. It doesn't work, retry and restart from locale 318 the program. since 2 or 3 days
It won't continue 69... 68... 67 ... 66....
Any fix ???

Saved image names

Hi
Is it possible to change the application so that the GUID name of the saved images will match the GUID names that Microsoft uses when it places new images on
%userprofile%\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.Windows.ContentDeliveryManager_cw5n1h2txyewy\LocalState\Assets ?
TIA
José Lopes

Spotlight Downloader without restriction xx-YY on locale

Hi Orelio
Could you send me a new version of SpotlightDownloader without restrictions in locales ?
This is most powerful in order to download new images
Thanks
PS : You can eliminate this restriction in the others versions.
Many Thanks
PotitPanda

Portrait format for smartphone

Hi,
In the w10 asset directory, we can see that each Spotlight image exists in 2 formats : landscape and portrait.

Could it be possible to capture the two formats by adding an argument to choice the format : landscape, portrait or both, Two Archive directories should be required.

Thanks a lot for this great apps !

locale list

Hello @ORelio ,

As also related in issues #6 and #7, changing the locale to get more images was too much trouble since there are so many to choose from. I decide to test and try an extensive list of locales and see what works with Spotlight. I've added each of them as an extra command line inside the .bat file so every time it finishes to execute with one locale it goes to the next one and so on. Usually with the first pass it downloads +600 different images using the 318 different locales.

I've attached the list of locales I've being using (most likely all that Spotlight supports - give or take). Hopefully this information will help to implement them within the code as default, making it possible to download as much images as possible without the hassle to edit the batch file to add hundreds of extra command lines.

Thank you!

locales.txt

Uninstallation Issue - Can not find hide-console.vbs

How do I get rid of this message after uninstalling the program?
https://imgur.com/a/l8KonBL

Licence violation?

I don't know, maybe the author of the Windows Store app XSpot has been in touch with you & sorted something out. You are acknowledged in the app.

But the licence notices seem to have been stripped out as part of wrapping a GUI around Spotlight-Downloader - I certainly can't find the relevant text anywhere in the app or appx bundle. So since people monetizing OS & licence-stripping in the process is a personal bugbear of mine, I thought I'd at least bring it up.

Cheers for the hard work - ironically now I've discovered the original this is what I'm using in preference to the paywall-hobbled Xspot app...

SpotlightAPI Missing 'batchrsp/items' error (probably to api changes)

It seems that API endpoint has somehow changed.
A manual call to url "https://arc.msn.com/v3/Delivery/Cache?pid=209567&fmt=json" (or with any with additional parameters) obtain this json response:

{
 "batchrsp":
 {
   "ver":"1.0",
   "errors":
   [
    {
      "code":2000,
      "msg":"No ad available. No additional information"
     }
   ],
   "refreshtime":"2021-01-13T13:16:20"
  }
}

In case I discover more information I'll update this message.

Best regards and thanks for this project!

SpotlightDL isn't working since 3 or 4 Days

Hi
SpotlightDL is down
All Locales test fails....
Could you test from your computer ?
Thanks

SpotlightAPI: System.ArgumentException: Customized cultures cannot be passed by LCID, only by name - error

Hi!
I wanted to try Spotlight Downloader but I'm getting this error running any of the scripts or calling the exe file with Download parameter:
SpotlightAPI: System.ArgumentException: Customized cultures cannot be passed by LCID, only by name.
Parameter name: culture - Waiting 10 seconds before retrying...

Googling it leads to some Visual Studio update error where it has something to do with locales.

My system locale is English-US and my regional format is English (Europe) (never could get accustomed myself to yy/mm/dd format). Could this be due to this discrepancy?

Missing 'batchrsp/items' field in JSON API response.

I get the following error message running update-lockscreen.bat or update-wallpaper.bat:

System.IO.InvalidDataException: SpotlightAPI: Missing 'batchrsp/items' field in JSON API response.

Has the API hit the download limit?

Add a folder with dates of download in /SpotlightArchive

Good morning
Is it possible to add as feature , the automatic (or optional like "--day" in command line) creation of a folder with the date of the day when spotlightDL donwload new images ? So it can be more simple to sort new images than ancient when the content of /SpotlightArchive becomes big.
Thanks
Potitpanda

feature request: new pictures more often

Save a record that the picture was used (no matter for wallpapper or lockscreen) and select new ones based on the rating of frequency of use. It may also make sense to save the datetime of use.
Thus, we will see new pictures more often, and old ones will be displayed only if there are no new ones in the cache.

Now I have 50 images in the directory, many of which I have never seen, but when I run the script I getting the same ones over and over again.

I think it's may be very useful feature.

Does Windows Spotlight have images for 4k displays?

Am I correctly understand that there are no images larger than FullHD on Windows Spotlight servers?

If so your wonderful app is no longer relevant to me. You can close the #12 issue, if you want.
I got a new laptop with a 4k display and I don't like blurry images)

Locales for add in the program

Hello Here are some new locales i've tested and working based on a microsoft document

de-IT
en-AT
en-BI
en-CH
en-CY
en-DE
en-HK
en-ID
en-NL
en-SE
en-SI
es-BR
es-BZ
fo-DR
it-VA
ku-IQ
lv-LT
mn-CN
ps-PK
pt-CH
pt-GQ
pt-LU
sd-IN
sd-PK
sl-SL
sr-CS
sw-CD
tk-TM
tn-BW
wo-SN
zh-SG

I have a question
Is it possible to remove the restriction of a locale called xx-YY please.
So i have many locales to test
Thanks

Metadata title embed in picture

Thanks a lot for the software. One thing I am missing is to have the title of the picture displayed in the picture (Spotlight for me was indicating what I was looking at, where it was taken, etc. on the top right). Do you believe you could implement this since you are already collecting the metadata during your API call?

Archive contains very few images

I was wondering if there is a hard limit from your software on how many pictures are saved in the archive. Currently I have 75 pictures. Is that what is available on Microsoft server, or is it what you can download? Do you know if Microsoft sometimes refresh pictures, so my archive will eventually grow?

Filenames of the images

Hello,
would it be possible to rename the downloaded images automatically to the image title which is stored in the metadata?
When there is a large amount of images in the download folder it would be much more easy to sort and manage them with the real title information in the file name.
That would be a nice feature for a further version.
Thank you

How To ...

Maybe it's just me being stupid. Please excuse my ignorance...

Your README says:
"Simply call SpotlightDownloader.exe from the Windows command prompt"
However, there isn't an exe in the download.

I have VSCode and .NET Core SDK and C# Extension. I have never worked in any of these, I am a complete novice. I simply don't know how to build the project. Can you offer some tips please?

how to open SpotlightDownloader.exe? where is it located?

your software looks great and i want to download as many as spotlight wallpapers because i love them a lot..please help me in resolving these issues.

how to open SpotlightDownloader.exe? where is it located?

i have read the instructions and unable to find the exe file to run

I cannot find SpotlightDownloader.exe or SpotlightDL.exe in your project..there are only .cs c# code files

where is it and how to run it and download it

so please help

thanks 💯 🥇 👍

No 4K Compatibility

Issue:
This script doesn't appear to support 4K resolution, despite the max res parameter.

Abstract:
4K screens have become predominately mainstream as manufacturing costs for 4K displays have significantly dropped, and 4K screens are more accessible at more reasonable prices that fit the budget of a broader range of people. More and more people are adapting 4K displays, including myself. This raises an important issue which is instantly obvious, this script seems to only download 1080p resolution. On my Samsung 4K monitors, the images appear pixelated and blurry. This problem is not related to compression or the lockscreen settings but rather the resolution of the images downloaded from the API, which are only 1080p. I appreciate this script for what it does, especially the random selection of a lockscreen image, giving a unique look when powering on your computer. Microsoft's lack of customization options for the lockscreen, the forced advertising, and inability to fine tune your lockscreen options, is frustrating to say the least. Thus, I find value in this project, and aim to understand why this script only supports 1080p. I will be exploring and researching this issue, and I may be seeking assistance in implementing a fix.

Details:

• API Resolution: Bing's API supports 4K images, so it is unclear whether this script uses an outdated API version or if Microsoft purposely limits the public API to 1080p.

Questions:

1. @ORelio, do you use this script yourself, because this issue is very obvious.
2. Is there a known method to update the script to download 4K images?
3. Could the issue be that the Spotlight API archive predominantly contains 1080p images?
4. Is there a difference between the Bing Image of the Day and Spotlight images? Has Microsoft made any changes to the Spotlight feature?
5. Could this script be updated to only pull images 4K and higher? Do those even exist in the archive? In your documentation, you state that there is no list of images, so when the API call is made, Bing is giving the script 1 image? Can the API call be made to demand a higher resolution from Bing? The max-res appears to not work. I'm surprised that Spotlight even uses 1080p, as Microsoft Surface Pros have used 1440p for years.

These are questions I am looking to understand during my research on this issue.

Where To Begin:
I have a good understanding of C#, but my knowledge of APIs, JSON, and web applications is limited. Therefore, I might struggle to implement a fix for this issue on my own. I will be conducting research to understand this a little deeper, but it would be nice to know how much anyone, or @ORelio knows about this API and any ideas for implementing a fix for this. I wasn't really wanting to abandon the script, unless someone else has created a better version already.

Thank you for your time and assistance.

why not upload a exe file

that is it！

Check for metered connection is used

Very useful application! But I have often work on mobile network and Windows cmd not provide any easy way to determine which connection is used: metered or not.
So I can't check it in .bat file.
Maybe you can implement this check in your application?

Background spotlight

In Windows 11 was added a feature to use Spotlight images for wallpapers.
There appear images 3840x2160 size.
Does anyone know what request can be used to get a proper reply?
I guess ID is 88000326, json file looks different from files for lockscreen.

auto save function

Dear sir，can I save the image to my disk, maybe you can add the autosave function.