How to Disable Windows Spotlight Feature on Windows 10 Desktop

If you want to disable Windows Spotlight feature and remove “Learn about this picture” icon from your Windows 10 Desktop, this article will help you.

What is Windows Spotlight Feature in Windows 10?

Recently Microsoft released a new update for Windows 10 devices which brings a new “Windows Spotlight” feature to Windows 10 operating system. Windows Spotlight is a Desktop customization or enhancement feature which automatically changes the Desktop wallpaper at regular intervals. It downloads new Desktop background images from Microsoft servers and applies them on Windows 10 Desktop automatically.

Windows Spotlight feature was exclusive to Windows 11 operating system and now Microsoft has backported this feature to Windows 10 operating system.

More Info: [Tip] Set Windows Spotlight Collection Wallpapers on Windows 11 Desktop

When Windows Spotlight feature is enabled, it adds a new icon “Learn about this picture” on the Desktop. User can click on the icon to view details about the current wallpaper. It opens wallpaper information page on Bing in Microsoft Edge web browser.

Users can also right-click on the Desktop icon to change the current wallpaper. When you right-click on the icon, you get various options such as Open, Switch to next picture, I like this picture and Not a fan of this picture in the context menu.

How to Disable Windows Spotlight Feature in Windows 10?

In some Windows 10 devices, the Windows Spotlight feature might be enabled automatically after installation of the new update. If you don’t like this automatic wallpaper changing feature and want to set your own custom wallpaper on the Desktop, you can turn off the new feature using following steps:

STEP 1: Open Settings app from Start Menu or by pressing WIN+I keys together.

STEP 2: Now go to “Personalization -> Background” section.

PS: Alternatively, You can directly launch this page using “ms-settings:personalization-background” command in RUN dialog box as mentioned here.

STEP 3: Now in right-side pane, click on the drop-down box given under Background option and select desired option such as Picture, Solid color or Slideshow.

It’ll restore your old wallpaper or solid color background on your Windows 10 Desktop and will completely disable Windows Spotlight feature.

Now Windows Spotlight feature will stop consuming your Internet connection bandwidth and will no longer change your desired Desktop wallpaper.

How to Remove Learn About This Picture Icon from Windows 10 Desktop?

If you don’t like the new “Learn about this picture” icon on the Desktop, you can disable Windows Spotlight feature using above mentioned steps and it’ll immediately remove the icon from your Desktop.

But some users might want to use and keep the Windows Spotlight feature enabled and want to get rid of the extra unwanted “Learn about this picture” icon from the Desktop. By default, Microsoft doesn’t allow users to delete the icon from Desktop. But you can apply a Registry tweak to delete the icon manually.

The same method to get rid of the “Learn about this picture” icon from Windows 11 Desktop also works in Windows 10.

Following steps will help you in removing the annoying “Learn about this picture” icon from Windows 10 Desktop and keeping Windows Spotlight feature enabled:

STEP 1: Press WIN+R keys together to launch RUN dialog box. Now type regedit and press Enter. It’ll open Registry Editor.

STEP 2: Now go to following key:

STEP 3: Now we’ll need to create a new DWORD to hide the “Learn about this picture” icon from the Desktop.

In right-side pane, right-click on empty area and select New -> DWORD (32-bit) Value option.

STEP 4: Set the new DWORD name as {2cc5ca98-6485-489a-920e-b3e88a6ccce3} and double-click on it and change its value to 1 to disable the Desktop icon.

Close Registry Editor and refresh the Desktop. The “Learn about this picture” icon will disappear from your Windows 10 desktop.

PS: In future, if you want to restore “Learn about this picture” icon on the Desktop, either set the above mentioned DWORD value to 0 or delete the DWORD.

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