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FolderRisk: Caution

Web C:\Windows\Web

Images shipped with Windows: wallpapers and default lock screen images; folder protected by TrustedInstaller.

Updated on By AltF4 Formation

What it’s for

C:\Windows\Web stores the images shipped with Windows: desktop wallpapers and default lock screen images. They show up when the user picks Picture or a theme, or when nothing has been customized. “Windows Spotlight” shows images supplied by Microsoft and does not rely on this folder.

What it contains

  • Wallpaper: the wallpapers shipped with Windows, grouped by theme.
  • Screen: the default lock screen and sign-in images.
  • 4K: high-resolution versions of wallpapers.
  • Images only (.jpg, .png), never executables.

Risks and best practices

  • The images are owned by TrustedInstaller and Windows may restore them during an update, so there is no point replacing them. For a corporate wallpaper, deploy the image through Group Policy or MDM; for a single machine, use Settings > Personalization.
  • An executable or a script in this folder is not normal: investigate it.

Useful commands

Fenêtre de terminal
# Number of images per subfolder
Get-ChildItem "$env:windir\Web" -Recurse -File -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue | Group-Object DirectoryName | Select-Object Count, Name

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