Windows 10: Change Lock Screen Background in Windows 10

How to: Change Lock Screen Background in Windows 10

How to Change your Lock Screen Background in Windows 10


The lock screen is the screen you see at startup and when you lock the PC. You will need to dismiss the lock screen to be able to see the sign in screen and sign in to Windows.

Your lock screen will display detailed and quick status of apps you choose. You can use Windows Spotlight, a single picture, or a slideshow of images from added folders as your lock screen background.

The default lock screen is the one that displays at startup when secure sign-in with Ctrl+Alt+Delete is enabled.

The user lock screen is the one that you select the signs out of Windows 10.

This tutorial will show you how to change your user lock screen background to use Windows spotlight, a picture, or slideshow of pictures for your user account in Windows 10.

If you have enabled secure sign-in where users are required to press CTRL+ALT+DEL to unlock, then the lock screen at startup will only show the default picture, and would cause the slide show to not play on the lock screen for all users.

If you turn on visual effects settings[/b] to prevent the lock screen background not displaying properly.

Previously on PC, there were two separate backgrounds for the Lock screen and then the Sign-in screen. Starting in Windows 10 build 14279, Microsoft is merging the experience so there is just a single background – your Lock screen background. This is similar to the behavior seen on mobile. If you have a custom Lock screen background set, you will see your Lock screen background is now used for both the Lock screen and Sign-in screen by default.

The default lock screen background images included in Windows are located in the C:\Windows\Web\Screen folder.

If you like, you can get free desktop backgrounds from Microsoft at the link below to use for your lock screen background.

Desktop backgrounds - Microsoft Windows


You will need to activate Windows before you can personalize your PC.




Contents

• Option One: Change your Lock Screen Background Image to Windows Spotlight, Picture, or Slideshow in Settings
• Option Two: Change your Lock Screen Background Image to Picture in Photos app

EXAMPLE: Lock screen in Windows 10








OPTION ONE [/i] Change your Lock Screen Background Image to Windows Spotlight, Picture, or Slideshow in Settings
1 Open Settings, and click/tap on the Personalization icon.

2 Do step 3 (Windows spotlight), step 4 (picture), or step 5 (slideshow) below for what you want as your lock screen background.


3. To Use Windows Spotlight as your Lock Screen Background
Starting in Windows 10 build 10547, Windows spotlight is available in all editions.

Windows spotlight is a feature that provides a service driven personalized stream of information on your lock screen for you.

For example, Windows spotlight will display different backgrounds from Bing that you can select that you like or don't like to help train the service to show you images you like. You could also see and try previews of other Windows features and experiences to help let you know about them.

The images for Windows Spotlight are stored in the folder below.

%LocalAppData%\Packages\Microsoft.Windows.ContentDeliveryManager_cw5n1h2txyewy\LocalState\Assets

The images will look like this below. Copy them to your desktop, and rename them to whatever.jpg to see the images.

See: How to Find and Save Windows Spotlight Background Images in Windows 10






A) Click/tap on Lock screen on the left side, select Windows spotlight in the drop down menu under Background, and go to step 6 below. (see screenshot below)




4. To Use a Picture as your Lock Screen Background
This option is to select a single image to be your lock screen background.


A) Click/tap on Lock screen on the left side, select Picture in the drop down menu under Background. (see screenshot below)



B) Turn on or off Get fun facts, tips, and more from Windows and Cortana on your lock screen (Windows mini-spotlight). (see screenshot below)



C) If you like, you can choose one of the five showing recent or default pictures. (see screenshot below)



D) If you like, you can click/tap on Browse (see screenshot above), then navigate to, select, and choose picture. (see screenshot below)



E) When finished, go to step 6 below.

5. To Use a Slideshow as your Lock Screen Background
This option is to have a slideshow as your lock screen background that plays images from inside the folders you choose to add.

The Windows Search service must be running and set to Automatic for the lock screen slideshow to work.


A) Click/tap on Lock screen on the left side, select Slideshow in the drop down menu under Background. (see screenshot below)



B) Turn on or off Get fun facts, tips, and more from Windows and Cortana on your lock screen (Windows mini-spotlight). (see screenshot below)


C) If you would like to add a folder that contains images you want to use for your slideshow, click/tap on Add a folder, navigate to and select a folder (ex: OneDrive Pictures), then click/tap on Choose this folder. (see screenshots below)






D) If you would like to remove and added folder, click/tap on a folder (OneDrive Pictures), and click/tap on Remove. (see screenshot below)



E) Click/tap on the Advanced slideshow settings link. (see screenshot below step 5A)

F) Turn on or off the settings you like, select when to turn off screen after slide show has played for (SlideshowDuration), and go to step 6 below. (see screenshot below)

These are the default settings in the screenshot below.

The turn off screen after slide show has played for setting is stored as seconds (decimal) for the DWORD value in the registry key below.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Lock Screen

SlideshowDuration DWORD

1800000 (decimal) = 30 minutes
3600000 (decimal) = 1 hour
10800000 (decimal) = 3 hours
0 (decimal) = Don't turn off





6 When finished, you can close Settings if you like.





OPTION TWO [/i] Change your Lock Screen Background Image to Picture in Photos app
1 Open an image that you want as your lock screen with the Photos app.

2 Press the Ctrl+L keys.

OR
3 Click/tap on the More

button at the top right corner, click/tap on Set as, and click/tap on Set as lock screen. (see screenshot below)





That's it,
Shawn


Related Tutorials

• How to Enable or Disable Changing Lock Screen Background in Windows 10
• How to Enable or Disable Sign-in Screen Background Image in Windows 10
• How to Turn On or Off Show Lock Screen Background on Sign-in Screen in Windows 10
• How to Change Sign-in Screen Background Image in Windows 10
• How to Change your Desktop Background in Windows 10
• How to Enable or Disable the Lock Screen in Windows 10
• How to Enable or Disable Lock Screen Slide Show in Windows 10
• How to Enable or Disable Secure Sign-in with Ctrl+Alt+Delete in Windows 10
• How to Turn On or Off Lock Screen Alarm, Reminder, and VoIP Notifications in Windows 10
• How to Turn On or Off App Notifications on Lock Screen in Windows 10
• How to Get More Information about a Windows Spotlight Image in Windows 10
• How to Find and Save Windows Spotlight Background Images in Windows 10
• How to Reset and Re-register Windows Spotlight in Windows 10
• How to Enable or Disable Console Mode Sign-in in Windows 10
• How to Change Lock Screen Clock to 12 hour or 24 hour Format in Windows 10
• How to Rate Windows Spotlight Background Images on Lock Screen in Windows 10
• How to Set Now Playing Artist Art in Groove Music app as Lock Screen in Windows 10
• How to Choose Apps to Show Detailed and Quick Status on Lock Screen in Windows 10
• How to Find and Save Custom Lock Screen Background Images in Windows 10
• How to Enable Search Box on Lock Screen in Windows 10

:)

 

Windows 10 lock screen image is not changing

When i install windows 10. Image100 was the default image for my lock screen and login screen background too. Then i changed my lock screen background with another image which was located in pictures library of windows and it works perfect till i change
lock screen background image to slideshow.

Slideshow runs after a minute or two when i lock my PC. But when i power-on or press any key on lock screen, it changes background and shows my previous image background. Even i delete the image from pictures library.

Isn't it is error of windows?

 

Start up screen picture

You would have to select Spotight as Lock Screen background:

https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/5016-change...

 

Or else he's an Asgard!
Attachment 15653

 

There's also a new feature in the Store Photos app to use any pic for the Lock screen or for the tile. Right-click to bring up the editing bar and select "Set as". This is true in any OS using the Photos app..

 

Thank you. Added as Option Two. *Smile

 

Strange question, I upgraded 1 Win 7 and 1 Win 8.1 to 10 Pro. In one installation the lock screen seemed to come with some sample pictures. In the one I upgraded from 8.1 however, I can only use my own pictures, why is that I wonder?

Now I should add, 1 was upgraded using MS MCT and the other using a newly created system DVD. Not sure if that has any bearing.

 

Hey Peter, *Smile

I'm not sure why they vary either like that. However, you could copy the images from to the other into the C:\Windows\Web\Screen folder for the lock screen choices.

 

Good idea....will do, thanks Shawn. I have a feeling the one that was updated from Win 7 somehow kept a few of the Win 7 fixes I may have done (there were so many I can't even remember what that may have been LOL).
8.1 I didn't fiddle that much as I didn't like to use it anyway.
For instance, it carried over my Quicklaunch toolbar which surprised me. I was fully prepared to redo that after the upgrade.

 

OK, this is weird...that folder on both systems contains the same sample images. So why is it available on my L: (upgr from 7) and not my N: (upgr from 8.1) - the latter I was offered only the choice of my own pictures.
How odd.

 

Yes indeed.....will look further into it when I can drag myself away from my admin work elsewhere.

 

All fixed, thanks Shawn.

 

Perfect. What was the difference?

 

The difference was that I'm getting more senile daily...no seriously, I must have absent mindedly added the folder in one system and not the other...my bad.

 

LOL, no problem mate. I know how you feel. *Smile