Windows 10: How to remove clickable links on the lock screen in Win10?

I like this new feature in Windows 10 when it randomizes the picture that is shown on the lock screen. What I can't stand are those clickable links that they put on it. These things:





Does anyone know how to remove them?

My main gripe with those links is that I often hit them by mistake when I try to unlock my PC so I then have to either click on an empty space or then close some annoying page that comes up in a web browser. It just kills productivity.

PS. I tried following these steps to use GPOs but it doesn't seem to do anything in my case. I also tried changing in the Settings so that not to allow spotlight, but then it removes this randomized wallpaper thing, which I like. I'm asking only about the links on it.

:)

 

Start button on windows 10 not working?

i tried uninstalling malwarebytes with the computer disconnected from the internet. i then managed a restart. i had also removed it from startup first. it is now sitting at either the lock screen or the sign in screen with no icon clickable. frustrated.

 

How to remove the password on the lock screen.

You should open Settings and in Accounts ->Sign in options, click to change password and enter old password and then for new password and retry new password leave them empty.

Note: you could do this on local account only and if you are using Microsoft Account, you should switch to Local Account first.

 

have you tried navigating to the notifications tab in settings and turning off " Show notifications on the lock screen " ?.. I've never had this on my lock screen so this might be why i don't.. not entirely sure tho.

 

Unfortunate the GPO change doesn't work for you.

@BrandonR188 That doesn't apply or work, unfortunately. Just wondering- are you actually using Spotlight? Interestingly references say 'Like what you see?' occurs occasionally. Not my experience in general, but there are occasions when it hasn't (apart from what you see after a restart, which is differently generated).

@ahmd Clearly you can change from Spotlight to Slideshow and use your own images. You could also acquire the Spotlight images stored on your PC and use them in your Slideshow. Searching also offers sets of spotlight images for download.
How to Find Windows Spotlight Lock Screen Images

Note that changing lockscreen settings (esp. Spotlight) can make it hard to restore it.

 

i only use Picture as my lockscreen.. perhaps that is why i don't have this issue.

 

@BrandonR188: Notifications have nothing to do with this question. Those are "toast notifications". These things.

@dalchina: yes, of course I can load up a whole bunch of images and use the slideshow. This question is not about it, either. The "beauty" of that spotlight setting is that it picks images for you, which is pretty cool.

What I also noticed is that once you boot up your computer fresh it doesn't have those links and only shows them after some time. (I'm guessing because some service isn't running yet.) Only if I knew which service it is. In that case stopping it would solve the issue.

 

Not sure if this helps you, but the links on the Spotlight images only seem to appear when the screen has been locked after you have logged on. If you boot up or log out you don't see them.

 

Helpful description about the lock screen after restart being different.
@ahmd - my #3 above

And if the GPO solution doesn't work for you, you may either have to do an in-place upgrade repair install and then hope it does, or think laterally (slideshow) or find a solution someone has posted. Good luck!

 

I think I might have solved it. It's kinda strange how it works though. All I did was this -- I set up these two GPOs in User Configuration node of gpedit.msc:





At first it didn't do anything (even after a reboot.) But a few days later I don't see those links anymore! So go figure. Might be another bug in Windows 10 (among many.)

 

Good- It's odd how spotlight seems to take some days to reflect changes made to it. I stopped mine working somehow after disabling the lock screen- it now works properly, but took a long time. And the preview in Settings is now grey for all cases- but that's insignificant.

 

Argh. Nevermind. Those annoying things just came back!

 

Searching around, it so far seems there's no way to keep Spotlight and not have these links displayed.

Therefore use one of the two ways to collect a set of Spotlight screens, and use the Picture or Slideshow mode to display them.