Windows 10: Unable to set a lock screen background image (Win10).

I tried many different things with the registry entries including creating a new user and using those. Also tried what wpmartins2803 mentioned...that value did not exist, but I added to try it anyway. Still no luck. I did somewhere along the line get the preview to load when I selected an image via browse, but it still did not function fully and no image in the "Choose your picture" part.

 

I tried the solution above, and it worked perfectly.
The link is:
Lockscreen issues on Windows 8.1 - Microsoft Community

 

Glad the simple one registry edit worked for you. *Wink
For those who say they do not have this entry, it here's a screenshot from a laptop with Windows 10 pre-installed (NOT upgraded from 8.1, like mine), after you regedit and navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Lock Screen .

You can see the entries you should have. If you don't, export your Lock Screen folder as a backup and I have attached a link to my OneDrive of a rar file of the exported working reg folder. Extract, double click or right click/ 'Merge' to put in your registry and see if this fixes your lock screen choose picture problems. Restore your backup folder, if it doesn't. Hope this helps somebody.





updated link (7.15.16) to file - OneDrive lock screen reg edit rar

 

Thank you for making that file available. I tried deleting all the keys in the Lock Screen folder, importing those you provided, and rebooting. Sadly, still no luck. Did not seem to change anything *cry. I have restored my entries for now.

 

Hi,
It wasn't the 1-registry entry I quoted, it was the kind guy who created the update file with all the missing registry entries. I backed up my registry, merged the file he provided in the Win 8.1 forum, and hey presto. It's a bit annoying that Microsoft missed something as simple as that (in amongst the million other things that needed doing.. I'll admit), but it's great for the rest of us that cleverer, more diligent folks can find and share solutions. Thanks to all.
Now, to try and get multiple desktops working... *Smile

 

Ah, ok, I went back and tried the stuff in Lockscreen issues on Windows 8.1 - Microsoft Community. When I just merged the entries....the preview started working, but still no actual change or pictures in the "choose your picture" area. Tried partial updates and deleting all my entries (replacing them with theirs). Still no luck/change. I make sure to reboot after each change to make sure.

 

Thank you very much !! It works fine for me.

 

I did exactly same mistake as the thread starter, I tried to manually change the default lock screen image(that ugly cave picture). Even though I changed everything back I'm stuck with solid color lock screen. Can't change the image since the preview doesn't show the picture, it's just gray with the circular loading icon. I'm still able to choose those pictures that I have used earlier from the list in settings, but if I try to browse new picture the preview won't show it. Also the windows spotlight option is broken, it's also gray with loading icon. I tried all those different registry keys but no luck. I created new local account and exported registry keys from there but they didn't help. I cant figure out what is wrong, I wouldn't want to re-install whole windows because of this. Any ideas what I could try to fix this?


edit:
Because I had some other issues too I decided to do windows re-installation. Problem solved.

 

Thank you so much, this worked for me much appreciated *Smile *Smile

 

I can't believe that I just signed up to put a probable solution to this issue.

I was having same issue after upgrading to Windows 10 today.

Hopefully, it will work for you as it did for me.

The security settings of the following folders are all messed up:

C:\Program Files
C:\Program Files (x86)
C:\Windows

You will find that all users (administrators/Users) do not have access rights to the folders and child objects.

TrustInstaller is the owner and you just have to change the owner to whatever your ID is and enable inheritance replacing all security settings of all child & objects within the aforementioned folders.

Once done, restart and you should be able to change your lockscreen and whatever thing you couldn't after the upgrade.

 

Doing that is very bad idea. What you call "messed up" is in fact a security feature so malware executed under your account (or other users) cannot write into these folders. So no, don't change the ownership of the mentioned folders, it's by design trusted installer is owner of the programs folders and of the windows folder.

 

Tutorial: Lock Screen - Enable or Disable in Windows 10 - Windows 10 Forums I has a similar problem after using "Windows 10 Login Changer - By Alphawaves"

 

This worked perfectly for me on Windows 10

 

Thank you. i tried both registry fixes and only yours fixed my problem. (well, who knows, maybe i needed both - i did not revert to my original reg after attempting the first fix).

 

Guys why are you killing yourselves with this registry fix if there is a perfectly easy solution. You guys are on windows 10 right? Edit the image a little by lowering/increasing the brightness by one (Use the photos app as an editor). Click save a copy and then set it as lock screen. Now what it does is basically save a new fresh copy which isn't corrupt or anything. I don't know if it works on you but it worked for me.