Windows 10: Windows 10 lock screen reverts to stock photo

OK, not a question - but I've been looking for an answer to the subject problem for a while, and thanks to another site that I've misplaced, I've found an answer. It may make the good folks at MS crazy that I'm screwing with their programming, but this is the only way I've been able to make it work. I don't claim this as universal, and the settings apply to my experience with two current builds (as of July 2019). As they say, YMMV.

1) MS stores the lock screen pics in the \ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\SystemData\S-1-5-18...\ReadOnly folder.

2) Windows does not want us checking this folder, so when you get to the SystemData folder it will tell you you don't have rights to look any further.

3) at that point, you'll have to change permissions - security tab, take ownership, edit to include you, click Inherit to try to get the permissions to propagate to the child directories. Close the directories for the changes to take effect, then, if I haven't screwed up the description, you should be able to navigate down the the ReadOnly directory.

4) In the ReadOnly directory there should be several (in my cases, 3) folders. One of them contains the pic you had TRIED to set as the lock screen, in another there is the Windows Default pic.

5) In my case, the three folders did not inherit the necessary permissions to do anything with the pics, so you may have to repeat the security changes as in step 3

6) I try real hard not to screw up what Microsoft has created, so rather than delete the unwanted Windows Default pic, I just renamed the .jpg extension to something else, eg, .old. You should get a warning that by changing the extension the file cannot be read. That's ok.

7) I didn't have to change anything else - with that Windows Default pic renamed, my machines went to my desired pic in the existing folder at the next boot.

OK, one final disclaimer - I make NO claims to know anything. If someone with more knowledge than I (a very low bar) finds that I've screwed up something, or made a fatal error, please correct me.

I hope this helps someone - I've spent quite a bit of time looking for an answer that works, seeing posts about policy editing which don't apply to us "Home" users, or making changes to the registry, which I really try not to do.

Good luck!

vinny

:)

 

Lock screen photo

Hi,





To change the
lock screen photo, follow these steps:

• 
  Go to
  Settings.
  
• 
  Choose
  Personalization.
  
• 
  On the left side of the screen, click on
  Lock screen.
  
• 
  In the
  Background, change it to
  Picture.
  

Let us know how it goes.



Regards.

 

Windows Spotlight Lock screen photo not coming up on Sign-in screen

As I said earlier, you can change that stock background to one of your own choosing. It doesn't fix the problem, but at least you get to see a photo you actually like.

 

How to delete photos in windows 10 lock screen themes

Len,

Just looked, and you're right, my custom .jpg photos that I've used as lock screens aren't in that folder, just the stock ones. If you want to delete your own photos from your settings/lock screen/"choose your picture" thumbnail options, then from that
same screen just click browse, pick another picture from any of the C:/windows/web/screen folder pictures, and click "choose picture". That will remove the far right thumbnail picture, scoot the rest over, and add the new picture to the far
left. Repeat that as many times as needed to drop the unwanted photo/photos off that list (because there are five thumbnails shown, you may have to do that five times if the picture you want to remove is the first one, far left.) If you do repeat that five
times, you'll end up back with just the stock pictures displayed as lock screen options.