How To Pick A Random Lock Screen Image At Windows Startup

Hi, I've asked about this in the past, yet, at that moment in time, this idea... didn't exist? or something. I am hoping that some 3rd-party developer has made this.


So I have a list of favorite images:
• [Image A]
• [Image B]
• [Image C]
• [Image D]
• [Image E]

and I have a [Lock Screen Slideshow Of Random Images]


Currently, my computer is set that every time I turn it on, I log into my account. Then once I Lock my account, the computer goes to the Lock Screen. Then:
> [Image A] shows up as the initial image of the Lock Screen. A few seconds later, the [Lock Screen Slideshow Of Random Images] starts to play, which is really nice.

I want to set up the computer that once I Lock my account, the computer will go to the Lock Screen, and there would be a random chance that the Lock Screen image would show as:
[Image A], [Image B], [Image C], [Image D], or [Image E].
Then a few seconds later, the [Lock Screen Slideshow Of Random Images] would start to play.

Has this idea been implemented/programmed/etc yet?

(I've had the idea of using Macro Express to set up something like this, which might be possible, yet Microsoft has made it pretty difficult where, and how, the Lock Screen images are stored/loaded/etc. Too much of a useless hassle.)

Please help me out; thanks.

As your lockscreen slideshow can be from a set of pictures you select, then I would have thought this reduces to running a simple script on startup that manipulates the content of that folder in an appropriate manner.

However that will depend on the algorithm the slideshow uses to select pictures from the folder- i.e. in which order a given set of pictures is shown.

@pepanee



These things may help (BLUE dots)... ?
Well... these and the things in Windows Settings.

Might want to play around with these Winaero lock screen things.

I went through the suggestions of both posts above; can't figure a way for the way a random picture could be picked as the initial image that shows up. I guess that certain "idea of a feature" hasn't been programmed by a 3rd party developer yet.

Probably not- but there's no reason why you can't write a script to randomly organise files in a folder.

I suppose if you look for something like that you might find such a program but it's a rather odd requirement. E.g. on what basis would they be randomly organised....

A really simple approach might be to have several folders each with the images arranged in a different order, then all you have to do is choose one of the folders to be the one to be used.

I eventually found the folder that Windows saves the Lock Screen images:
C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\SystemData\S-1-5-21-3130798097-152844005-2246070277-1001\ReadOnly
(you need to take ownership of this folder to open it)

And in here, there's folders with the images' history that have been set in the past. I've tried to figure out how Windows chooses the images in the folders, yet it would probably be something in the Registry, which I cannot find...

Thank you for your reply.

See screenshot in my post #2.

There you define your own folder.

You don't want to get mixed up in the intricacies of the various folders used by Lockscreen. It's complicated.

@pepanee This discussion may be of interest:
Windows 10 lock screen - display my own random images - Super User
I don't see a solution as such, but it's a similar question, and there are related Store apps. One is mentioned there.

I downloaded and tried that app; it doesn't have that feature, unless I didn't get it to work the way I wanted.

Unfortunately that's exactly what I said of it from a quick glance- just pointing you towards some related apps- although others have asked a similar question, no simple answers.

@pepanee - Suggest you write e.g. a simple Autohotkey script - this could, for example, be used to pick from 1 of n folders of pictures to be used for the slideshow for the current login session.

Given that you have specified the name of the folder used, the selected folder is copied in place of the existing folder.

I.e. you have a number of folders of images prepared, all with different images or differently organised images.

That's just a suggestion to make the script as simple as possible.

Or: A slightly more complex script could, instead, fill the lockscreen image folder with a randomised selection of images from a source folder. The slideshow would then be randomised.

Example of one relevant instruction: