Custom lockscreen image on creator's update

Hey guys,

So I have a GPO set for our workplace, and have been using this since the original RTM build of Windows 10 back in 2015.

It worked fine on all versions up until the Creator's Update, when it somehow seems to have stopped working, and I can't figure out how to fix it!

It's a two-part process. I have one "preference" set for first user login to copy an image from our SMB network share to the Public Pictures folder (it had to be somewhere they had write access to but was also not going to get in the way or accidentally deleted), as C:\Users\Public\Pictures\Lockscreen.jpg (where Lockscreen is the name of our company, but you get the idea.)

Then, I used this GPO:
Computer Configuration -> Policies -> Administrative Templates -> Control Panel/Personalization -> Force a specific default lock screen and logon image.

I enabled that, and gave it the location to the JPG file I copied via the first step.

The result is that as soon as I join the domain using the computer's local account, the default lockscreen picture goes away, and just shows a solid blue color instead.

Prior to the Creator's update, the first time any domain user logs on, that picture is copied and the setting works correctly - it shows our nice 3D rendered company logo on all the PCs, whether it's the lock screen or the user logon screen.

However - with the Creator's update, it somehow went back to the default image instead! And here's the really weird part... the GPO is still applied, and in Personalization, I see the custom picture selected! It just doesn't actually show it! The file is copied to the correct path, Windows is just ignoring it when I lock the screen or log out.

I can change to one of the other default pictures, and THAT one will show. But as soon as I try to pick the custom one again, it goes back to that default picture.

I can confirm all new installs of build 1703 do this, not just one specific machine. Now, what's interesting is, if I go into personalization and set a custom lock screen (for testing purposes I placed the image on my desktop instead), then DELETE the picture, the lockscreen is still there, despite the fact I deleted the file.

So this leads me to think it's being cached somewhere, and Windows just isn't caching my new image over the original one that was already there before the domain join. It honestly sounds more like a bug than anything, but does anyone have any ideas how I can fix this?

As a manual workaround I can just create a copy of the file elsewhere, and set it as a "custom" lock screen under Personalization (the key to this GPO is that it uses the custom picture as the *default*, which essentially hides that default picture and shows mine instead), but I'd rather not do that if I don't have to.

i am also having some problems with the lock screen image using Windows 10 Enterprise (Release 1607 build 14393).
I would need to modify the Lock Screen Image and the wallpaper with our corporate image for all user before in the domain as we did in windows 7.

I tried to set by the the Personalize menu, browsing our corporate image as Background in the Lock Screen. But in the preview the image is blank and nothing change, i tried also with a local gpo but it doen't still working.
I used google to look for a solution but i didn't find nothing that worked for me. Could you tell me if is a bug and/or if there is a method to change it?

It actually worked fine in 1607 for me, 1703 is what broke it.

Are you using Group Policy? The setting you want is mentioned in my first post... try that and see what happens. I would advise NOT using a UNC path (even if you can), copy the file locally first.

yes i tried with a local gpo....but nothing. you think that something is broken?^

I've found that not only does 1703 break the lock screen image but background and accent colors for the system too. GPO works like a champ on 1607.

brubakes said:

I've found that not only does 1703 break the lock screen image but background and accent colors for the system too. GPO works like a champ on 1607.

Wow... yeah sheesh, what's the whole point of Group Policy if it won't even work anymore? We're using Windows 10 Enterprise and joining a Windows domain, that's basically the whole point! I can understand the home editions (home/pro) not supporting certain GPOs anymore, but what's their excuse for removing it from enterprise software? I guess the only true business-friendly version is LTSB... which I honestly would have deployed instead, except several of our guys were looking forward to trying Edge.

I did try running Group Policy Management from a 1703 workstation in case any of the GPOs had changed or there were new ones, but nope. Does Microsoft have an actual issue reporting system like some software companies do, or just the general "give feedback" which we all know gets ignored? I'd say this is enough of a problem to warrant something like that - it might seem trivial, but it's literally breaking a core feature of why we're using Windows instead of, say, Linux.

drfsupercenter said:

Wow... yeah sheesh, what's the whole point of Group Policy if it won't even work anymore? We're using Windows 10 Enterprise and joining a Windows domain, that's basically the whole point! I can understand the home editions (home/pro) not supporting certain GPOs anymore, but what's their excuse for removing it from enterprise software? I guess the only true business-friendly version is LTSB... which I honestly would have deployed instead, except several of our guys were looking forward to trying Edge.

I am using a fresh install of 1703 education to edit the GPOs. Same as the client machines.