Change Lock Screen Background in Windows 10  

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    Change Lock Screen Background in Windows 10

    Change Lock Screen Background in Windows 10

    How to Change Lock Screen Background to Windows Spotlight, Picture, or Slideshow in Windows 10
    Published by Category: Customization
    09 Aug 2021
    Designer Media Ltd

    How to Change Lock Screen Background to Windows Spotlight, Picture, or Slideshow in Windows 10


    The lock screen is the screen you see at startup and when you lock the PC. You will need to dismiss the lock screen to be able to see the sign in screen and sign in to Windows.

    Your lock screen will display detailed and quick status of apps you choose. You can use Windows Spotlight, a single picture, or a slideshow of images from added folders as your lock screen background.

    The default lock screen is the one that displays at startup when secure sign-in with Ctrl+Alt+Delete is enabled.

    The user lock screen is the one that you select the background image for your account in Settings, displays the last user lock screen at startup when secure sign-in with Ctrl+Alt+Delete is disabled, when a user locks the PC while signed in to Windows 10, and after the one minute idle timeout period when a user signs out of Windows 10.

    This tutorial will show you how to change your user lock screen background to use Windows spotlight, a picture, or slideshow of pictures for your user account in Windows 10.

    If you have enabled secure sign-in where users are required to press CTRL+ALT+DEL to unlock, then the lock screen at startup will only show the default picture, and would cause the slide show to not play on the lock screen for all users.

    If you turn on Show lock screen background picture on the sign-in screen, then you will need to make sure that you have Animate windows when minimizing and maximizing checked in your visual effects settings to prevent the lock screen background not displaying properly.

    Previously on PC, there were two separate backgrounds for the Lock screen and then the Sign-in screen. Starting in Windows 10 build 14279, Microsoft is merging the experience so there is just a single background – your Lock screen background. This is similar to the behavior seen on mobile. If you have a custom Lock screen background set, you will see your Lock screen background is now used for both the Lock screen and Sign-in screen by default.

    The default lock screen background images included in Windows are located in the C:\Windows\Web\Screen folder.

    If you like, you can get free desktop backgrounds from Microsoft at the link below to use for your lock screen background.

    Desktop backgrounds - Microsoft Windows


    You will need to activate Windows before you can personalize your PC.


    Contents

    • Option One: Change your Lock Screen Background Image to Windows Spotlight, Picture, or Slideshow in Settings
    • Option Two: Change your Lock Screen Background Image to Picture using Photos app



    EXAMPLE: Lock screen in Windows 10
    Change Lock Screen Background in Windows 10-lock_screen.jpg





    OPTION ONE

    Change your Lock Screen Background Image to Windows Spotlight, Picture, or Slideshow in Settings


    1 Open Settings, and click/tap on the Personalization icon.

    2 Do step 3 (Windows spotlight), step 4 (picture), or step 5 (slideshow) below for what you want as your lock screen background.


    3 To Use Windows Spotlight as your Lock Screen Background

    Starting in Windows 10 build 10547, Windows spotlight is available in all editions.

    Windows spotlight is a feature that provides a service driven personalized stream of information on your lock screen for you.

    For example, Windows spotlight will display different backgrounds from Bing that you can select that you like or don't like to help train the service to show you images you like. You could also see and try previews of other Windows features and experiences to help let you know about them.

    The images for Windows Spotlight are stored in the folder below.

    %LocalAppData%\Packages\Microsoft.Windows.ContentDeliveryManager_cw5n1h2txyewy\LocalState\Assets

    The images will look like this below. Copy them to your desktop, and rename them to whatever.jpg to see the images.

    See: How to Find and Save Windows Spotlight Background Images in Windows 10

    Change Lock Screen Background in Windows 10-spotlight_images.png

    A) Click/tap on Lock screen on the left side, select Windows spotlight in the drop down menu under Background, and go to step 6 below. (see screenshot below)

    Change Lock Screen Background in Windows 10-lock_screen_windows_spotlight.jpg

    4 To Use a Picture as your Lock Screen Background

    This option is to select a single image to be your lock screen background.

    A) Click/tap on Lock screen on the left side, select Picture in the drop down menu under Background. (see screenshot below)

    Change Lock Screen Background in Windows 10-lock_screen_picture-1.jpg

    B) Turn on or off Get fun facts, tips, and more from Windows and Cortana on your lock screen (Windows mini-spotlight). (see screenshot below)

    Change Lock Screen Background in Windows 10-windows_mini-spotlight.png

    C) If you like, you can choose one of the five showing recent or default pictures. (see screenshot below)

    Change Lock Screen Background in Windows 10-lock_screen_picture-2.png

    D) If you like, you can click/tap on Browse (see screenshot above), then navigate to, select, and choose picture. (see screenshot below)

    Change Lock Screen Background in Windows 10-lock_screen_picture-3.png

    E) When finished, go to step 6 below.


    5 To Use a Slideshow as your Lock Screen Background

    This option is to have a slideshow as your lock screen background that plays images from inside the folders you choose to add.

    The Windows Search service must be running and set to Automatic for the lock screen slideshow to work.

    A) Click/tap on Lock screen on the left side, select Slideshow in the drop down menu under Background. (see screenshot below)

    Change Lock Screen Background in Windows 10-lock_screen_slideshow-1.jpg

    B) Turn on or off Get fun facts, tips, and more from Windows and Cortana on your lock screen (Windows mini-spotlight). (see screenshot below)
    Change Lock Screen Background in Windows 10-windows_mini-spotlight.png

    C) If you would like to add a folder that contains images you want to use for your slideshow, click/tap on Add a folder, navigate to and select a folder (ex: OneDrive Pictures), then click/tap on Choose this folder. (see screenshots below)

    Change Lock Screen Background in Windows 10-lock_screen_slideshow-2.png
    Change Lock Screen Background in Windows 10-lock_screen_slideshow-3.png

    D) If you would like to remove and added folder, click/tap on a folder (OneDrive Pictures), and click/tap on Remove. (see screenshot below)

    Change Lock Screen Background in Windows 10-lock_screen_slideshow-2.png

    E) Click/tap on the Advanced slideshow settings link. (see screenshot below step 5A)

    F) Turn on or off the settings you like, select when to turn off screen after slide show has played for (SlideshowDuration), and go to step 6 below. (see screenshot below)

    These are the default settings in the screenshot below.

    The turn off screen after slide show has played for setting is stored as seconds (decimal) for the DWORD value in the registry key below.

    HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Lock Screen

    SlideshowDuration DWORD

    1800000 (decimal) = 30 minutes
    3600000 (decimal) = 1 hour
    10800000 (decimal) = 3 hours
    0 (decimal) = Don't turn off


    Change Lock Screen Background in Windows 10-lock_screen_slideshow-5.png

    6 When finished, you can close Settings if you like.






    OPTION TWO

    Change your Lock Screen Background Image to Picture using Photos app


    1 Open an image that you want as your lock screen with the Photos app.

    2 Press the Ctrl + L keys.

    OR
    3 Click/tap on the More Change Lock Screen Background in Windows 10-more.png button at the top right corner, click/tap on Set as, and click/tap on Set as lock screen. (see screenshot below)

    Change Lock Screen Background in Windows 10-photos_app_set_as-lock_screen.jpg


    That's it,
    Shawn Brink






  1. Posts : 98
    Windows 10 Pro
       #1

    I bet your laptop is an Alienware, right ?
    Thanks for the tut, just tested it and it works quite good.
      My Computer


  2. Posts : 27,157
    Win11 Pro, Win10 Pro N, Win10 Home, Windows 8.1 Pro, Ubuntu
       #2

    NickTh said:
    I bet your laptop is an Alienware, right ?
    Thanks for the tut, just tested it and it works quite good.
    Or else he's an Asgard!
    Attachment 15653
      My Computers


  3. Posts : 68,543
    64-bit Windows 11 Pro for Workstations
    Thread Starter
       #3

    Asgard
      My Computers


  4. Posts : 5,833
    Dual boot Windows 10 FCU Pro x 64 & current Insider 10 Pro
       #4

    There's also a new feature in the Store Photos app to use any pic for the Lock screen or for the tile. Right-click to bring up the editing bar and select "Set as". This is true in any OS using the Photos app..


    Attachment 15842
      My Computers


  5. Posts : 68,543
    64-bit Windows 11 Pro for Workstations
    Thread Starter
       #5

    HippsieGypsie said:
    There's also a new feature in the Store Photos app to use any pic for the Lock screen or for the tile. Right-click to bring up the editing bar and select "Set as". This is true in any OS using the Photos app..


    Attachment 15842
    Thank you. Added as Option Two. :)
      My Computers


  6. Posts : 781
    Win10 Pro - x64 latest build dual boot w/Win 11 Pro
       #6

    Strange question, I upgraded 1 Win 7 and 1 Win 8.1 to 10 Pro. In one installation the lock screen seemed to come with some sample pictures. In the one I upgraded from 8.1 however, I can only use my own pictures, why is that I wonder?

    Now I should add, 1 was upgraded using MS MCT and the other using a newly created system DVD. Not sure if that has any bearing.
      My Computer


  7. Posts : 68,543
    64-bit Windows 11 Pro for Workstations
    Thread Starter
       #7

    Hey Peter, :)

    I'm not sure why they vary either like that. However, you could copy the images from to the other into the C:\Windows\Web\Screen folder for the lock screen choices.
      My Computers


  8. Posts : 781
    Win10 Pro - x64 latest build dual boot w/Win 11 Pro
       #8

    Good idea....will do, thanks Shawn. I have a feeling the one that was updated from Win 7 somehow kept a few of the Win 7 fixes I may have done (there were so many I can't even remember what that may have been LOL).
    8.1 I didn't fiddle that much as I didn't like to use it anyway.
    For instance, it carried over my Quicklaunch toolbar which surprised me. I was fully prepared to redo that after the upgrade.
      My Computer


  9. Posts : 781
    Win10 Pro - x64 latest build dual boot w/Win 11 Pro
       #9

    OK, this is weird...that folder on both systems contains the same sample images. So why is it available on my L: (upgr from 7) and not my N: (upgr from 8.1) - the latter I was offered only the choice of my own pictures.
    How odd.
      My Computer


 

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