Clarification needed re specifying custom user account image

schmibble · Jan 27, 2026

Back in Windows 10, to change user account image you needed to have 6 different images all sized to specific resolutions and named to fit a specific schema, per Change Default Account Picture in Windows 10 . Shawn's tute doesn't deal with the resolutions but other sources made it clear that if you wanted the images to look really good, you needed to make each particularly named file a specific resolution, as indeed is implied by the names they had to take. If you merely did what Shawn said in his tutorial (unless they were really simple line drawings), Windows would have to scale your images and some, at least, would end up looking like junk. But if you created them individually so each looked good at its specified resolution, well, er, they'd look good.

So now I'm reading the Windows 11 version of the same tutorial, Change Account Picture in Windows 11 , and not only is there no mention of making the image a specific size, but this time there's only mention of one image, not six.

So I just want to make sure that I'm not missing anything here. Can someone who knows for sure just confirm to me that Windows 11 will not accept multiple images of different sizes for the user account image; in other words, in Windows 11, you do not have the option of having Windows use multiple images but instead you must designate only a single image, and accept whatever goshawful scaling Windows inflicts upon you?

If I can create images at different sizes, that's what I want to do. The automated Windows scaling gets completely incoherent if you have, say, a really cool complicated image of Arabic calligraphy at 448x448 but which becomes nothing more than a blob of brown if Windows is left to its own devices to scale it down to 32x32.

Oh, and if it's true that Windows 11 will only allow a single custom image to be specified, then is 448x448 going to be the recommended size? Or is it something else now?

glasskuter · Jan 27, 2026

Sorry, I can't speak for a local account. I have never changed my user account picture from within Windows itself. But If you use a MS account, you can manage your user account picture in your Your MS account online and you won't have a scaling issue. I see the same picture at high resolution on all my devices.

Otherwise see if the suggestions in this thread will help you.

Location for User account pictures?

Hello, I did a fresh install and for some unknown reason, my user account image doesn't seem to be right. It has no transparency, which I'm confident it should. Look at the screenshot below I tested again by creating a new account and it seems to be alright there. It's just this default...

www.elevenforum.com

schmibble · Jan 28, 2026

Awesome Glass, I'm switching my query over to that thread as it's dealing with my issue. Doesn't exactly answer my question but Garlin there seems to have the knowledge I need so I'll hit him up. Many thanks for the pointer.

garlin · Jan 28, 2026

Brink's W11 tutorial is targeted for non-technical users, who are expected to use the Settings app to update their image.

In that scenario, you should use a 448x448 (or larger) image because submitting a smaller bitmap can result in ugly images from scaling up.

Your concern is scaling down. Windows still needs to create multiple bitmaps, because rescaling the same image on the fly to different resolutions is a performance drag. The different sizes are because the image can appear in different locations, like the Lock Screen, Settings app, or the Start Menu.

For the Settings app have your custom image everywhere, a 1080x1080 version must be created.

The following folders and reg keys are protected by TrustedInstaller rights. Resist the temptation to change ownership to yourself, and use an TrustedInstaller elevation tool like PowerRun to temporarily grant you system rights.

Copy your bitmaps to:

C:\Users\Public\AccountPictures\<your SID>

C:\Users\<User>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\AccountPictures

Create the following reg keys:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\AccountPicture\Users\<your SID> -> Image32

...

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\AccountPicture\Users\<your SID> -> Image1080

Code:

mkdir C:\Users\Public\AccountPictures\S-1-5-21-2688404891-1577970816-2250804176-1000
copy your pre-sized bitmaps to this folder as Image[size].png
Replace my SID in the example, with your SID!!

copy C:\Users\Public\AccountPictures\S-1-5-21-2688404891-1577970816-2250804176-1000\*.png C:\Users\GARLIN\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\AccountPictures

reg add "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\AccountPicture\Users" /f
reg add "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\AccountPicture\Users\S-1-5-21-2688404891-1577970816-2250804176-1000" /f
reg add "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\AccountPicture\Users\S-1-5-21-2688404891-1577970816-2250804176-1000" /v Image32 /d "C:\Users\Public\AccountPictures\S-1-5-21-2688404891-1577970816-2250804176-1000\Image32.png" /t REG_SZ /f
reg add "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\AccountPicture\Users\S-1-5-21-2688404891-1577970816-2250804176-1000" /v Image40 /d "C:\Users\Public\AccountPictures\S-1-5-21-2688404891-1577970816-2250804176-1000\Image40.png" /t REG_SZ /f
reg add "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\AccountPicture\Users\S-1-5-21-2688404891-1577970816-2250804176-1000" /v Image48 /d "C:\Users\Public\AccountPictures\S-1-5-21-2688404891-1577970816-2250804176-1000\Image48.png" /t REG_SZ /f
reg add "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\AccountPicture\Users\S-1-5-21-2688404891-1577970816-2250804176-1000" /v Image64 /d "C:\Users\Public\AccountPictures\S-1-5-21-2688404891-1577970816-2250804176-1000\Image64.png" /t REG_SZ /f
reg add "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\AccountPicture\Users\S-1-5-21-2688404891-1577970816-2250804176-1000" /v Image96 /d "C:\Users\Public\AccountPictures\S-1-5-21-2688404891-1577970816-2250804176-1000\Image96.png" /t REG_SZ /f
reg add "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\AccountPicture\Users\S-1-5-21-2688404891-1577970816-2250804176-1000" /v Image192 /d "C:\Users\Public\AccountPictures\S-1-5-21-2688404891-1577970816-2250804176-1000\Image192.png" /t REG_SZ /f
reg add "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\AccountPicture\Users\S-1-5-21-2688404891-1577970816-2250804176-1000' /v Image208 /d "C:\Users\Public\AccountPictures\S-1-5-21-2688404891-1577970816-2250804176-1000\Image208.png" /t REG_SZ /f
reg add "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\AccountPicture\Users\S-1-5-21-2688404891-1577970816-2250804176-1000" /v Image240 /d "C:\Users\Public\AccountPictures\S-1-5-21-2688404891-1577970816-2250804176-1000\Image240.png" /t REG_SZ /f
reg add "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\AccountPicture\Users\S-1-5-21-2688404891-1577970816-2250804176-1000" /v Image424 /d "C:\Users\Public\AccountPictures\S-1-5-21-2688404891-1577970816-2250804176-1000\Image424.png" /t REG_SZ /f
reg add "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\AccountPicture\Users\S-1-5-21-2688404891-1577970816-2250804176-1000" /v Image448 /d "C:\Users\Public\AccountPictures\S-1-5-21-2688404891-1577970816-2250804176-1000\Image448.png" /t REG_SZ /f
reg add "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\AccountPicture\Users\S-1-5-21-2688404891-1577970816-2250804176-1000" /v Image1080 /d "C:\Users\Public\AccountPictures\S-1-5-21-2688404891-1577970816-2250804176-1000\Image1080.png" /t REG_SZ /f

Restart File Explorer or sign out to refresh all the displayed images. Normally I create all of the scaled images inside a script, but you have concerns about the poor quality of the resized images, so you need to do this manually.

schmibble · Feb 7, 2026

Hey Garlin, you are awesome. Full answers are the only real answers--right down to the tip about not taking ownership. No sweat, I've got Rightclicktools installed and it'll open a Trustedinstaller regedit, but I might have gone the other way without your caution. Thanks!

Ghot · Feb 7, 2026

@schmibble

Here's ten points, just for filling out your computer specs.

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