Personalization Enable or Disable Lock Screen Background Motion in Windows 11

Brink · Aug 14, 2021

This tutorial will show you how to enable or disable lock screen background motion for your account or all users in Windows 11.

The lock screen is the screen you see at startup and when you lock (Win+L) the PC. You will need to dismiss the lock screen to to see the sign-in screen and sign in to Windows.

If your Windows 11 device (ex: tablet) has an accelerometer, the lock screen background by default will pan around a still image as you physically move your device.

If you prefer a traditional static lock screen background image, you can prevent lock screen background motion.

The lock screen background motion feature is only available if your Windows 11 device (ex: tablet) has an accelerometer.

Contents

Option One: Turn On or Off Lock Screen Background Motion for Current User in Settings
Option Two: Enable or Disable Lock Screen Background Motion for All Users in Local Group Policy Editor
Option Three: Enable or Disable Lock Screen Background Motion for All Users using REG file

Option One

Turn On or Off Lock Screen Background Motion for Current User in Settings

1 Open Settings (Win+I). (see screenshot below)

2 Click/tap on Personalization on the left side, and click/tap on Lock screen on the right side. (see screenshot below)

Open Lock screen settings

3 Turn On (default) or Off Make the lock screen image react when I move my PC for what you want on the right side. (see screenshot below)

4 You can now close Settings if you like.

Option Two

Enable or Disable Lock Screen Background Motion for All Users in Local Group Policy Editor

You must be signed in as an administrator to use this option.

Local Group Policy Editor will only be available in the Windows 11 Pro, Enterprise, and Education editions.

All editions can use Option Three below instead for the same policy.

1 Open the Local Group Policy Editor (gpedit.msc).

2 Navigate to the policy location below in the left pane of Local Group Policy Editor. (see screenshot below)

Computer Configuration\Administrative Templates\Control Panel\Personalization

3 In the right pane of Personalization in Local Group Policy Editor, double click/tap on the Prevent lock screen background motion policy to edit it. (see screenshot above)

4 Do step 5 (enable) or step 6 (disable) below for what you would like to do.

5 Enable Lock Screen Background Motion for All Users

This is the default setting to allow users to use Option One.

A) Select (dot) Not Configured. (see screenshot below)

B) Click/tap on OK, and go to step 7 below.

6 Disable Lock Screen Background Motion for All Users

This will disable and remove the Make the lock screen image react when I move my PC setting in Option One.

A) Select (dot) Enabled. (see screenshot below)

B) Click/tap on OK, and go to step 7 below.

7 Close the Local Group Policy Editor.

Option Three

Enable or Disable Lock Screen Background Motion for All Users using REG file

You must be signed in as an administrator to use this option.

1 Do step 2 (enable) or step 3 (disable) below for what you would like to do.

2 Enable Lock Screen Background Motion for All Users

This is the default setting to allow users to use Option One.

A) Click/tap on the Download button below to download the REG file below, and go to step 4 below.

Enable_lock_screen_background_motion.reg

Download

(Contents of REG file for reference)

Code:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Personalization]
"AnimateLockScreenBackground"=-

3 Disable Lock Screen Background Motion for All Users

This will disable and remove the Make the lock screen image react when I move my PC setting in Option One.

A) Click/tap on the Download button below to download the REG file below, and go to step 4 below.

Disable_lock_screen_background_motion.reg

Download

(Contents of REG file for reference)

Code:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Personalization]
"AnimateLockScreenBackground"=dword:00000001

4 Save the .reg file to your desktop.

5 Double click/tap on the downloaded .reg file to merge it.

6 When prompted, click/tap on Run, Yes (UAC), Yes, and OK to approve the merge.

7 You can now delete the downloaded .reg file if you like.

That's it,
Shawn Brink