Removing loading screen background

Hi,

A bit of a weird problem.

Whilst setting up my daughter's laptop I played a little prank and put a photo of my face as her lockscreen background. All fun and games, and I changed the lockscreen image into another image. But the image of my face still shows up every time the laptop is booting up and then the screen turns dark and then shows the new lock screen background image.

So now she's mortified that for her rest of her school career that she'll be stuck with my face popping up every time she restarts her computer.

So, could anybody help me find out how I can remove this image?

I've tried changing the standard background and the lock screen background but that doesn't solve it.

It's a Lenovo Thinkpad E14 Gen 5

Any help would be mightily appreciated.

Murcatto said:

Any help would be mightily appreciated.

Click to expand...

All I did was use Settings > Personalization > Lock screen...




The Lock Screen image hasn't changed since I set it.





There's also this... but I just checked my registry and I haven't used it...


At the bottom of the 1st post in this tutorial are links to many "related" tutorials.



NOTE: At this registry location... HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Personalization
I don't seem to have a "Personalization" key on the left side, under the Windows key. So you may have to create that.
Creating a key on the left side is fairly simple. Just right click the Windows folder (key), on the left side and choose...
New > key and name that... ... Personalization

Thanks for helping.

I've already changed the lock screen image. That now shows the new lock screen image, so that works. The weird thing is that when I reboot, during the loading phase it first shows the image of my face for a couple of seconds before turning black loading some more and then I get to see the new lock screen image.

So just changing the lock screen image in the settings doesn't help.

Maybe I could remove the image file of my face, but I'm not sure where windows has stored this. I did a search for image files, but it didn't turn anything up. I've got show hidden files turned on.

Murcatto said:

Thanks for helping.

I've already changed the lock screen image. That now shows the new lock screen image, so that works. The weird thing is that when I reboot, during the loading phase it first shows the image of my face for a couple of seconds before turning black loading some more and then I get to see the new lock screen image.

So just changing the lock screen image in the settings doesn't help.

Maybe I could remove the image file of my face, but I'm not sure where windows has stored this. I did a search for image files, but it didn't turn anything up. I've got show hidden files turned on.

Click to expand...

Were you using the same user login when you changed the lock screen image?

Murcatto said:

Maybe I could remove the image file of my face, but I'm not sure where windows has stored this

Click to expand...

From what I've seen, it could be in any of a few locations.
Window's coding is sometimes like a plate of spaghetti... all tangled up. :/

Murcatto said:

The weird thing is that when I reboot, during the loading phase it first shows the image of my face for a couple of seconds before turning black loading some more and then I get to see the new lock screen image.

Click to expand...

Sometimes, rebooting a few more times will clear that. And, as @OAT mentioned... a lot of things are tied to a certain Users Account. So, I guess it's possible that switching between accounts may cause that ???
I only have one LOCAL account on my computer, so I don't see a lot of problems that computers with multiple accounts... occasionally see.

OAT said:

Were you using the same user login when you changed the lock screen image?

Click to expand...

Yeah, there's only one account on the laptop.

Murcatto said:

Yeah, there's only one account on the laptop.

Click to expand...

All data is stored here:


The files are named Original-File_n n=A to Z
I tested this and the one I ended up with was Original-File_C, so order does not seem to matter or reference the latest.

First export the key in case you want to restore it (backup.reg) , then delete all the entries named Original-File_n in the registry by right-clicking , delete.
Reboot.

Lock screen images and traditional boot images are cached in %localappdata%\Packages\Microsoft.Windows.ContentDeliveryManager_cw5n1h2txyewy\LocalState\Assets
Delete everything inside Assets. Windows will regenerate fresh images automatically. (You have to set windows explorer options to 'view hidden files' to see this folder)

It may take a couple of re-boots for the cached image to disappear.

Once it does reset the lock screen background to what you want.

OAT said:

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

Click to expand...

I've done this. Sadly no change.

glasskuter said:

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

Click to expand...

This folder was already empty. I've rebooted the computer 3 times since, but sadly no change. The picture is still there.

Go to C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\SystemData\S-1-5-21....\ReadOnly

Delete all the folders in ReadOnly

(You'll have to show hidden files and folders, and, you'll have to take Ownership of the SystemData folder)

Murcatto said:

This folder was already empty. I've rebooted the computer 3 times since, but sadly no change. The picture is still there.

Click to expand...

Download Dynamic theme. That thing never fails to reset problems such as yours.

As it's already been said, the lock screen image handling in Windows is a buggy, convoluted mess.
Images are stored is several places (some of which have been indicated by others). Deleting images may not be possible because you're likely to get "access denied". If you delete an image one place, Windows may copy it from another cached location. Anyway, try these steps:

Turn off Fast Startup (by default Windows is always in some sleep mode and never shuts down, even when you shut down!):
Power Options > Choose what the power buttons do > Change settings that are currently unavailable (at the top) >
Uncheck Turn on fast startup.

In Settings > Personalization select Picture mode (not Slideshow and not Spotlight).

Delete all files under:
%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.Windows.ContentDeliveryManager_cw5n1h2txyewy\LocalState\Assets

Then make these Registry changes – and reboot.
Note that three of the entries below are paths to an image folder. Typically these are set to C:\Windows\Web\Screen. The image of your face may be in there (but no guarantees). Try to delete it. In these registry paths you can also specify an image file, such as “C:\Windows\Web\Screen\MyImage.jpg” to divert the lock screen image away from your face image.

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Personalization]
"AllowPersonalization"=dword:00000001

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Personalization]
"LockScreenImage"="C:\ ........." <<< This is a path to an image file
"NoLockScreenCamera"=dword:00000001

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\PersonalizationCSP]
"LockScreenImagePath"="C:\ ........." <<< This is a path to an image file
"LockScreenImageUrl"="C:\ ........." <<< This is a path to an image file