Solved Windows login picture bug

Ghot said:

Now try to pick a picture in Settings.

Click to expand...

Done. It survived one reboot, but not 2 . Did the reboot after approximately 1-2 minutes

KrazyLurt said:

Done. It survived one reboot, but not 2 . Did the reboot after approximately 1-2 minutes

Click to expand...

I dunno. It sounds like you have some tweaker program that might be conflicting with the Lock Screen image.

No not really

KrazyLurt said:

No not really

Click to expand...

The things with RED dots should be UN-checked or not used.
You might have to reboot if you change any of them...






You could Export your Winaero settings then reset everything to defaults, and see if the Lock Screen behaves then.

Export is under the File heading and Reset is under the Actions heading.
After you Reset to defaults, you'll need to reboot.

Then, see if Lock Screen pic works. If it doesn't, then you can just Import the Winaero Settings and reboot.

Exported settings, reverted ( there were 15 listed to default) , but it didn't work.

KrazyLurt said:

Exported settings, reverted ( there were 15 listed to default) , but it didn't work.

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Might try this... run these commands, one at a time in an elevated Command Prompt...

sfc /scannow

Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth

Yeah that will restore my custom live folders I made to remove the live icons to the regular folder.

Ghot said:

Might try this... run these commands, one at a time in an elevated Command Prompt...

sfc /scannow

Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth

Click to expand...

Went ahead anyway and did

sfc /scannow

Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth

But it didn't solve the issue

KrazyLurt said:

Went ahead anyway and did

sfc /scannow

Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth

But it didn't solve the issue

Click to expand...

Probably the only way you're gonna solve this is to just do a clean install of Win 11, and this time... do things slowly and take notes of what you did.

That's what most of us end up doing sooner or later.


If that's too much of a hassle, there's always the In-Place Upgrade...

An In-Place Upgrade "compares" what is installed on the computer, with the Windows ISO image.
Then, it overwrites any corrupted Windows files, with clean copies from the ISO image.
This is how it "repairs" Windows while allowing you to keep your programs and personal files.

Here is the short version of the In-place upgrade tutorial...

DISABLE non-Microsoft:
a) antivirus software
b) firewall software
c) drive encryption software


Make a full OS backup with a program like Macrium Reflect or AOMEI Backupper Standard
Making a backup is optional, but always a smart move.
Macrium Reflect
AOMEI Backupper Standard (free)


Get the Windows 11 ISO (Option #2), and save it to your desktop...


Right click the ISO image and choose: MOUNT
Open File Explorer and you will see a new drive letter. It will "look" like a DVD optical drive.
Double click the new drive letter to open it.
Find setup.exe and double click it to start the in-place upgrade.

Choose the Keep personal files and apps option.

After it's all done... to UNmount the ISO image, right click the new drive letter and choose: EJECT.

The ONLY thing you will lose is some of your personalizations.
Your drivers, programs and data will be intact.

Yeah pretty much, I figure it's build dependent, as I recently enabled "get updates as soon as possible" I get the feature build , and have at times been in the beta channel.

KrazyLurt said:

I figure it's build dependent

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I don't think so. It could be any of a few thousand things.

Most of us use backup software religiously.
That way, when we see a problem like you're having, we just restore from a backup that didn't have that problem.

Most of us also keep collected in a folder somewhere... all, the things we tweaked.

Thanks for that suggestion, too much hassle as you say for something plain visual glitch. Disable lock screen, meaning just a black image behind the avatar is the best bandaid so far

Ghot said:

I don't think so. It could be any of a few thousand things.

Most of us use backup software religiously.
That way, when we see a problem like you're having, we just restore from a backup that didn't have that problem.

Most of us also keep collected in a folder somewhere... all, the things we tweaked.

Click to expand...

I do a daily reflect backup but since this issue is random I didn't revert to a previous backup. So I don't do things quite as religiously.

Same with tweaks, I usually write them down, but maybe not everyone.

Most things are easy to find the cause, this one is tricky.

Had an issue earlier that lowered the FPS in games by 30% unless a reboot. So an issue when a regular cold boot, dirty fix a reboot.
Turned out to be the last two bios updates from my mb vendor MSI.
Reverting to a older beta bios solved this.

Disable the Lock Screen via GPO and replace the login background in %programdata%

Okay thanks, I will try that when I get home from work

Set the one you want as Lock Screen (can open with Photos app and right click to do).

Lock pc, then unlock

Programdata > Microsoft > windows > system data (will have to take ownership to access - won’t hurt anything as windows will reset ownership after next reboot)

Find folder with your image - will have many resolutions.

Copy all of those and overwrite all images in all folders under system data

dacrone said:

Set the one you want as Lock Screen (can open with Photos app and right click to do).

Lock pc, then unlock

Programdata > Microsoft > windows > system data (will have to take ownership to access - won’t hurt anything as windows will reset ownership after next reboot)

Find folder with your image - will have many resolutions.

Copy all of those and overwrite all images in all folders under system data

Click to expand...

So copy all those, so that all images are the same .

Okay I will try that when I get home from work

dacrone said:

Set the one you want as Lock Screen (can open with Photos app and right click to do).

Lock pc, then unlock

Programdata > Microsoft > windows > system data (will have to take ownership to access - won’t hurt anything as windows will reset ownership after next reboot)

Find folder with your image - will have many resolutions.

Copy all of those and overwrite all images in all folders under system data

Click to expand...

Works as a charm, tested with one boot, and 3 reboots. Thanks buddy

This should be a toturial!

Updating the lock screen photo via Spotlight can be unreliable. I use the app Dynamic Theme which is more versatile.
Dynamic Theme - Official app in the Microsoft Store