Cannot Change Lock Screen Picture on Windows 10-What to Do

By Sophia | Last Updated May 26, 2025

Cannot change the lock screen picture in your Windows 10? Why this happens and how to fix it? Here is a comprehensive guide to help you troubleshoot and resolve the problem.

Fix 1: Verify Lock Screen Settings on Windows 10

Step 1: Open PC Settings.

Step 2: Hit Personalization in the Settings interface.

Step 3: Click the Lock screen option in the left pane. In the Background section, make sure Picture or Slideshow is selected.

Step 4: After that, hit the Browse button to select your custom picture as the lock screen image.

Step 5: Go down and ensure the Show lock screen background picture on the sign-in screen is enabled.

Fix 2: Check for Group Policy Restrictions

Step 1: Turn on the Local Group Policy Editor.

Step 2: Find and open the setting named "Prevent changing lock screen image".

For your information, it is located in Computer Configuration/Administrative Templates/Control Panel/Personalization.

Step 3: Do not configure this setting.

As the setting's window opens, choose Not Configured and tap OK.

Tip: The other alternative method is to disable this setting. In other words, select Disabled and click OK in the window above.

Fix 3. Reset Windows Spotlight

If you’re using Windows Spotlight and it’s not updating or allowing changes, you can reset it with the following procedures.

Step 1: Access Settings > Personalization > Lock screen, then change the background to Picture or Slideshow.

Step 2: go to C:\Users\YourUsername\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.Windows.ContentDeliveryManager_cw5n1h2txyewy\LocalState\Assets . Then delete all files on the folder.

Step 3: Run PowerShell as an administrator and execute the command: Get-AppxPackage -allusers Microsoft.Windows.ContentDeliveryManager | Foreach {Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register "$($_.InstallLocation)\AppXManifest.xml"}

Step 4: At last, go back to the lock screen settings: Settings> Personalization > Lock screen and choose Windows Spotlight as your background.

FAQs on Lock Screen Background Cannot Be Changed Issue

Q1: Why is the lock screen option grayed out in settings?

This typically occurs due to group policy settings that restrict changes. You can follow the above solutions to fix this.

Q2: My lock screen shows a gray background instead of the selected image, why?

This issue can be result from the corrupted system files. You can run sfc /scannow command in CMD to have a check.

Q3: Can I change the lock screen picture to a slideshow?

Yes, you can head to Settings> Personalization > Lock screen and choose Slideshow under the Background dropdown and choose the folders containing your images.

Conclusions:

By following the above steps, you should be able to regain control over your lock screen personalization settings in Windows 10.

Related Articles:

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