Computer

How to customize the Windows lock screen

To access both Windows 10 and Windows 11 lock screen options, we must access the lock screen options. Settings Windows > Personalization > Lock screen.

Windows Featured Content

When we get tired of always seeing the same image on the lock screen, our brain stops focusing its attention on it and it goes completely unnoticed by the user. In order for the user to start using the computer more motivated, Microsoft offers the function Windows Featured Content.

When you select Windows Featured Content, Microsoft uses the images that it also displays in your browser, Bing, to display a different image on your lock screen. This image is accompanied by information related to the place, curiosities and other data to satisfy the curiosity of users.

windows lock screen

This option is also available within the Windows 11 Wallpaper options, however, to be able to enjoy this functionality in Windows 10, we will be forced to use the Bing Wallpaper application, an application that we can download from the Microsoft website And what’s more, it’s completely free.

Image

If we like photography, show off our family or simply want to always show the same image on the lock screenin the Background section, we must select Image and then choose one of the images offered by Windows or click on Browse and select the image that we want to use as the background.

windows lock screen

Presentation

Selecting this option as wallpaper, Windows allows us to select a directory on our computer where they are all the images we want to use on the lock screen, images that rotate every time we access the lock screen.

If we want to add or remove images to the presentation, we only have to access the directory that we have selected to add the new images that we want to show and delete the ones that we no longer want to be shown.

windows lock screen

Get rid of recommendations, fun facts and more

As I mentioned above, if we opt for Windows Featured Content, Microsoft will show us a different image every day along with the corresponding information, curious facts, recommendations and others. Unfortunately, this information can be deleted in this mode.

But if we use a single background image or slideshow, Microsoft allows us to disable that information that, sometimes, the only thing it does is not allow us to enjoy the image that we have configured to be displayed on the lock screen.

When selecting the Image or Presentation options in the Background section, just below, we must uncheck the box Show fun facts, recommendations and more from Windows and Cortana on the lock screen.

lock screen tips

Shows information about an application

Both Windows 10 and Windows 11 allow users to display information about the weather, calendar, new emails, and more along with the time and date on the lock screen. It only allows to display the information of one of these appsnot you all.

If we want to know, for example, the temperature at that moment, together with the maximum and minimum temperature of that day, together with the location of these data (what is where we are) or if we want them to show the next entry in the agenda, we must select the weather icon or the calendar icon in the section Choose an app to display detailed status on the lock screen.

Lock screen

Know the status of certain applications

With Windows 11, Microsoft removed an option from the lock screen that allows users to quickly find out information about certain applications, such as the number of emails pending reading, if we have configured an alarm on the device or if we have one or more appointments on the agenda for that day.

Windows 10 users can display this information on the Windows lock screen by selecting which apps they want to know about in the Choose which apps show quick status on the lock screen section.

Lock screen

Remove background image from home screen

After enjoying a dreamlike image on the lock screen if we use the Windows Featured Content option, if we do not want to prolong the agony and get to work immediately, Windows allows us to remove the image from the lock screen when entering the PIN code that gives access to our account.

To disable this feature, we need to perform the same steps in both Windows 10 and Windows 11, and disable switch in the section where we find the text Show lock screen background image on login screen.

Get rid of the lock screen

If, instead of taking full advantage of the multiple options that the Windows lock screen puts at our disposal, we want to get rid of it and thus save ourselves a click when we turn on our computer, we can completely remove it from Windows startup so that, once we start our PC, the home screen is shown directly where we must enter the PIN code of our account.

To disable this feature, unfortunately, we cannot do it from the lock screen configuration options, but we are forced to use the Windows registry. Being one of the most important sections of the system, before making any changes, it is advisable to make a backup, through the File > Export menu. If we change a value that does not correspond or if the system becomes unstable, we can import the copy of the registry again so that everything returns to normal.

To access the registry, we press the Win+r key combination to open the dialog box that allows us to run applications in Windows and type regedit. Next, we go to the following directory

Equipo/HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE/Policies/Microsoft/Windows/Personalization

log lock screen

Inside this directory, we need to modify the NoLockScreen file and change the Value data from 0 to 1. The next time we log in, the lock screen will not be displayed.

Once we have deactivated the lock screen, we will not be able to customize any of the options that we have shown above, since it is deactivated. If you want to modify any of these functions to recover the lock screen, the first thing we must do is to reverse this change by changing the value of NoLockScreen from 1 to 0.

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