In earlier versions of Windows, personalizing the logon screen was a difficult task, especially for novice users. One had to use available third-party tools such as Windows 7 Logon Editor, Logon Screen Changer, Logon Screen rotator or Logon Tweaker to replace the default logon screen background with a custom one.
Though there was a way to manually change Windows 7 logon screen background, the procedure involved editing the Windows Registry and most of Windows users are not comfortable with the Registry editing.
But in Windows 8, personalizing the lock screen (logon screen) is a very simple job. One can easily change the default logon screen background and personalize the lock screen by adding new application notifications from the Control Panel. That is, you don’t need a third-party utility to personalize the Windows 8 lock screen.
In this guide, we will guide you how to change the default Windows 8 lock screen background.
Step 1: Move the mouse cursor to the upper or lower right corner of the screen to see the Charms bar (you can also use Windows + C hotkey), click Settings and then click Change PC settings.
Step 2: In the left pane of PC settings, click on Personalize to see available settings to personalize the lock screen.
Step 3: Click on the browse button to browse to the image file that you want to use as the lock screen background. Use the navigation options available in the top left of screen to browse to the image file, left click on image file to select it and then click Choose picture button to set the new image file as your lock screen background.
Step 4: Use Windows + L hotkey to view the new lock screen background.
Susan Jensen says
WOW such language. Im a senior(stupin on understanding ) at least some will think. Im stubborn and want to know. When I download a photo it goes to my start screen (I call it). How to STOP THIS. Thank you
seniorMn
brian says
waste of time……..logon screen and lock screen are different things……..
Stuart Gershon says
What if you don’t want any of these screens and go DIRECTLY to the desktop?
mike jones says
Sorry was being a complete n00b don’t worry about above comment was just going to personalisation instead of change pc settings haha
mike jones says
I think I must be a noob lol, I’ve tried going to personalise menu to change lock screen but there is no option to change as it shows above I only get a option to change theme, background, sounds and screen savers, is there an update to give more options or a hotkey to bring up the correct menu please help I hate that lock screen picture :P, thanks in advance……..
admin says
Yes, it’s possible to change Windows 7 logon screen without using third-party tools. We have covered about it here: intowindows.com/how-to-change-windows-7-logon-screen-easily-without-using-hacks-tools/
Fred says
There is a way to change the logon screen in windows 7 without editing the registry – just find the background image file and change the image (keeping same file name). This guy is not far “into windows”.
Bunk says
Agreed. The logon screen and the lock screen aren’t the same thing. This article is worthless.
Guest says
Very useful guide for n00bs. Unfortunately the logon screen and the lock screen are two different things in Windows 8.
This “guide” is useless for two reasons. 1) If you are too stupid to even figure out how to change the lock screen by clicking 3 times, it probably wouldn’t have even occurred to you to change the lock screen. 2) If you did in fact want to change the logon screen, this “guide” doesn’t tell you how to do this, but instead treats you as a total n00b by assuming you don’t know the difference between a lock screen and a logon screen and wastes your time by telling you something you already knew.
Thanks for wasting my time.
Geek says
Easy guidelines. Can you also tell us in your future article that how to change Google chrome’s home page so that it can look like Windows 8 home screen?
Thank you.