If you have Windows 10 Enterprise or Education you should be able to use a GPO to set a custom lock and home screen. Unfortunately, Windows 10 1703 broke that and it has been driving many IT staff crazy trying to fix it.
After a few weeks of banging around with Microsoft Partner Support they have just confirmed that this will be fixed shortly:
After checking with our Product team, it seems that our issue will be fixed on the non-security cumulative update that will be released on the 4th Tuesday of May, which is May 23
I know my staff will be happy and as this is holding up several deployments. One of my customers put a global deployment on hold because Win 10 1703 would not respect the GPO that sets the custom lock and home screens.
Note that if you have Windows 10 Pro, S or Home, this GPO is completely ignored and there really is no easy way to set a custom lock and home screen.
In case you do not already know, the GPO to set a custom home and lock screen is:
COMPUTER > POLICIES > ADMINISTRATIVE TEMPLATES > CONTROL PANEL > PERSONALIZATION > FORCE A SPECIFIC DEFAULT LOCK SCREEN AND LOGON IMAGE
Enjoy!
21 Comments
akiceca · March 11, 2022 at 1:15 am
Hi everybody (and people who are looking for the same answer than me ;))
Just a (late) update about this topic… after hardest web researches/tests and with actual WinOS build (21H2), here is how to set a custom lockscreen image (1) without “Fun facts, tips & tricks” options (2)(shitty Spotlight ;)):
1) 1st reg.key: “HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\PersonalizationCSP”
Value name: “LockScreenStatus” (DWORD) // value to “1”
Value name: “LockScreenPath” (SZ) // value to “\\share\picture.jpg”
2) 2nd reg.key: “HKCU:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ContentDeliveryManager”
Value name: “SubscribedContent-338387Enabled” (DWORD) // value to “0”
You can use GPO rule (registry push) or ps script to do so.
Enjoy and cheers 😉
Microsoft Windows · May 19, 2020 at 6:39 am
Your article has a good source of information and many informative topics because we all know that Windows 10 is one of the most important it is a Windows 10 operating system can provide numerous benefits to you and your organization, including the following: Windows 10 has two-factor authentication implemented into its system. This feature adds a higher level of security, since users have to confirm their identity before they can log on to the computer. I am very thankful on your article it gives more knwledgeable information
noob69 · March 11, 2020 at 1:47 am
noobs
you have to tho too dhi and that
Ian Matthews · March 13, 2020 at 12:18 pm
Can you explain what you mean Noob69?
Don Leaman · July 30, 2018 at 2:18 pm
You refer to Windows 10 Enterprise build 1703. We are having the problem with Windows 10 Enterprise 1709 and 1803. So if the KB you list has actually fixed it for 1703, what about 1709 and 1803. What KB(s)?
Ian Matthews · August 28, 2018 at 6:48 pm
I am using Win 10 v1803 with most of my Enterprise customers and I am not seeing any issue with the Lock Screen GPO.
PATRICK KENDALL · March 7, 2018 at 4:01 pm
SO WIN10 PRO DOESN’T SUPPORT THIS AS OF NOW, CORRECT?
DOES THIS APPLY TO DESKTOP IMAGES AS WELL?
Ian Matthews · March 15, 2018 at 4:04 pm
Correct. Very frustrating.
Tom Drago · December 11, 2017 at 11:47 am
Works fine for me as well Ian. As Ian had mentioned in will not work with Pro. WIN 10 ENT or EDU only!
jon · October 18, 2017 at 8:43 am
This doesnt’ work in our environment. We have a lockscreen gpo in place that sets the lockscreen that involves rotating between 2 different images based on the week. We can’t set the 2 GPO settings because it breaks our national lock screen banner.
And the powershell script fails too. Even with an admin account we don’t have enough rights to use the script, so you need more than just a regular admin account.
jon · October 19, 2017 at 6:52 am
My bad… I was trying to run it in powershell and the last command “rmdir” was failing. Just ran it in an elevated command prompt window and it seems to have worked.
At first I was getting the solid colour logon background, but it eventually updated.
ErikN · September 5, 2017 at 7:46 am
It indeed is solved in the mentioned hotfix, but…
In rare occasions it still fails to set the lockscreen background on windows 10 1703 Enterprise. (1 out of 400). We fixed that by running the following script:
takeown /F C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\SystemData
icacls C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\SystemData /grant:r “Administrators:F”
icacls C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\SystemData /grant:r “SYSTEM:(OI)(CI)F”
icacls C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\SystemData /setowner Administrators
takeown /F C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\SystemData\S-1-5-18 /R /D Y
icacls C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\SystemData\S-1-5-18 /grant:r “Administrators:(OI)(CI)F”
icacls C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\SystemData\S-1-5-18 /grant:r “SYSTEM:(OI)(CI)F”
icacls C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\SystemData\S-1-5-18\* /inheritance:e /T
icacls C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\SystemData\S-1-5-18 /setowner Administrators /T
rmdir /Q /S C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\SystemData\S-1-5-18
ErikN · May 19, 2017 at 4:12 am
Kinda bold to set the status to solved. It is a promise Microsoft will (try to) fix it in the next cumulative update. First I need to have actual proof of this fix, before claiming a issue to be solved.
Ian Matthews · May 24, 2017 at 5:14 pm
That is the fact. The problem is solved. Quit working on trying to get around it, and just wait for the patch. 🙂
Pär · May 29, 2017 at 1:24 am
I agree with Erik, especially since the patch was not released on the promised date, and today that link provided above is not working.
I am now looking for more info on this.
Ian Matthews · July 4, 2017 at 3:08 pm
I have it working with that patch KB4020102. That patch is a cumulative patch and has already been replaced with KB4022725 which will be replaced again this month.
Remember that, in addition to the patch, you MUST be running Windows 10 ENTERPRISE or EDUCATION and you MUST set BOTH:
“Force a specific default lock screen and logon image” and
“Prevent changing lock screen and logon image”
Visitor · August 12, 2017 at 4:27 am
Ian Matthews,
you mentioned that you have it working with KB4022725. I’m getting a solid blue color instead of images for lock screen and logon. Would you mind giving more details how you managed to get it to work in addition to the information you already provided so that I too may get it to work? Thanks!
Ian Matthews · August 17, 2017 at 11:03 pm
Sure, you need to ensure you have the rollup from May 25 2017 or newer see: https://support.microsoft.com/en-ca/help/4020102/windows-10-update-kb4020102 and note that you can click on the newer rollups on the left to see what they bring.
You can only set the lock screen on Enterprise and Education now, so if you are only running Pro, the lock screen GPO’s are ignored. I think that is ridiculous but I can not change it.
I just rolled out another 50 Win10 Ent PC’s yesterday with no issues on the lock screen front, so I know it is still working with the latest patches.
For more details you might find my support thread with MS Partner Support useful:
https://partnersupport.microsoft.com/en-us/par_clientsol/forum/par_win/lock-screen-not-changing-as-per-gpo-in-1703/f002961c-f6fe-4592-a963-13bd0cb55863?auth=1
use the arrow at the bottom right of the page to expand the entire post and see all 36 posts!
Zach · August 30, 2017 at 8:43 am
This still isnt fixed. Carlosftw posted on August 14th in the support ticket you have. When will this be fixed?!
Ian Matthews · September 8, 2017 at 11:24 pm
Hi Zack; I can assure you that we have this working in several environments. The MS patches on Win 10 ENTERPRISE and EDUCATION do work.
Login Screen background · May 23, 2017 at 7:49 am
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