How to Customize Windows 10 Lock Screen

If you have been using Windows 7 or any older operating system, Windows 10 will definitely bring lot more new features for you. Lock screen of Windows 10 has interesting options which can be used to make it more useful. Lock screens are no more static screens with only user’s avatar and boring mono color background. Lock screen of Windows can be used to get access to necessary information without being logged in. But how much information you want to show on your lock screen is entirely up to you.

As far as older versions of Windows are concerned, changing background of lock screen was not a simple task. Things are different with Windows 10 as no third party utility is required in order to change the background on lock screen. The interesting feature of these lock screen backgrounds is the imposed clock on it so you no longer need to logon in order to access clock.

Change lock screen background

  • Go to Start or click on Search button directly available left-bottom corner and type lock screen.
    windows-10-search
  • If you want to change the lock screen background of Widows 10, you can either choose from the built-in wallpapers or from the stack of your desired pictures.
    change background picture windows 10

Photo slideshow on lock screen

Also, you do not have to stick to one picture as a background instead you can set a slideshow from settings.

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  • Select Slideshow option from Background drop-down menu and click on Add a folder (+) plus icon and then select folder that contains photos that you want to run as slideshow on Windows 10 lock screen.
    slideshow lock screen windows 10
  • Click on “Advanced slideshow settings” and you will be able to apply many settings to the background for example: turning off slideshow when battery is low or using only those pictures which fit to the screen. You can also set a timer to the slideshow of the lock screen background.
    lock screen slideshow settings windows 10

Show apps notifications

Do you remember updates of unread emails on your older operating systems? Windows 10 offers many such features on its lock screen. You can choose any seven apps to show their status updates on lock screen. If you want to add any app click on (+) plus sign and then choose the app from the drop down menu.

So now you no longer need to keep your operating system logged in to see the date, time or upcoming email alerts, also add slide show to see pics of your loved ones on lock screen. You can receive all these notification and alerts right at your lock screen. Not only this, you will also be able to control the screen saver settings and screen timeout settings.

4 comments… add one
Hrothgar October 6, 2015, 6:09 am

What does a red circle with a white x icon on the lock screen represent?

Ahmed October 7, 2015, 7:15 pm

Did you installed any internet security of antivirus on you Windows 10 PC? If you can capture and send screenshot, that would be helpful to identify the problem. Problem may be your security program found some malicious stuff in your PC and showing alert on lock screen.

Hrothgar October 10, 2015, 12:02 pm

It’s the Yahoo! Mail app. It shows a red circle with a white x inside, and the number of new emails appears next to it. Hopefully, they’ll make a better icon.

Doug March 29, 2016, 5:18 am

I have this icon appearing – but I don’t run a yahoo mail product – how do i get rid of it ?

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