Whenever you lock your PC, it will go straight to the sign-in screen where you enter your password or PIN, bypassing the lock screen. However, we’ve found a trick to disable the lock screen and only see it when you boot your computer.
Windows 10 shows the lock screen at boot and every time you lock your computer.
RELATED: How to Disable the Lock Screen on Windows 10 Power BI is a business analytics service. To bypass this security, enable the “Let Cortana access my calendar, email, messages, and Power BI data when my device is locked” checkbox. Say “Hey Cortana’ and start talking to access Cortana from the lock screen if you’ve enabled this option.īy default, Cortana is available but can’t be used to access sensitive personal data like your calendar events and emails without unlocking your PC. Under Lock Screen, you can choose whether “Use Cortana even when my device is locked” is enabled. To control whether Cortana is available on the lock screen, either scroll down to the bottom of the Lock screen settings pane and select “Cortana lock screen settings” or open the Cortana menu from your taskbar and click the Settings icon. Windows 10 normally allows you to interact with the Cortana voice assistant on the lock screen. RELATED: 15 Things You Can Do With Cortana on Windows 10
If you don’t want any apps to display status information on the lock screen, click or tap each app icon here and select “None” in the list.Ĭhoose Whether Cortana Is Available From the Lock Screen Scroll down and select the apps you want to see under “Choose an app to show detailed status” and “Choose apps to show quick status”. To customize which apps show information on the lock screen (or hide them all completely), head to the same Settings > Personalization > Lock Screen pane. For example, the Weather app could show you detailed information about the weather and the Mail app can show you a notification icon if you have new emails waiting for you. Windows allows a single app to show “detailed status” information on the lock screen, and allows up to seven other apps to show “quick status” information.
The lock screen allows you to view information like new emails, weather details, calendar appointments, incoming messages, or social updates without even unlocking your PC first. To use a flat color background for your sign-in screen instead, scroll down on the Lock Screen settings pane and disable the “Show lock screen background picture on the sign-in screen” option.Ĭhoose Your Lock Screen Notifications and Apps
Microsoft has used these “tips” to show advertisements in the past.īy default, this same lock screen background image is displayed on the sign-in screen that appears when you leave your lock screen. Select “Slideshow” and you’ll be able to select a folder containing pictures on your PC.īe sure to also disable the “Get fun facts, tips, and more from Windows and Cortana on your lock screen” option if you don’t want to see any ads. If you select “Picture,” you’ll be able to select one of the included pictures, or browse to a picture file on your computer. Click the “Background” box and select “Windows Spotlight”, “Picture”, or “Slideshow”. Have you created your own screensaver? Which of the variations did you like best? Please let us know in the comments.If you’d rather use a custom background, head to Settings > Personalization > Lock Screen. Definitely better than someone else's notion of outer space or cartoon superheroes or animated graphics just waiting to eat your hard drive for lunch. Windows Photo Gallery connects seamlessly with Windows' own Screen Saver application (except for the one small quirk about the descriptive tags) and you should be able to create your own customized screen saver in only a few minutes. We have a lot of great reviews of security software, but it would still be better not to push your luck. If you like screensavers and don't want to spend money buying a commercial one, and don't want to put your system at risk with a "screensaver" that's nothing but a delivery system for malware, creating your own is the way to go. If this happens, you can check this article for a solution: "This Computer's Video Card Can't Play Themes" Message in WLPG Screensaver Settings Dialog. NOTE: If you have a really old and/or really marginal video card you might get a message saying that your video card can't play themes.