Whenever you turn on Windows 10 laptop or desktop, the first screen you will see is a lock screen. If you have a password setup, you need to type it to login to your computer. By default, Windows will setup a picture as your lock screen background. In this article, we will explain how to setup lock screen slideshow. This will enable the slideshow to run automatically with selected pictures when you lock the screen.
Related: 7 ways to sign out from Windows user account.
Windows Lock Screen Settings
Click on the Start button and then select the gear settings icon. This will open Windows Settings app with lots of option. Alternatively, you can also use “Win Logo + I” keyboard shortcut keys to open the settings app. When the settings app is opened, click on“Personalization” option.
Under Personalization settings, navigate to “Lock Screen” tab. Here you can customize the appearance of the lock screen for your computer.
Setup Lock Screen Slideshow
As mentioned, Windows 10 uses a picture for the lock screen background by default. You can the see the preview of the selected background picture under “Lock Screen” tab.
Below the preview section, you will see a “Background” section with multiple options for customizations. Click on the dropdown box under “Background” section. There are three options to choose a lock screen background – Windows spotlight, picture and slideshow. In order to setup a slideshow, choose “Slideshow” from the dropdown.
Choosing Picture Folder for Slideshow
When you select slideshow option, Windows will show additional options for choosing albums for your slideshow. Click on the “Add a folder” option and choose the folder for your slideshow. Remember, you should have pictures inside a folder beforehand. Here, you simply need to choose the folder and not individual pictures.
Now, you can press “Win Logo + L” keys to lock your computer. You can see the slideshow will start running instantly with the pictures from the selected folder. Press any key to stop the slideshow and login back to your computer.
Advanced Slideshow Settings
Click on the “Advanced slideshow settings” link to find additional options.
- Include Camera Roll folders from the PC and OneDrive – you can turn off this option to avoid unnecessary and personal photos are suddenly showing in the slideshow.
- Only use pictures that fit my screen – enable this option to exclude pictures that do not fit on your monitor display.
- Play a slideshow when using battery power – disable this to avoid power consumption when the computer is running on battery. When the screen is inactive while running on battery, the screen will follow the screen timeout setting instead of slideshow setting.
- When my PC is inactive, show lock screen instead of turning off the screen – you can enable or disable this based on your preference. Your computer screen will go to sleep or inactive mode based on the screen timeout settings. Enabling this option will show the lock screen slideshow whenever your computer screen is inactive. As playing the slideshow will consume power, you can choose the time from the dropdown to turn off the slideshow to allow the screen to go to sleep mode. 30 minutes is the minimum time you can choose here, and we recommend to choose this to save power after 30 minutes. Disabling this option will allow the screen to follow screen timeout setting and send the screen to sleep. However, when you wake up the screen the slideshow will start playing as a lock screen background.
Adding Additional Information on Slideshow
Whether you have a picture background or slideshow, it is possible to show additional information on the lock screen.
- The option “Get fun facts, tips, tricks, and more on your lock screen” will show unnecessary recommended information by Microsoft on the lock screen. You can disable this to avoid distraction while logging into your computer.
- Choose apps to show detailed information on the lock screen. This is a useful option and you can add weather, calendar or any other Windows default apps to show information on lock screen slideshow.
Screen Timeout Settings
Click on the “Screen timeout settings” to setup a turn off time for your screen and sleep mode time for your PC. As mentioned, the slideshow starting depends on the screen setting you choose here. However, when the slideshow is playing it will follow the advanced slideshow settings instead of screen time settings.
Screen Saver Settings
When you want to have lock screen slideshow, make sure to disable the screen saver settings. Otherwise, this setting will turn off the slideshow automatically and your screen saver will start playing whenever the screen goes to inactive mode. Click on the “Screen saver settings” link and you will see “None” when slideshow is setup.
Change these settings only if you want to disable lock screen slideshow and enable screen saver instead.
Limitations in Slideshow
Basically, these are the things you can do with the lock screen slideshow in Windows 10 computers. Unfortunately, Microsoft does not offer any customization options for adjusting the slideshow itself. For example, you can’t change the picture animation and playing order in the slideshow. It works automatically with the predefined styles.
If you do not like or get confused with power settings, better start using the screen saver option. You can easily setup photos, shuffle and choose the style with screen saver.
Final Words
As you can see, setup lock screen slideshow is an easy task and you can show pictures from any folder on your computer. You can anytime see the slideshow when locking your computer. However, there are no customization options for adjusting the slideshow like the animation styles. It is also much confusing when you want to combine this with screen’s power settings.
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