[Bug Fix] Lock Screen Shows Solid Black Background in Windows 10

Today in this topic we are going to discuss about another weird bug found in Windows 10 operating system. This bug is related to Lock Screen background image.

We know that we can change Lock Screen background image in Windows 10. Also we can show Lock Screen background image on Login/Sign-in screen in Windows 10. But sometimes Lock Screen doesn’t show selected background image. It shows solid Black color as background and when we press any key to show Login Screen, it shows the selected background image.

That’s strange behavior of Windows 10 as the Lock Screen and Login Screen both should show the selected background image. But in some circumstances, only Login Screen shows the custom background image, Lock Screen doesn’t show any background image.

When I investigated this bug, I found that this issue is caused by an option “Animate windows when minimizing and maximizing” present in Advanced Performance section of System Properties.

If the “Animate windows when minimizing and maximizing” option is disabled and the option “Show lock screen background picture on the sign-in screen” is enabled in Settings app, the Lock Screen shows Black background image. If we disable “Show lock screen background picture on the sign-in screen” option, Lock Screen starts showing selected background image.

So if you want to disable “Animate windows when minimizing and maximizing” option but want to show custom background image on Lock Screen, then you’ll have to disable the option “Show lock screen background picture on the sign-in screen” in Settings app otherwise Lock Screen will not show the selected background image.

If you want to show selected background image on both Lock Screen as well as Login Screen, then you’ll have to enable the option “Animate windows when minimizing and maximizing” in System Properties.

You can enable or disable “Animate windows when minimizing and maximizing” option in Windows using following simple steps:

1. Press “Win+R” keys together to open RUN dialog box. You can also launch it using Win+X menu.

2. Now type sysdm.cpl in run dialog box and press Enter. It’ll open System Properties window.

3. Now go to “Advanced” tab and click on “Settings” button present in “Performance” section.

4. It’ll open a new window. Now you can enable or disable “Animate windows when minimizing and maximizing” option and apply changes.

To enable or disable “Show lock screen background picture on the sign-in screen” option, use following steps:

1. Press WIN+I keys together to open Settings app.

2. Now go to “Personalization -> Lock screen” section and set the option “Show lock screen background picture on the sign-in screen” to On or Off.

PS: Alternatively, You can directly launch this page using “ms-settings:lockscreen” command in RUN dialog box as mentioned here.

So the bottom line is that if you want to keep “Animate windows when minimizing and maximizing” option disabled and want to show custom background image on both Lock Screen and Login Screen, it’s not possible. You can either disable animations and show background image on Lock Screen only or enable animations and show background image on both Lock and Login Screens.

If you remember we have shared similar bugs caused by disabling animation options in Windows 10. You can check out other bugs in following topics:

• [Windows 10 Fix] Dotted Circle Animation Not Showing on Reboot or Shutdown Screen
• [FIX] Screen Won’t Dim When You Press Win+PrtScn keys to Save Screenshots in Windows 8 or Later