[Windows Tip] Hide or Remove User Picture from Login Screen / Start Menu
UPDATE: Tutorial updated for new Windows versions.
Almost all Windows versions such as Windows XP, Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8.1 and Windows 10 show your user account picture (also known as Windows account picture and user avatar) on Login Screen (Welcome Screen or Sign-in Screen) as well as on Start Screen or Start Menu. You can click on the user picture to access user account settings and options.
Many times when you use a 3rd party Windows theme or custom background on Login Screen, you may want to hide or remove this user picture from Start Menu or Login Screen as it may not match with the new theme or background and may ruin the look of Start Menu or Login Screen.
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If you want to hide user picture on Login Screen as well as Start Menu in Windows, here are very easy to use and simple solutions for you.
Today in this tutorial, we are going to share 2 methods to remove user picture from Login Screen and Start Menu in Windows:
- METHOD 1: Remove user picture manually
- METHOD 2: Remove user picture using 3rd party software
So without wasting time lets start the tutorial:
METHOD 1: Remove User Picture Manually
With the help of this simple method, you can easily remove the user picture shown on Login Screen and Start Menu to get a clean and minimal interface.
1. Copy following text and paste it in RUN dialog box or Windows Explorer addressbar and press Enter:
%appdata%\Microsoft\Windows\AccountPictures
It’ll open “Account Pictures” folder where you’ll see your customized user picture images.
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2. Just delete all the images and it’ll remove the user picture from Login Screen as well as Start Menu. It’ll also clear recent user picture history in user account settings window.
PS: If you want to restore default user picture later, you can go to following folder:
%ProgramData%\Microsoft\User Account Pictures\
It contains all default user picture images. Now you can select any desired image as your user picture. Open Start Menu and click on your user name shown at the top of Start Menu and select “Change account settings” option. Now you can select new user picture.
METHOD 2: Remove User Picture Using 3rd Party Software
Long time back, we posted about a cool feature of our favorite tool “Classic Shell” at following link:
Enable Windows XP Style Cascading “All Programs” List in Windows Vista / 7 Start Menu
We are going to share yet another cool feature of “Classic Shell” freeware. It can also hide user picture on Windows Start Menu. Following screenshot shows Windows 7 Start Menu without user picture:
You just need to follow these simple steps to remove user picture from Windows Start Menu:
1. Download and install Classic Shell using following link:
2. Once you install it, it’ll replace Windows Start Menu with Classic Start Menu. Right-click on Start ORB and select Settings option.
3. Now click on “Windows Start Menu” radio button given in “Left Click opens” section as shown in following screenshot:
It’ll re-enable Windows Start Menu for left-click. If you want, you can also follow the same steps for “Windows Key opens” section.
4. Now we need to hide user picture in Start Menu.
Go to “Windows Start Menu” tab and enable “Hide User Picture” option as shown in following screenshot:
5. That’s it. It’ll immediately hide user picture from Start Menu. Enjoy the minimal and clean Start Menu which you always wanted.
If you decide to restore user picture in future, just uncheck the option in settings.
Also Check:
this is good but dont forget
instead of this 3rd party software, u can also use the Start Menu Glitch method as mentioned in here:
https://www.askvg.com/microsoft-windows-seven-bug-report/
(the problem however is that it only works on windows 7)
Now if you could only show us how to disable that damned picture without using a third party tool!
Hi, VG:
Many thanks for your input.
I have already tried to remove the an avatar, from the login screen, using the manual method, by deleting the picture. For good measure, I also removed it from the recycle bin.
However, the picture remains on show.
Where else could this picture be hiding?
I bought a second-hand Acer note book, which is virtually brand new – an unwanted gift – that had Win 8.1 on board. I upgraded to Win 10, meanwhile and I still have the option of reverting to 8.1, if necessary.
Thanks, in advance, for your assistance.
Kind regards,
Roland Osborne
^^ Try to change your user account picture and then delete the image file as suggested.
Method one does not work with Windows 10 build 14371 and higher for the login screen user account picture. MS has changed something in Windows 10. Apparently the user account picture for the login screen is now sourced from some place different than the location noted in method one. Hopefully someone will find a new method to hide the user account picture on the login screen in these newer builds.
after the windows anniversary update, I finally found out how to remove my MS account from my work computer and removed it, the MS account picture would not go away, showed up in my domain logon. After I added a new picture, taking one from my laptop with the lid closed, the MS picture showed up under the user account pictures, where I then deleted all pictures. I then selected one of the default pictures from the ProgramData\Microsoft\Default_Account_Pictures to use as my profile picture.
I would like to alter the standard blue WIN1064 screen showing the window glaring.
Where do I find that actual file and its name. I’m not having a problem, but wish to distinguish on this boot screen some text to differentiate once system here in my shop from another. Just want to KISS.
Thanks.
I used the manual method on windows 7, but it only removed the pictures from the accounts I created when I set up the computer. I added a new user a few days ago and it didn’t go away. Maybe a bug…?
Need new updated tip that works with Windows 10 1607.
remove my photo from opening screen
This procedure does display the picture, and the “delete” option. However, procedure does not
delete the picture from the startup procedure. It should be noted the procedure “does” show
that the picture was deleted.
Thank You;
R.K.
wrong photo on the start how do I fix the problem
^^ Click on the user picture in Start Menu and it’ll open User Accounts window where you can change the photo.
thanks but i’m on a samsung android phone and don’t have the settings you suggest. best regards, jp