How to Restrict Users from Customizing Lock Screen in Windows 8 and Later?

Lock Screen is a new feature present in Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 which is shown just before Login or Welcome Screen. It shows current date, time, day name, battery and Internet connection status. It also shows status and notifications of various metro apps. In Windows 8.1 you can also set your favorite images slide show as Lock Screen background and can also access your computer camera right from the Lock Screen.

Windows 8 and 8.1 allow you to customize Lock Screen appearance. You can change Lock Screen background image with any of your desired wallpaper image, enable image slide show, etc using PC Settings aka Metro Control Panel.

Following are a few exclusive tutorials which help you in customizing Lock Screen look-n-feel:

• How to Change Lock Screen Background Image in Windows 8 and 8.1?
• How to Customize Day Name, Date and Time Format on Windows 8 and 8.1 Lock Screen?
• How to Enable Image Slide Show Feature on Windows 8.1 Lock Screen?
• How to Use Camera App on Windows 8.1 Lock Screen?

Sometimes you may want to restrict other users from customizing Lock Screen appearance using PC Settings page. You may want to set your desired image as Lock Screen background and don’t want others to change it. You may also want to restrict other people from accessing Camera app from Lock Screen. In these situations this tutorial will definitely help you.

Recently we shared a few tips for restricting users from customizing Start Screen in Windows 8 and 8.1:

• How to Restrict Users from Customizing Start Menu or Start Screen Layout in Windows?
• How to Restrict Users from Changing Start Screen Background and Color in Windows 8 and 8.1?

Today in this tutorial we’ll tell you how to restrict users from changing Lock Screen background image, accessing Camera app and setting image slide show on Lock Screen in Windows 8 and 8.1. Once applied, users will not be able to access Lock Screen personalization options in PC Settings page as shown in following screenshot:

If you want to set any restriction on Lock Screen in your Windows, check out following simple steps:

NOTE: You can use either Group Policy Editor or Registry Editor to implement these restrictions.

METHOD 1: Using Group Policy Editor (gpedit.msc)

1. Press “WIN+R” key combination to launch RUN dialog box, then type gpedit.msc and press Enter. It’ll open Group Policy Editor.

2. Now go to:

3. In right-side pane:

To Restrict Users from Changing Lock Screen Background:

Double-click on “Prevent changing lock screen image” option and set its value to “Enabled“.

To Restrict Users from Enabling Image Slide Show on Lock Screen:

Double-click on “Prevent enabling lock screen slide show” option and set its value to “Enabled“.

To Restrict Users from Enabling Camera on Lock Screen:

Double-click on “Prevent enabling lock screen camera” option and set its value to “Enabled“.

4. It’ll immediately disable options to change Lock Screen background, to enable image slide show and Camera app in PC Settings and users will not be able to access these options. If you want to enable these options again in future, change the values to “Disabled” or “Not Configured“.

METHOD 2: Using Registry Editor (regedit.exe)

If you are using Home edition of Windows OS, you’ll not be able to run gpedit.msc command because this edition doesn’t come with Group Policy Editor.

If you can’t use or don’t want to use Group Policy Editor, you can take help of Registry Editor for the same task. Just follow these simple steps:

1. Type regedit in RUN dialog box and press Enter. It’ll open Registry Editor.

2. Now go to following key:

If you can’t find “Personalization” key, you’ll need to create it manually.

3. In right-side pane:

To Restrict Users from Changing Lock Screen Background:

Create a new DWORD NoChangingLockScreen and set its value to 1

To Restrict Users from Enabling Image Slide Show on Lock Screen:

Create a new DWORD NoLockScreenSlideshow and set its value to 1

To Restrict Users from Enabling Camera on Lock Screen:

Create a new DWORD NoLockScreenCamera and set its value to 1

4. In future if you want to enable these options again, either delete the DWORD or change its value to 0

PS: If you want to permanently disable Lock Screen, check out following tutorial:

How to Disable Lock Screen in Windows 8 and 8.1?