[Windows 10 Tip] How to Remove Old Images from Lock Screen Background History in Settings

A few years back, we posted a tutorial to remove unwanted old images from desktop background history list in Windows 10. When you open Settings app in Windows 10 and go to Personalization -> Background page, you see 5 small thumbnails of recently used wallpaper images under “Choose your picture” section. We shared a registry tweak to remove unwanted images from wallpaper history. You can read the tutorial at following link:

[Windows 10 Tip] Remove Recently Used Images from Desktop Background History in Settings

A few days back an AskVG reader “GZk” asked us how to do the similar thing with Lock Screen wallpaper list?

Actually if you open “Settings -> Personalization -> Lock Screen” page in Windows 10, you find similar 5 small thumbnails of recently used images set as Lock Screen background.

If you want to remove the old wallpaper list from Lock Screen background history, you can apply new images and they’ll replace the existing images in history but there is no direct option given to delete a particular image from the background history list.

Unlike the desktop background history, the Lock Screen background history images are not stored in Windows registry. Actually the images are stored in a system folder which is protected by Windows operating system.

If you want to remove unwanted or all Lock Screen background history images, this tutorial will help you.

All Lock Screen backgrounds which you apply using Settings app, are stored in following system folder:

First of all “ProgramData” is a hidden folder. To view and access it, you’ll need to enable “Show hidden files, folders, and drives” option in Folder Options. You can access folder options by clicking on “View” tab present in This PC ribbon and then click on Options button present at the extreme end. Then go to “View” tab and enable the option.

Once you view “ProgramData” folder, open it and then go to “Microsoft\Windows” folder.

Now you’ll need to open “SystemData” folder but its protected by Windows. If you try to open it, Windows will show you an error message that you don’t currently have permission to access this folder. If you click on Continue button, you get another error message that you have been denied permission to access this folder.

To be able to open this folder, you’ll need to take ownership of the folder. You can either take the ownership manually or using automatic option. Following tutorials will help you in taking ownership of the “SystemData” folder:

[Tip] Add “Take Ownership” Option in Files and Folders Context Menu in Windows

[Guide] How to Take Ownership (Permission) of a File or Folder Manually in Windows?

After applying the registry script given in first tutorial, right-click on “SystemData” folder and select “Take ownership” option. It’ll assign you ownership and full control over the folder.

Now open “SystemData” folder and you’ll see 2 folders:

• S-1-5-18
• S-1-5-21-random-characters-numbers

Second folder contains your use account SID (Security Identifier) number in its name. Open the second folder.

Now you’ll see another folder with the name “ReadOnly“.

Open this folder and you’ll see following folders:

• LockScreen_A
• LockScreen_B
• LockScreen_C
• LockScreen_D

The number of these folders may vary in different computers. Each of these folders contain the Lock Screen background history images in original resolution with the name “LockScreen.jpg” as well as small thumbnails in size of 108×108, 151×151 and 194×194 px.

Now you can find the folder containing the Lock Screen background history image which you want to remove and then empty the folder.

That’s it. As soon as you delete the files present in the folder, it’ll disappear from the Lock Screen background history list in Settings app.

If you apply a new image as Lock Screen background, it’ll appear in the history list and the same wallpaper image will be copied along with its thumbnail in the above mentioned folders.