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3. Personalizing Windows 8 > Personalizing Your Lock Screen
Personalizing Your Lock Screen
The first interaction you have with Windows 8 each day will likely be in the form of your Lock screen. The Lock screen is the first screen you’ll encounter, displaying whatever image you’ve selected and showing you—thanks to badges that connect to some of your favorite live tiles—which items need your attention. You might touch the Power button in the morning and see instantly that you have 46 new email messages, 17 instant messages, and a text message to respond to. Good thing you made the coffee strong today!
You can customize the look of the Windows 8 Lock screen by changing the picture displayed or choosing your own favorite badges. Windows 8 gives you a number of photos to choose from, or you can use one of your own personal images if you like.
>>>step-by-step: Choosing a New Lock Screen Picture
You’ll use the Settings charm to get to the tools you need to personalize your Windows 8 startup experience.
1. On the Windows 8 Start screen, swipe in from the right or move the mouse to the lower right corner of the screen to display the Charms bar.
2. Tap or click Settings and the bar expands to display a number of setting icons.
3. Tap or click More PC Settings. The PC Settings window appears, with the Personalize category selected.
4. Tap or click one of the thumbnail pictures below the selected photo if you want to use an image Microsoft has provided for your Lock screen picture.
5. If you want to use one of your own images for your Lock screen, tap or click Browse. The Files window appears, displaying pictures and folders in your Pictures folder.
6. Tap or click the photo you want to use. If you want to choose a photo that is in one of the folders displayed, tap or click the folder and then select the photo. A small checkmark appears in the upper right corner of the image you selected.
7. Tap or click Choose Picture. The new image is added to the preview area in Personalize settings.
Yes, it’s a little hard to get used to, but there’s no Save Changes button in the Personalize settings, so you just have to trust that Windows 8 really did make the change you selected. Windows 8 is designed to save incrementally as you work, so it’s not that unusual that you wouldn’t need to take a specific action to complete the operation. But if you’re one of those people (like me) who likes to wrap things up neatly, not having a Save button is a little disconcerting.
>>>step-by-step: Adding a New Lock Screen Picture on the Fly
If you’re viewing photos on your computer and see an image you particularly like, you can make that photo your Lock screen image instantly, if you like. Here are the steps.
1. Display the photo you want to use as the lock screen.
2. Swipe up from the bottom of the screen to display the photo options.
3. Tap or click Set as Lock Screen. The new photo is applied instantly as your Windows 8 Lock screen.
Changing Your Account Picture
Your account picture is the small image that appears when you tap a key or swipe up on your lock screen. Similar to your profile picture in your favorite social media account or your avatar in Windows Live Messenger, your account picture is your own personal expression of who you want to be today. You can change your account picture in Windows 8 by switching it out in your Personalize settings. Begin by displaying the Charms bar, tapping or clicking Settings, and choosing More PC Settings.
1. In the Personalize screen, tap or click Account Picture.
2. To choose a new picture from the files on your computer, tap or click Browse.
3. In the Files screen, tap or click the photo you want to use.
4. Tap or click Choose Image, and Windows 8 adds it to your Account Picture preview.
5. If you want to add a picture using your webcam, tap or click Webcam.
6. When the picture you want to capture is displayed, tap the screen to take the photo.
7. Windows 8 displays the picture in a preview screen. Click the cropping handles to adjust what remains visible in the picture.
8. When the picture is displayed the way you want it to appear, tap or click OK.
9. If you want to replace this photo, tap or click Retake and repeat steps 6 through 8. Windows 8 then substitutes the new webcam photo for your Account Picture in the Personalize settings.
Where are these things stored?
If you go to the trouble of creating and saving different account pictures, are they stored somewhere so that you can switch them as the fancy strikes you? Yes, thankfully, all the images you use as account pictures—whether you browse for them or capture them using your webcam—are stored in an Account Pictures folder. To see all the images that are available to you to use as account pictures, display the Personalize settings, tap or click Account Picture, and choose Browse. You can then change the account picture by selecting the image you want to use and tapping or clicking the Choose Image button.