Windows 8.1: The Missing Manual

Customizing the Lock Screen

The Lock screen is designed to give you a glimpse of useful information—the time, your battery charge, the current WiFi network signal, the number of new email messages waiting, and so on—without any red tape like having to sign in and type a password.

You can add other programs’ information on this choice slice of real estate, too. And you can change the photo that appears as the Lock screen wallpaper, or even turn the Lock screen into a slideshow.

Getting to the Lock Screen Settings

The quickest way to open the Lock screen settings is to search for them, like this:

• Keyboard: At the Start screen, type lock, and click “Lock screen settings” in the search results.

• Touchscreen: Open the Charms bar (swipe inward from the right margin of the screen), tap Search, type lock, and then tap “Lock screen settings.”

Now you can proceed.

Lock Screen Wallpaper

You might not have a deep-seated psychological attachment to whatever standard “wallpaper” came on your Lock screen. Fortunately, it’s easy to change.

Start by opening the Lock screen settings screen, as described above. Here you’ll discover a choice of several starter images for the Lock screen.

If you like one of the suggested images, pick it. If not, choose Browse.

You wind up looking at the contents of your computer’s Pictures folder. If you’ve ever accumulated any graphics (saved from the Web, for example, or uploaded from your camera), their thumbnails appear here.

Pick the image you want, and then choose “Choose ...