{"id":3084,"date":"2016-05-05T19:27:43","date_gmt":"2016-05-05T13:57:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/198.58.113.91\/blog\/?p=3084"},"modified":"2025-08-16T13:40:48","modified_gmt":"2025-08-16T08:10:48","slug":"remove-old-lock-screen-images-history-settings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/remove-old-lock-screen-images-history-settings\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Remove Old Lock Screen Images From Settings Page in Windows 10?"},"content":{"rendered":"

When you open the Lock Screen Settings page, it shows the thumbnail images of last five lock screen images used. This post tells you how to remove old lock screen picture thumbnails from the history.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

To remove a thumbnail image from the Lock Screen Background page, click the Browse button and select the wallpaper you want. Or you can use the wallpapers from one of the sub-folders under C:\\Windows\\Web\\Wallpaper<\/i>. Repeat the step 4 more times and you’ve replaced the existing listing with your preferred items.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Quick Tip:<\/b> You don’t always need to browse\/select a wallpaper image five times. To remove one particular item from the listing, click the remaining four items once, so that the unwanted one is pushed down to the 5th position. Now, click the Browse button and select an image. This clears the unwanted image from history.<\/p>\n

Lock Screen Background – History Location<\/h2>\n

If you’re curious to know where the history is stored, read further. When you select a background picture for the lock screen, the image is copied to the following folder, which is very well protected using NTFS Permissions.<\/p>\n

C:\\ProgramData\\Microsoft\\Windows\\SystemData\\{SID}\\ReadOnly<\/pre>\n
Where {SID} is the user account Security Identifier (SID). You can find your user account SID by typing the following command in Command Prompt:<\/p>\n
whoami \/user<\/b><\/p>\n
The SystemData folder has tight security (NTFS), and even Administrators can’t view the folder contents by default<\/u>. However, by typing the full path (with your SID) of the target folder in Explorer, you can see the contents of the folder, which usually contains these subfolders:<\/p>\n
    \n
  • LockScreen_A<\/li>\n
  • LockScreen_B<\/li>\n
  • LockScreen_C<\/li>\n
  • LockScreen_D<\/li>\n
  • LockScreen_E<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
    and so forth…<\/p>\n
    Each folder stores multiple dimensions of your lock screen images… Logically there should be 5 folders, one for each thumbnail image you see in Settings, but in my case there were around 7. May be a reboot will clear the extra ones, which I haven’t tested.<\/i><\/p>\n
    There again, the ReadOnly folder and subfolders are owned by SYSTEM account and you only have read access by default.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
    When you open the Lock Screen Settings page, it shows the thumbnail images of last five lock screen images used. This post tells you how to remove old lock screen picture thumbnails from the history.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3084","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-windows-10"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5189,"url":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/windows-10-lock-screen-black-background-no-wallpaper-fix\/","url_meta":{"origin":3084,"position":0},"title":"Windows 10 Lock Screen Black Background and no Wallpaper [Fix]","author":"Ramesh","date":"January 15, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Starting with the Windows 10 anniversary update, you can show the lock screen wallpaper in the login or sign-in screen as well. However, with the wallpaper option enabled for the sign-in screen, there appears a problem where the lock screen shows up with a black background instead of a Windows\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Windows 10"","block_context":{"text":"Windows 10","link":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/category\/microsoft\/windows\/windows-10\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"lock screen black background","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/black-lock-screen-00.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/black-lock-screen-00.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/black-lock-screen-00.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":9392,"url":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/how-to-use-windows-spotlight-as-desktop-wallpaper-slideshow\/","url_meta":{"origin":3084,"position":1},"title":"How to Use Windows Spotlight as Desktop Wallpaper Slideshow","author":"Ramesh","date":"May 19, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"The Windows Spotlight brings fresh wallpaper images for your lock screen daily. The wallpapers are stored in the Assets folder wherein the older wallpaper images will be purged automatically as the new set of images get downloaded. We saw how to save the lock screen wallpapers using various methods, including\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Utilities"","block_context":{"text":"Utilities","link":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/category\/utilities\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"spotlight image as desktop wallpaper - bing images - dynamic theme","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/dynamic-theme-options-2.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/dynamic-theme-options-2.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/dynamic-theme-options-2.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/dynamic-theme-options-2.png?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":8920,"url":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/windows-spotlight-does-not-work-stuck-same-image\/","url_meta":{"origin":3084,"position":2},"title":"Windows Spotlight does not work and stuck on the same image","author":"Ramesh","date":"April 29, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Windows Spotlight in Windows 10 brings to you some amazing wallpapers for the lock screen. It stores the downloaded images in the Assets folder. It automatically rotates the lock screen wallpaper from the store folder at specified intervals. In some systems, the Windows Spotlight feature does not work and the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Windows 10"","block_context":{"text":"Windows 10","link":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/category\/microsoft\/windows\/windows-10\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Windows Spotlight does not work and stuck on the same image","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/reset-windows-spotlight.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/reset-windows-spotlight.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/reset-windows-spotlight.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/reset-windows-spotlight.png?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":3940,"url":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/find-file-name-lock-screen-image-current-displayed\/","url_meta":{"origin":3084,"position":3},"title":"Find the Current Lock Screen Spotlight Wallpaper File Name in Windows 10\/11","author":"Ramesh","date":"August 30, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Windows 10\/11 Spotlight wallpaper images that appear on the lock screen are stored deep inside the Local Application Data folder, under the Assets folder, as we've seen in the article, How to Backup Windows Spotlight Images. 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This post tells you how to save Windows\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Windows 10"","block_context":{"text":"Windows 10","link":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/category\/microsoft\/windows\/windows-10\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/assets-folder-lock-images.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/assets-folder-lock-images.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/assets-folder-lock-images.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3084","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3084"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3084\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3084"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3084"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3084"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}