The IT Tools: Hack Your Way Through the Lock Screen of Windows 8

Hack Your Way Through the Lock Screen of Windows 8

Want to bend the Lock screen to your will? Here’s how to do it.

There’s a lot more to the Start screen than meets the eye. It’s more than just a passingthrough
location, because the screen can also keep you updated with information
grabbed from the Internet. In this hack, you’ll learn about plenty of ways to customize
it.

Note: In corporate environments, an IT department may have locked down some
of these options. In this case, you’ll be notified with the message, “Some settings
on this page have been disabled by group policy.”

Change the Lock Screen Image

The Lock screen is mostly controlled via a single settings screen. To get there, press
Windows key+C to display the Charms bar, and select

Settings→Change PC Settings→Personalize→Lock Screen.

A screen appears, shown in Figure 1, that displays
your Lock screen image at the top. Just beneath it are other Lock screen images you
can use. Click any one of them to make it the new Lock screen image. To find other
images you can use for the Lock screen, click the Browse button and browse through
your pictures. Select the one you want to use, click Choose Picture, and you’ll make
it your new Lock screen image.

Figure 1
Select a new Lock screen image here

How to Hack Your Way Through the Lock Screen of Windows 8

Lock Down the Lock Screen Image

If you share your PC with someone, they have the same access to fiddling with it that
you do. If you don’t want anyone changing your Lock screen image, you can tell Windows
8 not to let it be changed.

Launch the Local Policy Editor by pressing Windows key+R to open the Run bar, type
gpedit.msc , and press Enter or click OK. The Local Policy Editor launches.

Go to
Computer Configuration→Administrative Templates→Control Panel→Personalization.

Double-click the “Prevent changing lock screen image” entry, select Enabled,
then press Enter or click OK. Exit the Local Policy Editor.

Note: As described at the end of the previous article, if you don’t have Windows 8
Pro and Windows 8 Enterprise, you can change the Lock screen by using a Registry
hack. In the Registry Editor, go to

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Personalization

and create a DWORD called NoChangingLockScreen.
Change its value from 0 to 1, exit the Registry Editor, and
exit and restart Windows 8. If you don’t see the Personalization key, you’ll have to
create it before creating the NoChangingLockScreen DWORD.

If you decide you want to change the Lock screen, repeat these steps, except select
Disabled, press Enter or click OK, then exit the Local Policy Editor. The setting takes
effect the next time you reboot.

Customize Which Apps Show their Notifications on the Lock Screen

One of Windows 8’s niftier features is that it displays notifications on the Lock screen
from certain apps—email, social networking, calendar, and more. That way, if you want
a quick rundown of what you need to know, it’s right there for you. You don’t even have
to log into Windows 8; just check out the Lock screen.
Maybe you don’t want to see updates from your social networking sites, but do want
to see the current weather, or information from another app. Customizing exactly
what shows up on your Start screen is a breeze.
Press Windows key+I, and then select Change PC Settings at the bottom of the Settings
pane. From the right side of the screen that appears (Figure 4), select Lock
Screen.
Down at the bottom-right of the screen, you’ll see icons of the apps that automatically
display notifications, with some plus signs to the right (Figure 5). Click a plus sign
to reveal a list of apps that can display notifications. Simply pick one and it will display
alerts and other information on the Start screen.

Note: When you click a plus sign, you’ll see both the apps that already display
notifications, as well as those that don’t. If you choose one that already displays
its notifications on the Start screen, nothing new happens—the app still displays
notifications, with no change.

Figure 4.
Customizing what apps display information on the Lock screen