Windows 11 offers plenty of customization options to make the operating system feel more like home, with even more options offered by third-party apps. One area of Windows 11 that offers some customization options is the lock screen — the screen you see when you first boot up your computer, before signing in to your account.
The options are a bit more limited than you might expect but there are still some things you can do that will change the experience in significant ways. Let's take a look.
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6 Show or hide your email on the sign-in screen
Tell accounts apart more easily
When you log into your Windows 11 PC, all you see on the login screen is the name of the account. While this keeps your personal information private, it can make it harder to tell accounts apart if you hae multiple with the same profile picture and name. If you want, you can make your email address visible on the sign-in screen, though.
To do this, go to the Settings app and navigate to Accounts > Sign-in options, and then turn on the toggle labeled Show account details such as my email address on the sign-in screen. This can help you sign-in more quickly by reminding you what account you're using. However, turning this option off is better for privacy.
5 Change the lock screen background
Daily backgrounds, a slideshow, or a static image
First off, the most obvious option is changing the background of your lock screen. By default, Windows 11 uses Windows Spotlight, a feature that uses various images from the internet and shows you a new one every day. This is a pretty cool way to see different parts of the world, and sometimes it even includes some trivia, but if you don't care about that, you can change it to something else.
In the Settings app, you can navigate to the Personalization section and then Lock screen, and use the Personalize your lock screen dropdown menu to choose your favorite option. If you choose Picture, you can set a single picture from your PC, or one of the preset ones, as your background. If you use Slideshow, you can select multiple folders where you want to pull pictures from to show on the lock screen, and you can also change some advanced settings.
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In both cases, you'll also see a checkbox for Get fun facts, tips, tricks, and more on your lock screen, which you can disable if you don't want that content blocking your view.
4 Disable the sign-in background
For those who hate fun
When you sign in to your Windows PC, after dismissing the lock screen, you're shown the sign-in screen, where you can enter your password or PIN (assuming you don't use Windows Hello). By default, the sign-in screen uses the same background as the lock screen, only with a blur effect applied.
If you want the sign-in to have a blank background, however, you have that option. Go to the Settings app, under Personalization > Lock screen, and set the toggle labeled as Show the lock screen background picture on the sign-in screen to the Off position. Now, the sign-in screen will have a plain black background.
3 Choose which apps appear on the lock screen
Don't like the new widgets?
On Windows 11, certain compatible apps can show information on the lock screen. There aren't a lot of compatible apps right now, a couple of apps included in version 24H2 actually do support it. By default, the latest version of Windows 11 uses some of the built-in widgets from the Widgets panel on the desktop. That means information like the weather, sports results, and stock information is visible on the lock screen.
If you want to disable this or switch to a different app that you may care more about, you can go to the Settings app, under Personalization > Lock screen, and use the Lock screen status dropdown menu to change to a different app or set it to None if you don't want to see anything else on the lock screen. Of the built-in apps, the only other compatible app with this feature is Dev Home.
2 Hide notifications on the lock screen
Keep your info private
Windows 11 notifications can be shown on the lock screen as well as the desktop, and in fact, this option is enabled by default. However, if you don't want to see notifications on the lock screen, you can disable this too. Go into the Settings app and dive into System > Notifications.
If you expand the Notifications area at the top, you'll see two options: Show notifications on the lock screen and Show reminders and VoIP calls on the lock screen. You can turn both of these options off to remove notifications from the lock screen entirely, but keep in mind you won't be able to see incoming calls from apps like Microsoft Teams if you do.
On the other side of things, since notification content is hidden by default on the lock screen, you can make it visible if you want. On the same Notifications page, you can change settings individually for each app on your PC, including the toggle labeled Hide content when notification are on lock screen. Setting this to Off will make it so you can see the content of a notification, instead of it just saying "Private" on the lock screen.
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1 Change when you should be asked to sign in again
Tired of entering your password?
If you've let your computer go to sleep due to inactivity (or even if you did it manually), Windows will usually ask you to sign in again when you wake it up. This happens every time, but you can change that behavior.
In the Settings app, under Accounts > Sign-in options, you can use the dropdown menu labeled If you've been away, when should Windows require you to sign in again? to set how long Windows should wait before it asks for a password. You can set it to Never though this may leave your computer vulnerable if you step away for too long. You have timer options up to 15 minutes, so you can choose what works best for you.
Keep in mind that this doesn't affect the lock feature that appears in the Start menu (which can also be triggered with Windows + L on your keyboard). This will always force you to sign in again.
Make your lock screen more personal
The range of customization options available for the lock screen in Windows 11 definitely isn't wide as it could be, but you still have a few settings here that can really help make the experience work better for you. Personally, I find the default experience to work great, but the option to show your email is definitely one you should consider disabling since it can reveal your address to anyone around you.