Change Your Account Picture in Windows 11 and 10: Add, Remove, Shortcut and "Setting the Account Picture Failed" Fix

To change your account picture in Windows 11, open Settings, select Accounts, then Your info, and under Adjust your photo choose Take a photo to use the camera or Browse files to pick a picture. Windows 10 is the same: Settings, Accounts, Your info, Create your picture. With a Microsoft account, the picture syncs with your account online and can take a while to appear on other PCs. For a one-click desktop shortcut to that page, create a shortcut with the location ms-settings:yourinfo. To remove a picture and go back to the default silhouette, delete the files in %AppData%\Microsoft\Windows\AccountPictures and sign out and back in. If you see "Setting the account picture failed" or cannot change it, the usual causes are a policy that forces the default picture, a damaged AccountPictures folder, or an unusual image file.

Ethan's family shares one Windows 11 PC with an account for each person, and everyone's picture was the same gray silhouette, so his young son kept signing in to the wrong account. Ethan tried to add photos, but his own account showed "Setting the account picture failed", and his wife's Microsoft account picture from her phone never appeared. Jake took a photo of each family member with the laptop camera, cleared the broken picture folder on Ethan's account, waited for the Microsoft account picture to sync, and put a shortcut on the desktop so the kids could change their own pictures later. This page covers the same ground: every way to set, change and remove your account picture in Windows 11 and 10, where the files live, the shortcut, and every fix when it will not change or show.

What the account picture is, and where it appears

Your account picture is the small image that represents your user account in Windows. It appears on the sign-in screen above your name, in the Start menu next to your name at the bottom left, in the account menu when you switch users, in Settings at the top of the left menu, and in some apps that show who is signed in. Until you set one, Windows shows a gray silhouette, the default account picture.

The picture is practical, not just decoration. On a shared PC, a photo or a distinct image beside each name makes it much easier to pick the right account at the sign-in screen, especially for children or anyone who does not read the names closely. Our guide to switching users in Windows 11 and 10 shows where those pictures appear when you change accounts.

Where the picture comes from depends on the account type. A local account keeps its picture only on that PC. A Microsoft account uses the profile photo of your Microsoft account, which syncs to every Windows PC you sign in to and also appears in Outlook.com, OneDrive and other Microsoft services. A work or school account usually takes its picture from your organization's directory, set by you or your IT team. Each type is covered below.

This table sums up the three account types, since most confusion about pictures comes from mixing them up.

To see which type you have, look under your name in Settings, Accounts, Your info: a Microsoft account shows an email address, a local account shows Local Account, and a work or school account shows your organization's address.

How to change your account picture in Windows 11

1. Open Settings with Windows + I, or select your picture or name in the Start menu and choose Change account settings.
2. Select Accounts in the left menu, then Your info.
3. Under Adjust your photo, choose one of:
   • Take a photo: select Open camera. The Camera app opens; take the picture, adjust the crop, and confirm.
   • Choose a file: select Browse files, pick an image, and select Choose picture.
4. The new picture appears in Settings and the Start menu at once, and on the sign-in screen the next time you lock or sign out.

Windows crops the picture to a square and shows it in a circle, so put your face or the main subject in the center. If you choose a file, Windows keeps a copy, so you can move or delete the original afterward without losing the account picture.

Your most recent pictures appear as small thumbnails next to the current one on the Your info page. Select one of them to switch back to an earlier picture without browsing for the file again. That list is handy for seasonal pictures or when a child wants to swap between favorites.

How to change your account picture in Windows 10

1. Open Settings with Windows + I.
2. Select Accounts, then Your info.
3. Under Create your picture, choose Camera to take a photo, or Browse for one to pick an image file.

The steps and the result are the same as in Windows 11, with slightly different labels. Earlier pictures appear as thumbnails beside the current one, and you can select one to switch back. On very old Windows 10 versions, the page may look different, but the Your info section has been the home of the account picture since Windows 10 launched.

Windows 10 reached end of support in October 2025, with security updates continuing until October 2027 for home PCs enrolled in Extended Security Updates. Account pictures work the same on any version, and a Microsoft account picture set on a Windows 10 PC carries over when you move to Windows 11.

Microsoft account pictures: how syncing works

If you sign in to Windows with a Microsoft account, your account picture is your Microsoft account's profile photo. Changing it in Windows changes it for your Microsoft account too, and changing it online changes it on every PC where you sign in with that account. That is convenient, but it is also why a new picture sometimes seems not to work: it has to sync.

To change it online, go to account.microsoft.com, sign in, open Your info, and select Change photo or the picture itself. Upload a new photo, adjust the crop, and save. The new photo appears in Outlook.com, OneDrive and other Microsoft services quickly. On your Windows PCs, it can take anywhere from a few minutes to a day to appear, and it usually updates after you sign out and back in.

Ethan's wife had set her photo on her phone in the Outlook app, which updated her Microsoft account, but the shared PC kept the silhouette. Signing out of Windows and back in pulled the new picture down. If it still does not appear, set the same picture once in Windows Settings on that PC; it then matches the account and stops waiting for sync. Our guide to "You need to fix your Microsoft account" alerts covers account problems that can also stop pictures and other settings from syncing.

You can also change the Microsoft account photo from a phone. Open account.microsoft.com in the phone's browser, sign in, and change the photo under Your info, which lets you use a photo straight from the phone's camera roll. Some Microsoft apps on the phone, such as Outlook, also let you change your profile photo from their settings. Either way, the Windows PC picks up the new photo on its next sync, typically after you sign out and back in.

Create a desktop shortcut to change your account picture

This is where our original guide started. Windows has a direct address for the Your info page, so a shortcut can open it in one click, which is useful on a family PC where children change their pictures, or for anyone who changes theirs often.

1. Right-click an empty part of the desktop and choose New, then Shortcut.
2. In Type the location of the item, enter ms-settings:yourinfo and select Next.
3. Name the shortcut, for example Change my picture, and select Finish.
4. Optional: right-click the shortcut, choose Properties, then Change Icon to give it a picture icon; the icons in %SystemRoot%\System32\imageres.dll include several suitable ones.

Double-click the shortcut and Settings opens straight to Your info. You can also type ms-settings:yourinfo into the Run box (Windows + R) for the same result, or pin the shortcut to the Start menu by right-clicking it and choosing Pin to Start. Each family member sees their own Your info page, because the shortcut opens Settings for whoever is signed in.

A related shortcut, ms-settings:accounts, opens the main Accounts page, and ms-settings:otherusers opens Other users, where an administrator manages family members' accounts. Our guide to listing all user accounts on the PC shows how to see every account, including hidden ones.

On a touchscreen PC or tablet, pinning the shortcut to Start is more convenient than a desktop icon, because the Start menu is one tap away. On a PC where several people sign in, create the shortcut in the Public Desktop folder, C:\Users\Public\Desktop, as an administrator, and it appears on every account's desktop at once, opening each person's own Your info page.

Take a photo for your account picture

Using the camera is the quickest way to get a recognizable picture, and it is how Jake set up Ethan's family in five minutes. Select Open camera on the Your info page, and the Camera app opens in photo mode. Face a window or a lamp so your face is evenly lit; light from behind turns you into a silhouette. Hold still, take the photo, then drag the crop square so your face fills most of it, and confirm.

If the camera does not open, check three things. First, privacy settings: Settings, Privacy & security, Camera, where Camera access and Let apps access your camera must be on. Second, a physical privacy shutter or a keyboard key that disables the camera on many laptops; look for a camera icon on a function key. Third, another app using the camera, such as a video call still running in the background. Our guide to camera locked or not working in Windows walks through the rest. You can always take a photo with your phone and use Browse files instead.

A few tips make camera photos look better. Raise the laptop or webcam to eye level, using a stack of books if needed, so the camera does not look up at you. Sit about an arm's length away so your head and shoulders fill the square. Plain backgrounds, such as a wall or a curtain, keep the focus on your face, and a smile helps family members spot their own picture faster. Take two or three and keep the best; the earlier ones remain in the thumbnail list, and you can clear them later with the AccountPictures folder.

Choosing a good account picture

Any image you like works, but a few choices make it look better and avoid errors. Use a common format: JPG or PNG are the safest, and BMP and GIF also work, although animated GIFs show only a still frame. Use a reasonably sized image: a square picture of a few hundred to about a thousand pixels on each side looks sharp everywhere and loads quickly. Very large photos straight from a modern camera usually work, but they are the most common cause of the picture failing to save on older or busy PCs, so resizing to around 1,000 by 1,000 pixels is a good habit.

Because Windows shows the picture as a small circle, simple, bold images work best. A close-up face, a pet, a single bright object or a large letter on a colored background are all easy to recognize at sign-in. Busy group photos and landscapes turn into unrecognizable smudges at that size. For children, a favorite animal or color often works better than a photo, and it is easier for them to pick out. Ethan's son chose a green dinosaur, his daughter a red rocket, and neither has signed in to the wrong account since.

If you sign in with a Microsoft account, remember that the picture is visible to people you email and share files with through Microsoft services. Choose something you are comfortable showing in that wider setting, or use a local account on a family PC if you prefer to keep pictures private to the PC.

Where account pictures are stored in Windows 11 and 10

Windows keeps two kinds of account picture files, in two places.

• Your own pictures are stored per user in C:\Users\YourName\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\AccountPictures. The quick way there is to press Windows + R, type %AppData%\Microsoft\Windows\AccountPictures and press Enter. The folder holds the current picture and recent ones, often as files with long random-looking names and an .accountpicture-ms extension, which bundle the image in several sizes.
• The default pictures, the gray silhouettes, are stored for all users in C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\User Account Pictures, as files such as user.png and guest.png in several sizes. ProgramData is a hidden folder; type the path into File Explorer's address bar to open it.

Do not edit or delete the default pictures folder unless you are deliberately changing the default image for everyone, covered below, and keep a copy of the originals if you do. The per-user AccountPictures folder is safe to clear; Windows rebuilds it the next time you set a picture.

The .accountpicture-ms files cannot be opened in Photos or Paint, because they are containers rather than ordinary images. If you have lost the original photo and want it back, the easiest route is not to extract it from that file but to find the original: check your Pictures and Camera Roll folders, OneDrive, or, for a Microsoft account, download the photo from account.microsoft.com. Keeping a copy of any picture you like in your Pictures folder saves that search next time.

How to remove your account picture and go back to the default

Windows has no Remove picture button, which surprises people. The settings page always shows a picture once one is set. To go back to the default silhouette for a local account:

1. Press Windows + R, type %AppData%\Microsoft\Windows\AccountPictures and press Enter.
2. Select all the files in the folder and delete them.
3. Sign out and sign back in, or restart. Windows now shows the default picture.

If an old picture still appears in the Your info thumbnails, those files were in the folder you just cleared; after signing back in, the list is empty. If the picture still appears on the sign-in screen, Windows may be showing a cached copy; a restart clears it.

For a Microsoft account, deleting local files is not enough, because the picture syncs back from your account. Remove the photo online at account.microsoft.com under Your info, by selecting the photo and choosing the option to remove it, then delete the local files and sign out and back in. A work or school account picture is controlled by your organization's directory; ask IT or change it in your organization's profile page if they allow it.

Another way to make the picture neutral is to choose one of the default images as your picture: select Browse files and open C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\User Account Pictures, then pick user.png. It looks like the default, though Windows treats it as a chosen picture.

Removing a picture never affects your files, settings or password; it only changes the image. If you are removing pictures from accounts that belong to people who have left a shared PC, consider removing the accounts themselves instead, from Settings, Accounts, Other users, after backing up anything they need.

"Setting the account picture failed" and other errors

When the picture will not save, Windows shows a short error such as "Setting the account picture failed", or the new picture simply does not stick. These are the causes, in the order Jake checks them. For a deeper walk-through of that one error, including permission repairs and profile checks, see our dedicated guide to "Setting the account picture failed".

1. A damaged AccountPictures folder. Clear the folder as described in the remove section, sign out and back in, then set the picture again. This fixed Ethan's account; an old file in the folder had been left half-written after a crash.
2. The image file. Very large, unusual or damaged images fail. Open the picture in Paint, resize it to about 1,000 pixels wide, save it as a new JPG, and try that copy.
3. A policy that forces the default picture. If the Your info page refuses every picture, or shows a message that settings are managed, a policy may apply the default picture to all users. See the next section.
4. Permissions on the AppData folder. Tools that change folder permissions, or a profile copied from another PC, can leave AppData unwritable. Creating a new user account and setting a picture there tells you whether the problem is in your profile.
5. Damaged system files. Run sfc /scannow from an administrator Command Prompt, then DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth, restart, and try again.
6. Microsoft account sync problems. For Microsoft accounts, a picture can fail to stick if the account needs verification. Check for an account alert in Settings, Accounts.

On Windows 10, the same problem sometimes appears as the picture reverting to the old one after a restart. The fixes are the same, starting with clearing the AccountPictures folder.

Here is the same list as a quick lookup table, by what you see.

The default picture for all users, and the policy that locks it

Organizations, schools and some family PCs set one picture for every account, either to keep the sign-in screen uniform or to prevent unsuitable pictures. Windows has a Group Policy for this: Apply the default account picture to all users, found in the Local Group Policy Editor (gpedit.msc) under Computer Configuration, Administrative Templates, Control Panel, User Accounts. When it is enabled, every account shows the default picture and users cannot change their own.

If you cannot change your picture on your own PC and suspect this, open the policy, set it to Not Configured, and restart. On Home editions, which have no Group Policy Editor, the same setting is the registry value UseDefaultTile under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer; deleting it or setting it to 0 removes the lock. On a work or school PC, leave it alone, since it is there on purpose.

To change what the default picture looks like, administrators replace the image files in C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\User Account Pictures with their own of the same names and sizes, keeping backups of the originals. Organizations typically do this with their logo. It requires administrator rights and affects every account that has no picture of its own.

For IT: account pictures on many PCs

Organizations usually want one of two things: everyone's directory photo as their Windows picture, or one uniform picture for all. For the first, PCs joined to Microsoft Entra ID generally show the user's directory photo through the work account, so keeping photos up to date in the directory is most of the job. For older on-premises domains, administrators have long used sign-in scripts that copy each user's directory photo to the PC in the sizes Windows expects and register it for that user in the registry, a well-known but unofficial technique that needs testing with each Windows version.

For a uniform picture, the default picture policy described above, combined with replacing the default image files with the company logo, is the supported route. Either way, decide before rollout, because changing approach later means undoing pictures people have already set. Schools often choose the uniform route for younger students and allow personal pictures for staff.

Home, Pro and the account picture

Changing your own picture works the same on Windows 11 Home, Pro, Education and Enterprise. The differences appear only for administrators: the Group Policy Editor that controls the default picture policy is included in Pro, Education and Enterprise, while Home users change the same behavior through the registry value described above. If you follow a guide that says to open gpedit.msc and Windows says it cannot find it, you are on Home, and the registry route is the equivalent. The account picture itself, the camera option, the AccountPictures folder and the shortcut behave identically on every edition.

Account picture not showing in Windows 11

When you have set a picture but Windows still shows the silhouette somewhere, the cause depends on where it is missing. If it is missing on the sign-in screen only, sign out and back in, or restart; the sign-in screen updates its cached picture at that point. If it is missing in the Start menu, restarting File Explorer from Task Manager usually refreshes it. If it is missing on other PCs where you use the same Microsoft account, it has not synced yet; sign out and back in on those PCs, and give it some time.

If the picture is missing everywhere after a restart, check whether the default picture policy is on, and whether the AccountPictures folder is empty because something cleaned it, such as a cleanup tool. Setting the picture again usually fixes it. If you use a work or school account, the picture shown in Windows comes from your organization's directory, so changing it in Windows may have no effect; update it in your organization's profile page instead.

Work and school accounts, Teams and Outlook pictures

On a PC joined to a work or school organization, the account picture often comes from the organization's directory, the same photo that appears in Teams, Outlook and other Microsoft 365 apps. Many organizations let you change it yourself from your Microsoft 365 profile, by selecting your picture in Outlook on the web or Teams and choosing to change it; others set official photos centrally. Either way, the change can take hours to reach every app and device, so set it well before a big meeting rather than five minutes before.

Teams and Outlook pictures for a personal Microsoft account follow the Microsoft account photo described above. If you use both a personal and a work account, each has its own picture, which is a handy way to tell at a glance which account you are signed in with.

Pictures for children's accounts

Children's accounts, created through Microsoft Family Safety or as local accounts, can have pictures like any other. On a shared family PC, a distinct picture for each child is the simplest way to stop them signing in to the wrong account, which was Ethan's original problem. A parent signed in as an administrator cannot set another person's picture directly in Settings, since Your info always shows the signed-in user. The practical way is to sign in to each child's account, set the picture with them, and leave the desktop shortcut so they can change it themselves. For Microsoft child accounts, the picture can also be set at account.microsoft.com while signed in to the child's account.

If you would rather children did not change their pictures at all, the default picture policy is too blunt, since it removes everyone's picture. A gentler approach is simply to set a picture they like together and remove the shortcut. Our guide to creating user accounts, including child accounts covers setting up each family member properly.

With Microsoft Family Safety, parents also see each child's account in the family group online, where the child's Microsoft account photo appears too. Setting a recognizable picture there helps when you review screen time and activity reports for several children, since each report shows the child's picture beside their name.

Privacy: who can see your account picture

On the PC, anyone who sees the sign-in or lock screen can see the pictures of accounts that have signed in, along with their names. On a shared or public-facing PC, such as a reception desk, consider whether you want a personal photo there; an image or initial may be wiser. Some organizations set the policy to hide user names and pictures on the lock screen for this reason.

For a Microsoft account, the profile photo is also visible to people you interact with in Microsoft services, such as email recipients in Outlook.com and people you share OneDrive files with. If that matters, pick a picture you are comfortable sharing, or switch the PC to a local account, where the picture never leaves the device.

An account picture takes a minute to set and saves confusion every day on a shared PC. Use Settings, Accounts, Your info, keep the picture simple and square, clear the AccountPictures folder when it misbehaves, and remember that Microsoft account pictures travel with the account. Ethan's son now finds his own dinosaur at the sign-in screen every time, and the family's four silhouettes are four faces.

Revision note. Written October 3, 2026, expanding our 2015 guide to creating an account picture shortcut into a complete guide for Windows 11 and 10. The shortcut is still here, now with the ms-settings:yourinfo address, alongside changing, taking and choosing pictures, Microsoft account sync, where the files live, removing a picture, the default picture policy, every fix for "Setting the account picture failed", and work, family and privacy notes. May every face on your sign-in screen be the right one.