How to Change or Remove Profile Picture in Windows 10

It is quite easy to change your profile picture in Windows 10. You can easily select your favorite profile picture in Account settings. However, if you wish to remove or restore the default profile picture in Windows 10, it is going to take some effort.

Windows 10 itself doesn’t provide any option to remove or restore the default account/profile picture. So, we will have to use workarounds to do that.

SEE ALSO: How to Disable Login Screen Picture in Windows 10?

Change, Remove, and Reset Default Profile Picture in Windows 10

So, in this tutorial, we will show you, how to change, remove and restore the default profile picture in Windows 10. However, removing and restoring the default profile picture in Windows 10 is not very easy. So, we will have to use some workaround for that.

Let’s start with changing the Windows 10 profile picture first.

A) Change Profile Picture in Windows 10

You can easily change your Windows 10 profile picture in your account settings. Follow these steps to replace the default profile picture with your desired one.

Step 1: Open Account Settings in Windows 10

First of all, open Settings and click on Accounts to open Accounts Settings in Windows 10. Here, you can manage your accounts.

In Account Settings, you will see account details including your profile picture, small description, etc.

Step 2: Browse and Change the Profile Picture in Windows 10

To change the default profile picture of Windows 10, scroll down a bit and click on Browse for one under Create your picture.

Now browse and select your desired picture. And this picture will be set as your Windows 10 profile picture.

You can see that the profile picture has been changed and it will reflect in Account Settings, Start menu, and Logon screen of Windows 10.

SEE ALSO: How to Change Login Screen Background in Windows 10 and Windows 11?

B) Remove Profile Picture in Windows 10

Besides changing the profile picture, you can also completely remove the profile picture in Windows 10. After you remove the profile picture, you will see a blank picture on the Login screen, Start menu, and Account settings page.

However, the process is a bit tricky but not very difficult. So, let’s see what steps we need to take.

Step 1: Replace Default Account Picture with Blank Picture

First of all, we will replace the default account profile picture with a blank or transparent picture. By default, Windows 10 uses the user-192.png as the account picture. So, go to the following path first:

%ProgramData%\Microsoft\User Account Pictures

Here, rename user-192.png to user-192.png.bak. You may need to provide admin permissions, simply click Continue when prompted.

Now, download transparent user-192.png file from the Majorgeeks website and copy it to the same folder: %ProgramData%\Microsoft\User Account Pictures

Step 2: Apply Default Account Picture via Registry

Now, it’s time to tell Windows 10 to use the transparent user-192.png file as the default account profile picture. We will use Registry Editor for that purpose. So, go to RUN, type regedit and press Enter to open Registry Editor.

After that go to the following path in Registry Editor:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer

Here, right-click on the right pane and create a new DWORD.

Name this DWORD as UseDefaultTile (case sensitive).

Next, modify the DWORD and set its value to 1.

Step 3: Restart your Computer to Remove the Account Profile Picture in Windows 10

Now, close Registry Editor and restart your Windows 10 PC to make changes effective.

After restarting your PC, you will notice that there is no profile picture on the login screen. We have successfully removed the profile or account picture in Windows 10.

SEE ALSO: How to Display Warning Message on Windows Logon?

C) Reset or Restore Default Profile Picture in Windows 10

Windows 10 itself doesn’t allow you to reset or restore the profile picture to the default one. However, you can reset it to default using a workaround.

First, we will revert the changes made to Default Account Pictures. After that, a quick reboot will restore the default profile picture in Windows 10. Let’s see the steps in detail.

Step 1: Delete Transparent user-192.png and Restore the Default Profile Picture

To restore the default account or profile picture in Windows 10, we need to restore the default user-192.png file first. That’s why we did not delete it while removing the profile picture, instead, we created its backup. So, now go to the same folder:

%ProgramData%\Microsoft\User Account Pictures

Here, delete the transparent user-192.png file. You may need to provide admin permissions. Simply click OK or Continue to proceed.

After that, rename the user-192.png.bak to user-192.png to restore or reset the account profile picture to default in Windows 10.

NOTE: Please note that UseDefaultTile registry DWORD which we created earlier in this tutorial, must be present. If not present, create it again before moving to the next step.

Step 2: Restart your Windows 10 PC

Now, close all open programs and windows and restart your PC.

After Windows 10 has been booted up, you will see the default account or profile picture on the login screen. Now, we have successfully restored the default account picture.

NOTE: You can now delete UseDefaultTile DWORD from Registry. Simply go to the same path as in this step and delete UseDefaultTile DWORD. After that restart your PC.

Change, Remove, or Restore Default Account Picture in Windows 10

The above tutorial explained how you can change, remove, or reset the default profile picture in Windows 10. However, Windows 10 itself doesn’t provide a native option for restoring the default profile picture, you have to do it manually as explained above.

Make sure to backup your registry before making changes to it. It will reduce the risk in case of any mishappening. Feel free to write your queries and suggestions in the comment section below.