Long-time PC users will know what a user account picture is and how to change it in Windows. For those who are not sure, a user account picture is nothing but the picture that appears on the login screen as well as on the Start menu.
With Windows 10, Microsoft made subtle changes to the login screen to display a fairly large circular shaped user picture instead of a square one. The user account picture on the Start menu is tiny compared to the one on the sign in or login screen.
As you likely have noticed by now, one can change the user account picture in Windows 10, and the procedure is relatively easy. In fact, it’s been possible to set and use an image as a user account picture for ages in the Windows operating system.
To change the current account picture, all you need to do is, open up the Start menu, click on the user (account) name, click Change account settings, and then click the browse button to select the image button.
Video as user account picture?
But did you know that you can set a video file as your user account picture in Windows 10? Yes, Windows 10 enables you to record a video using the web camera and then use it as a user account picture (video).
You might argue that it was possible to set a video file as a user picture even in Windows 7, but Windows 7 required a third-party tool for that. The ability to set a video file as a user account picture was actually added with Windows 8 and is present in Windows 10 as well.
Before following the instructions, keep in mind that the newly set user account video will function only on the login screen, and it will not play on the Start menu.
To record and use a video as your user account picture/video, please use the given directions below.
Make sure that your built-in or connected web camera is working fine with Windows 10 and make sure that the web camera is not disabled. If it’s not working at all, you might need to install or update its drivers.
Use video as user account picture in Windows 10
Since Windows 10 supports using a video as an account picture, we are sure that it will be possible to set a video of your choice as an account picture without recording, but we are not sure how to make it possible.
Step 1: Open the Settings app. Navigate to Accounts > Your Info page.
Step 2: In the Create your picture section, click on the Camera icon. This will open the Camera app. Note that the Camera app might ask you to make changes to privacy settings (Settings > Privacy > Camera) so that it can access the web camera.
Step 3: To record a video, click on the Video icon first to switch to video mode (refer to the picture below) and then click on the Video icon again to begin recording the video using the camera.
Step 4: Once done, click on the Video icon again to stop the recording. We recommend you create a short video.
Step 5: Clicking the stop button will stop the recording and will show the preview screen. Click the Done button to set the recorded video file as the user account picture.
And if you would instead like to set a picture file as your user account picture, click on the Browse for one option and then select a picture file.
Isn’t it cool?
Have you changed your user account picture to video?
