Group Policy lock screen Windows 11 not working

Question

Hi,

I am trying to set up a group policy to set the lock screen on our Windows 11 desktops, but I can't get it to take affect, can anyone help?

We have Windows Server 2019 DCs and I have set the following up to try and get this working without causing any disturbance.

I have created a test OU, a test user and test virtual PCs (windows 11 Professional and Educational versions)on a VMWare platform.

The Policy I have created is utilising the following settings:

Force a specific default lock screen and logon name - enabled with the image in the netlogon share

Prevent changing lock screen and logon image - enabled

Prevent enabling lock screen slide show - enabled

Just to test it is being applied, I have also set up the same policy to apply a background from the same location and file type, this one is working.

I have seen online that this setting doesn't work on Windows 11 Pro, hence the educational version, but it is still not applying.

Can anyone help?

Thanks,

alamb200

Answer 1

Hello alamb200,

Good day!

You can see it via group policy setting below.

Note: This setting only applies to Enterprise, Education, and Server SKUs.

Best Regards,
Daisy Zhou

Answer 2

Dear Daisy,

I hope this email finds you well.

I'm facing the same issue, when i'm trying to update the screensaver policy on windows 10/11 pro version its not reflecting the screensaver through GPO but in gpresult /r and rsop.msc commands output showing policy is update successfully.

And scrensaver is properly reflected on windows bussiness /enterprise version.

Could you please confirm us why screensaver is not reflected in windows 10/11 pro version and Is there any other version where policy is not working.

Answer 3

We are facing the same issue with Windows 11 enterprise at our company. We are using Windows Enterprise. We have had a lock screen image policy in place for years and the problem just recently just started. We have a ticket open with Microsoft and they are not sure either. At this point we are pretty sure the changes made to Spotlight and Widgets on the lock screen seem to be affecting it as that is when the issues first started for us. We have dont quite a bit of testing and Windows 11 just seems to ignore the GPO policy. If you set the CSP registry key, you can get your specific image to show, but Spotlight information is still there. We can't seem to get that info to go away.

HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\PersonalizationCSP"

strRegValueName = "LockScreenImagePath"

strRegValueType = "SZ"

strRegValueData = "C:\LockScreenBackground\Background.jpg"

Answer 4

Hello alamb200,

Thank you for posting in Microsoft Community forum.

Force a specific default lock screen and logon name - enabled with the image in the netlogon share

Note: This setting only applies to Enterprise, Education, and Server SKUs.

I have created a test OU, a test user and test virtual PCs (windows 11 Professional and Educational versions)on a VMWare platform.

A: Because the GPO settings you mentioned are under Computer Configurations, you should put the test virtual PCs in the test OU.

Then check the GPO result on one Virtual windows 11 education version.
For checking Computer Configuration within gpresult, we can follow steps below.

Logon this machine using administrator account.

Open CMD (run as Administrator).

Type gpresult /h C:\gpo.html and click Enter.

Open gpo.html and check gpo setting under "Computer Details".

If you cannot see the realted setting, please check information below:

1.Please check if you can access the shared image on the client machine.

2.Ensure that the images located in the netlogon share have appropriate access permissions for the user. Give test users or Everyone groups full control of sharing permissions to ensure they can access and use the required images.

3.View the Event Viewer on a Windows 11 virtual machine to find error or warning messages related to conflicts with group policy applications or settings. This may provide more detailed information about why the setting was not applied.

I hope the information above is helpful.

If you have any question or concern, please feel free to let us know.

Best Regards,

Daisy Zhou

Answer 5

Hi Daisy,

Thanks for your reply.

I tested the policy on a server and it worked straight away, so after some more looking, I realised I hadn't moved the EDU test PC into the OU for the policy to take effect, once I did it started working .

It does look like the lock screen setting doesn't work on the Pro version of Windows 11, because it is in the same OU as the EDU PC and is not picking up the settings.

This is just my workings though, I don't have any proof of this.

Thanks again,

alamb200