Change user account picture in Windows Vista

When you create a new user account in Microsoft Windows Vista, you are assigned a random user account picture. This picture appears on the Windows logon screen and on top of the Start Menu. You can change this picture if you want to. If you are a standard user, you can change only your own picture. If you are an administrator, you can change pictures of all users. This article discusses how you can change a user’s picture in Windows Vista.

Changing your own account picture

  1. Click on Start Menu orb. When the Start Menu opens up, click on your picture at the top-right as shown.

  2. This would open up Make changes to your user account window as shown. Click on Change your picture.

  3. This would bring up a window with a collection of many pictures. You can click of any of the picture to choose it. Once chosen, you can click on Change Picture button to change the picture.

    If you do not like the pictures that come with Windows Vista, you can also set your own picture. In the window that is shown in the picture above, click on Browse for more pictures… on the bottom-left. This would open a File Open dialog. Select a picture you want as shown below. As soon as you select the image file, the user image will be changed.

Changing other users’ account picture

  1. Open Control Panel by clicking on Start Menu and then clicking on Control Panel.
  2. Click on the category User Accounts.

  3. In the next window, click on User Accounts again. Click on the Manage another account.

  4. Select a user account from the list by clickin on it. Click on Change the picture on the left side menu as shown.

  5. This would bring up a window with a collection of many pictures just like in the step #3 of the previous procedure (changing your own account picture). Choose a picture by clicking on it and click on Change Picture button to change the picture.