How to disable login screen background blur in Windows 10.
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Starting with the Windows 10 May 2019 Update, the login screen uses the blurred “Fluent Design” transparency found on the taskbar, Start menu, and elsewhere. If you want to see your lock screen background clearly, here’s how to turn off the blur.
If you disable the lock screen, Windows 10 jumps directly to the login screen, skipping it. With the recent update, the background image has been distorted beyond recognition due to the “Acrylic” style transparency effect used in Windows. Depending on which version of Windows 10 you have, these methods will restore clarity to your background.
The Easy Way: Disable System-Wide Transparency
If you don’t like the look of the transparency effect, you can easily turn it off for all aspects of Windows 10. This will turn it off not only on the lock screen, but also on the taskbar and even the Calculator or People apps. This method is an all or nothing approach and should only be disabled if you don’t enjoy the look anywhere on your desktop.
Open the Settings app and head to Settings > Personalization, or right-click an empty space on the desktop, then click “Personalize.”
Select “Colors” on the left side of the Settings window, scroll down until you see the “Transparency Effects” option, then set it to “Off.”
To undo this change and enable the transparency effect in Windows 10, you can come back here and switch this feature to “On”.
Home Users: Disable Background Blur via Registry
If you have Windows 10 Home, you will need to edit the Windows Registry to make these changes. You can also do it this way if you have Windows 10 Professional or Enterprise, but you’re more comfortable working in the Registry than in the Group Policy Editor. (However, if you have Pro or Enterprise, we recommend using the simpler Group Policy Editor, as described in the next section.
Standard Warning: Registry Editor is a powerful tool, and misusing it can make your system unstable or even inoperable. This is a pretty simple trick, and as long as you follow the instructions, you shouldn’t have any problems. That said, if you’ve never worked with it before, consider reading up on how to use Registry Editor before getting started. And definitely back up the Registry (and your computer!) before making any changes.
You must also set a system restore point before proceeding. It’s never a bad idea and it wouldn’t hurt to make one manually; that way if something goes wrong you can always roll back.
Then, open Registry Editor by pressing Windows + R on your keyboard, type “regedit” in the box, and press Enter.
Navigate to the following key in the left sidebar, or paste it directly into the address bar at the top:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREPoliciesMicrosoftWindows
Right-click the Windows key, select New > Key, then name it “System” and press Enter.
Right-click the system key, select New > DWORD (32-bit) Value, then name it “DisableAc AcrylicBackgroundOnLogon . ”
You should not have to restart your computer for this change to take effect. Just press Windows + L to lock your computer, and you’ll see the login screen with the background image fully in focus, with no added blur.
To undo this change, you can come back here, locate the value “DisableAc AcrylicBackgroundOnLogon” and remove it or set it to “0”.
Download our one-click registration hack
Instead of editing the registry yourself, you can download our “Turn off background blur” registry hack. Simply open the downloaded .zip file, double-click the “DisableBackgroundBlur.reg” file, and agree to add the information to your registry. We have also included an “EnableBackgroundBlur.reg” file that you can use if you want to undo your change later.
You do not need to restart your computer. The change should take effect immediately and you’ll see it the next time you lock your PC (press Windows + L).
These .reg files simply change the same registry settings that we described above. If you want to see what this or any other .reg file will do before running it, you can right-click on the .reg file and select “Edit” to open it in Notepad. You can easily create your own registry hacks.
Professional and business users: Disable background blur via group policy
If you are using Windows 10 Professional or Enterprise, the easiest way to disable background blur is by using the Local Group Policy Editor. It’s a pretty powerful tool, so if you’ve never used it before, it’s worth taking some time to learn what it can do. Also, if you’re on a company network, do everyone a favor and check with your administrator first. If your work computer is part of a domain, it’s also likely part of a domain group policy that will supersede the local group policy, anyway.
You must also set a system restore point before proceeding. It’s never a bad idea when you’re gaming and it wouldn’t hurt to make one manually; that way if something goes wrong you can always roll back.
First, launch the group policy editor by pressing Windows + R, type “gpedit.msc” in the box and press Enter.
Go to Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > System > Logon.
Find “Show Light Login Background” in the right pane and double click on it.
Set “Show Light Login Background” to “On” and then click “OK”. You will have to restart your PC before the change will take effect.
If you have the lock screen disabled before enabling this setting in the Group Policy Editor, for some reason Windows will revert it to the default setting, again on. All you have to do to bypass the lock screen is to run our guide and add the registry value back.
To revert this setting to default, go back here, double-click “Show light login background” to “Disabled” or “Not configured”.
