Deleting A User Account Picture

foxy girl replied:

When I look at this file it is empty.  The path works but empty file.

Try Start > Settings > Accounts > your account.

Don

When I look at this file it is empty.  The path works but empty file.

karenschuck replied:

I want to delete the user account pictures

Please see the two posts just above yours on this page.

Don

I want to delete the user account pictures

Microsoft help and all the forums seem very evasive trying to get a straight answer about this.  I worked at it and found a way to REMOVE pictures in your account that you no longer want.  (You'd think that you could simply Right-Click delete right?) No that would be too easy.

For Microsoft 10 users note that the FOLLOWING File Path which was given in a previous post as:

C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\User Account Pictures\user.bmp

**is most likely incorrect.**Try this path instead:

C:\Users*YOUR-USERNAME-INSERTED-HERE\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\AccountPictures*

(note you need to have access to hidden files/folders ON, AND login as the administrator AND you should have Large icons 'ticked' on the show contents or view as: option.) ( just so you can see the files you wish to delete since windows 10 creates it's own picture file with a long string of characters as it's NAME and it's NOT "USER.BMP"  it will more likely be something like'57f2bb74b6df5fe8' and it may have the extension type HIDDEN even THOUGH you have selected to SHOW all file extensions under file view.  This is why the search string shown below has TWO wild cards in the search string *.*  one * for the name then a dot and the next * for the extension file type. )

But if that fails there are a couple of other work arounds.

Do an advanced search on the entire drive including system folders with the following option in the search string: (you can copy and paste this)

This option works if you wait for a day first and don't CHANGE any pictures...then go in and change your User picture... so that THAT is the ONLY picture modified on that day.  Then search with this option:   *.*kind:=picture datemodified:today

This search string will locate ANY PICTURE modifed TODAY on your hard drive.

Then when you SEE the photo you wish to delete simply right click on it and select:

Open Folder or Open Location (something like that) and it will take you to the correct folder which SHOULD be the one I listed above - but it might be something else.

There is another way to at least REMOVE (not delete) the photos from the main view when you open your account and that is to simply UPLOAD another photo - say a generic placeholder icon and by doing this three times you will eliminate the offending picture from immediate view.

hope this helps.

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