Windows 11 normally turns your profile picture into a handful of static, resized copies before using it in the OS Start menu, Settings page, or lock screen. However, you can redirect the right registry entries to your original file instead of the Windows-converted copies, and guess what that allows us to do: animated profile pictures!
Of course, it means you can also put a transparent PNG or an animated GIF that also has a transparent background.
Note that this isn’t a feature that Microsoft kept quiet about. It’s an unsupported registry workaround, and funnily enough, Microsoft’s support material has said for years that animated Microsoft account pictures aren’t supported.
Windows 11 normally destroys the original profile picture
Microsoft’s official method is Settings > Accounts > Your info > Choose a file, and Windows keeps your last three pictures on hand. What it doesn’t do is keep your original file around, and it’s alright because even if I delete the original file, the profile picture will still be around.
Windows generates a set of resized copies and stores their paths in the registry, under HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\AccountPicture\Users\<SID>, in values named Image32, Image48, Image96, and so on up through Image1080 depending on the Windows version.
Point those Image### values at your original file instead of Windows’ generated copies, and Windows just uses whatever file you give.
So, a transparent PNG can keep its transparency instead of getting flattened onto a background. And, technically, an animated GIF will keep all its moving frames.
If you’re interested, there’s a PowerShell tool on GitHub that automates this, and its documentation confirms GIFs work as profile pictures once applied.
The Windows “hack” we’re doing here changes local Windows account-picture plumbing, and not your Microsoft account avatar, in case that wasn’t obvious enough. Microsoft’s Q&A on animated Microsoft account pictures says that uploading a GIF only shows one static frame, since animation support was not built for Microsoft account avatars.
The workaround sidesteps it by going to the local registry entries directly, and a Microsoft account with sync enabled can even overwrite your custom picture back to a static one, so the GitHub tool’s FAQ recommends disabling picture sync or choosing a local account, which many users prefer anyway.
How to give your Windows 11 profile picture an animation
Put your GIF somewhere permanent first, like:
C:\Users\YourName\Pictures\ProfilePictures\animated-profile.gif.
Don’t leave it in Downloads or move it later. Windows will be pointing directly at that file going forward, so if it moves or gets deleted, your profile picture breaks.
Method 1: The easy way, using a ready-made script
Download the PowerShell script from GitHub using the “Download raw file” button. Right-click the downloaded file in File Explorer and select “Copy as path.”
Right-click the Start button, choose Terminal (Administrator), type a single dot (.), then right-click inside the terminal to paste the path you copied. You should end up with something like:
."C:\Users\you\Downloads\account-picture-changer.ps1"
Press Enter. If Windows blocks the script with an execution policy error, run Set-ExecutionPolicy -ExecutionPolicy Bypass, then try again from the first step.
The script downloads PsExec automatically, detects your account’s SID, and writes your chosen image path into every Image### registry value for you, no manual registry editing required.
Sign out or restart and check if your new profile picture is animated in the lock screen and Start menu.
Method 2: The manual way, using PsExec yourself
If you’d rather do it by hand or the script doesn’t work for your setup, here’s how to manually set an animated profile picture on your Windows 11 PC:
Download PsExec from Microsoft’s Sysinternals site, extract it, then open Command Prompt as administrator, navigate to the extracted folder, and run:
psexec -i -s regedit.exe
This is the important part. A normal “Run as administrator” Registry Editor isn’t enough here, since the AccountPicture keys only grant write access to the SYSTEM account, not to Administrators. Trying to edit them without this step will show you a “Cannot edit Image1080: Error writing the value’s new contents” error.
After running psexec -i -s regedit.exe, a new Registry Editor window will open, running as SYSTEM this time. Navigate to the following path:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\AccountPicture\Users\<your SID>
And replace each Image### value with the full path to your GIF.
Sign out and back in, or restart Explorer, if the picture doesn’t update right away.
For an example with a transparent background, take a look at the one shown below by X user PatRyk, who shared the registry workaround that enables GIF profile pictures in Windows 11, as first spotted by Windows Latest.
If you think this could’ve been a built-in system, you’re not alone. GIFs are very common these days, so are transparent images. And we shouldn’t have to go through all these troubles to get animated profile pictures. Also, if Microsoft wants, they could’ve made the Microsoft account profile picture able to accept GIFs. Google accounts already do it.
Windows 7 had personality; Windows 11 mostly has your Microsoft account
Windows 7 shipped with 37 built-in account pictures stored in the following location:
%ProgramData%\Microsoft\User Account Pictures\Default Pictures
Plus a few other default images for guest and administrator accounts. Back in the day, picking a picture, to me, felt like choosing a part of my identity.
Windows 11 gobbles your identity around your Microsoft account by default, even though you can use it with a local account after signing in, that is. Speaking of which…Microsoft has been quietly loosening that grip elsewhere, letting Edge users sign in with a Google account.
However, Windows 11’s setup still doesn’t offer an easy way to skip the Microsoft account requirement. It’s not like Windows isn’t customizable either. The Start menu and Taskbar are all customizable now, but not as much as we had in Windows 10. And some might argue that the original Start menu in Windows 95 had a better implementation.
Considering that the industry is moving forward with bolder design choices, like Liquid Glass, I hope Microsoft makes Windows 11 more customizable out of the box. Although we got confirmation that complete transparency control won’t be coming to Windows 11 anytime soon!
Microsoft doesn’t officially support animated avatars, and there’s no Settings toggle for it. But the account-picture system in Windows 11 still just reads whatever file path you give it. Nobody built this feature. It’s an old mechanism that kept working the way it always has.
