Lock Screen

Is your windows installation fully activated?

I am having the same issue.  Windows is fully activated.

I have the same issue as well.  Windows 8 Pro x64 - no lock screen changes apply.  Any word?

I'm unable to change the Lock screen either even though I have an activated copy of Windows 8 Pro 64-bit installed and have set Decor8 (v1.0) to Run as Administrator. The custom Start screen background works perfectly however (with parallax scrolling) so it is odd that the Lock screen doesn't.

I select a background (1920x1200 JPEG), click on 'Apply selected background to my lock screen' and it greys out to show it has been set. I can then check what it looks like by clicking on the padlock icon in the bottom-left corner of the screen. If I then click on Start8's Power options and select Sign out then I see the cartoon image with the tower in it (one of the five Windows 8 default images) as my lock screen. I've even tried changing the background in Window 8's own Lock screen menu (since it has a browse option) but that doesn't work either.

I'm pretty sure it was working in the earlier beta builds, although I'll admit I don't often see the lock screen as I'm the sole user of my PC so it boots straight to the Start screen.

The problem with changing the lock screen appears to be due to security permissions with the folders that store the background images. The folders used for this are located under the following path: 

                                                       C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\SystemData

This folder is under the ownership of "SYSTEM" and Decor8 is unable to get the required permissions needed to change the images in this folder. To make the lock screen functionality work with Decor8, you need to make some alterations to the security as follows:

1) Use explorer to go to the folder: C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows

2) Right-Click on the folder called "SystemData" and click properties.

3) Select the "Security" tab and click the "Advanced" Button.

4) In the advanced security window, next to the owner's name, click the link that says "Change" and change the owner to your account name and click the "OK" button.

5) Back on the advanced security window, check off the box in the lower left-hand corner that says "Replace all child object permission entries with inheritable permission entries from this object". Then click the "Apply" button and then the "OK" button.

6) Close and reopen the properties for the "SystemData" folder. Go back to the security tab.

7) Make sure your account has "Full Control" permissions checked off, if not do so by clicking the "Edit" button to change your permissions.

You must also create a permissions entry for "SYSTEM" as Windows needs access to the wallpaper too so it can change the lock screen, but Windows will attempt to reestablish itself as the owner of the folder and will even go as far as removing your account's permission entry if it is able to. Therefore, we must set the permissions so that SYSTEM can do everything except take ownership and change permissions:

8) Click the "Advanced" security button again and click the "Add" button to add a user.

9) Click the link that says "Select a principal" and enter the name "SYSTEM" in the object name box and click the "OK" button. Now click the link that says "Show advanced permissions" and check off all boxes except the two that say "Change permissions" and "Take Ownership". Click the "OK" button to save the new permissions for "SYSTEM".

At this point, you should be able to change the lock screen with Decor8. It would be nice if you didn't have to go through this much trouble to make it work but it seems Microsoft is determined to make things difficult.

You might also like to know that Decor8 currently only changes the image on your personal lock screen. Once you log off, the image on the login screen reverts back to whatever it was before you were logged in. If you want to change the main login screen, you can do so manually by changing the images in the following folder:

                                               C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\SystemData\S-1-5-18\ReadOnly\LockScreen_Z

There are usually 3 files in this folder. Make sure the names of these files stay the same when you replace them.

Nope, didn't make a bit of difference.  I have verified the permissions are changed.  System does not have permission to take ownership etc.  My account has full ownership.  Still no change.  I have that stupid space needle still.  Nothing changes.  Heck, I even tried running Decore8 as an Administrator.  No change.

Apparently, my Windows 8 Pro x64 just uses the system lock screen.  When I go and manually modify them, it shows them.

Note, it seems they are PNG files with a deceptive JPG extension.