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Hi, new poster here.
I've posted this to the Win 8 forum, but it could equally apply to Win 10.
I have 3 windows machines at home - netbook, laptop and desktop. The netbook was bought with Win 7 has never had a personalised lock screen, now it's on Win 10 it has a generic Microsoft one.
The laptop was Win 8.1. Last year I used an image of my favourite rock album (Queen II if anyone's interested) for a lock screen and that has persisted through the Win 10 upgrade. Until this evening, when I changed it to a generic one,
On my 8.1 desktop, the Queen album cover appeared as a lock screen shortly after applying it to the laptop. I didn't request this, but hey I like the picture (it really is an iconic album and cover art
so I wasn't complaining, just a bit curious how it got there.
My desktop (for reasons I won't bore you with) has had its drives formatted, Win 8 installed, and an 8.1 update today. But the album cover returned almost straight away. I'm not asking where the lock screens are stored locally (C:\windows\web). I'm also not asking how to change the lock screen. I know how to do that...
All I'm asking is a) how does this lock screen image propagate between Windows machines on my home network and b) persist after reformatting and reinstallation of the O/S? Is it stored somewhere at Microsoft HQ, or should I take my tinfoil hat off
Thanks
David
I've posted this to the Win 8 forum, but it could equally apply to Win 10.
I have 3 windows machines at home - netbook, laptop and desktop. The netbook was bought with Win 7 has never had a personalised lock screen, now it's on Win 10 it has a generic Microsoft one.
The laptop was Win 8.1. Last year I used an image of my favourite rock album (Queen II if anyone's interested) for a lock screen and that has persisted through the Win 10 upgrade. Until this evening, when I changed it to a generic one,
On my 8.1 desktop, the Queen album cover appeared as a lock screen shortly after applying it to the laptop. I didn't request this, but hey I like the picture (it really is an iconic album and cover art

My desktop (for reasons I won't bore you with) has had its drives formatted, Win 8 installed, and an 8.1 update today. But the album cover returned almost straight away. I'm not asking where the lock screens are stored locally (C:\windows\web). I'm also not asking how to change the lock screen. I know how to do that...
All I'm asking is a) how does this lock screen image propagate between Windows machines on my home network and b) persist after reformatting and reinstallation of the O/S? Is it stored somewhere at Microsoft HQ, or should I take my tinfoil hat off
Thanks
David