Learn how to set a GIF as your profile picture in Windows 11 in simple, easy steps.
By default, you can only set profile picture in image formats such as JPG, PNG, and BMP. However, what if you want to set a moving GIF image as your profile picture? Generally, you cannot do this from the Settings app. However, PatRyk, an X user, found a neat trick that allows you to use a GIF as a user account profile picture by editing the registry values. In this quick and easy guide, let me show you the steps to change the profile picture to a GIF image in simple steps. Let’s get started.
Before You Start
- Administrator rights are required to follow the steps below.
- Before proceeding, make sure you’ve already set a profile picture (any image). You can do this from the “Settings” > “Accounts” > “Your info” page. Otherwise, you will not have access to the registry keys we want to modify to set a GIF profile picture.
- Make sure you have a GIF image ready and save it in the Pictures folder in your Home folder (C:\Users\YourUsername\Pictures).
Steps to Use a GIF as the Profile Picture in Windows 11
For this process to work, we need to edit the registry as SYSTEM, not as an administrator. To do that, we will use PsExec, an official Sysinternals tool. So, to start off, download PsExec from this link.
The download will be in ZIP format. Open File Explorer (press Windows key + E), navigate to the Downloads folder, right-click the downloaded PsExec ZIP file, and select “Extract all“. Click “Extract” in the extraction dialog.
This action will extract the ZIP to a separate folder in the Downloads folder. The extracted folder should open automatically.
Now, press “Windows key + X” and select “Terminal (Admin)“.
Once the terminal window opens, run the following command. Do not forget to replace the dummy path with the actual path of the PsExec.exe file. What this command does is open Registry as System (-s) in interactive mode (-i).
"C:\Users\YourUsername\Downloads\PsTools\PsExec.exe" -i -s regedit.exe
Once the Registry Editor opens, go to the following folder.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\AccountPicture\Users\
Under the “Users” folder, you will see a subfolder with a name starting with “S-1-5-21“, select it.
Note: If you have multiple users, run whoami /user in the terminal window to see your ID.
On the right panel, you will see multiple string values starting with “Image“. For example, “Image1080”, “Image192”, etc.
Double-click each value that starts with “Image” and replace the existing path in the “Value Data” field with the path of the GIF image, and click “OK“. For example, C:\Users\YourUsername\Pictures\profile-picture.gif. You have to do this for all string values that start with “Image”.
After modifying the registry values, close the Registry Editor and restart your computer. After restarting, you should see the GIF image as your profile picture.
That’s it. Write down below any questions or comments you have. I’ll respond as quickly as possible.
Thank you,
Vamsi.
