Change Your Account Picture

I

received an email from Ben in Arizona last week.  First of all you may ask, "Are you published in Arizona?"  The answer is nope, but I sure wish I was. Maybe then Kim Komando would discover me and I would be on my way to fame and fortune…yeah, right.  I have had people write to me in the past from all over the world. I have heard from several countries; Switzerland, Japan and one fellow in Greenland to name a few.  The internet provides access everywhere, with the exception of certain countries for various political reasons.  But that’s enough of that.  Let’s get back to Ben.

Ben wanted to know how he could change his user account picture in Windows XP.  He did not want to change it to those standard pictures in XP.  You know…the butterfly, chess pieces, rubber ducky or frog.  He wanted something of his own.  Well he (and maybe you) didn’t realize it but you can change your user account picture to any picture on your computer.  It is very simple to do and works the same on XP, Vista and 7.

First, in order to get to your User Accounts screen for XP you have to go to Start, Control Panel and User Accounts.  However, Vista and especially Windows 7 are much easier. All you have to do is click the Start button and type, "User Accounts", wait a couple of seconds and press enter.

First, you must have rights to change your user account.  If you go to the following locations and they are grayed out or you cannot access them, you need to get with your computer’s administrator and have them give you permission

Once on the User Accounts screen click on your picture/account.  You will see a link that says, "Change my picture".  Pretty easy so far, isn’t it?

Click the "Browse for more pictures" link.  Scroll to the very bottom of the screen if you cannot see it already.  Now, navigate to the folder containing the picture you wish to use.  Most likely it will be in your "My Pictures" folder.

Click the picture and click the open button.  You may also double click on the picture to add it to your account.  The picture will now be the "avatar" for your user account.

Picture size is important to an extent. If you want your pictures to fit perfectly, size them to 128 x 128 pixels.  If they are larger Windows will crop them as it sees fit, with the center in the middle of the graphic; however, you may lose the edges.  Windows does a good job of fitting a larger picture into the smaller space automatically.

Be aware that the computer’s administrator can change all users’ pictures.  However, a user with a limited account or someone using a guest account can only change their own picture.

Check out the video of this at "bit.ly/gcIdj1" and let me know what you think (of course since you are reading this here, online, all you have to do is look below).  Let me know what you would like to learn in the Double Click columns.  I always like to hear from you.  Thanks in advance for the feedback.