Starting in Windows 10 "19H1", the sign-in screen shows its background image with the blur effect applied. Many users are not happy with this change. Finally, Microsoft has provided a way to get rid of it.
Here is how the sign-in screen looks in recent Insider Preview builds of Windows 10:
According to the company, the login screen is now has a touch of the Fluent Design. The background image on the sign-in screen is now blurred, making the user focused on his credentials. The official announcement says the following:
With today’s flight we’re adding acrylic, a type of brush from the Fluent Design System, to the sign-in screen background. The translucent texture of this transient surface helps you focus on the sign-in task by moving the actionable controls up in the visual hierarchy while maintaining their accessibility.
Many users find this blur effect too excessive. Finally, the most recent build of Windows 10 "19H1", which is 18298 as of this writing, allows disabling the effect. Unfortunately, it is connected with the global "transparency" effect of the taskbar that you can enable or disable for your user account. Once you make your taskbar and the Start menu opaque, the blur effect will be disabled for the sign-in screen.
To disable Blur on the Sign-in screen in Windows 10, do the following.
- Open the Settings app.
- Navigate to Personalization -> Colors.
- Turn off the option "Transparency effects".
- The taskbar transparency effect will be disabled along with the blur effect on the sign-in screen.
Your sign-in screen will look as follows:
It would be great to have a separate option to disable the blur effect only for the sign-in screen. It is not known yet if Microsoft is going to add it or not.
Update: Starting in Windows 10 build 18312, there is a new group policy that you can use to disable the acrylic blur effect for the sign-in screen without disabling transparency effects for your user account. See the following article:
Disable Blur on Sign-in Screen in Windows 10 with Group Policy
Tip: You can open the Colors page of Settings directly. Press the Win + R shortcut keys together on your keyboard and type the following in the Run box:
ms-settings:colors
To get the full list of ms-settings commands available in Windows 10, refer to the following article: How to open various Settings pages directly in Windows 10.
Also, see the ultimate list of all Windows keyboard shortcuts with Win keys.
That's it.
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Thank you!
Thank you for this.
There is nothing so demoralizing to the start of a session as looking at that STUPID blur for minutes at a time while Windows decides to show the password box upon booting! (Which really sucks since the latest update) As if we can’t figure out we need to enter a password with a normal image!
Thanks a ton Sergey Tkachenko!
I held out long enough on the 19xx update so I got ell the little updates after. I was able to get rid of the blurry screen using the above method. It didn’t matter to me that my Taskbar is tied to it, I like them solid black and don’t normally use transparency on those items.
Dennis Mohican
Austin, Tx
10-22-19
OS: Microsoft Windows 10 Pro – (10.0.18362.418) (Version 1903)
CPU: AMD Phenom(tm) II X6 1100T Processor (x64) at 3300MHz (19% Load)
GFX: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti 4.00GB
RES: 1360×768 32bit 60Hz
RAM: 3655/16357.7MB (22.34%)
HDD Total 5TB
I’ve just updated to Windows 10 Pro 2004 and now the user icon on my login screen has become blurred. Previously the background was blurred but the user icon was sharp. Any idea how to correct this?