Can I reset a Windows 10 account picture to its default, transparent state?

Question

I tried resetting it by simply selecting one of the default user profile pictures, but that doesn't return it to its much nicer looking transparent state. I've deleted all the previous account pictures windows saves in in AppData and all AccountPicture folders with the sourceId entry I could find in the registry, but to no avail. I know it shouldn't be that big of a deal, but it's driving me nuts that I cant find the culprit, and I'm reminded of that fact every time I start my computer.

The only other lead I have are some unmodifiable entries in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\AccountPicture\Users, there are two folders S-1-5-21-495284677-397148257-3342998571-1001 and -1002 containing pointers to nonexsitent image files in Users\Public\AccountPictures, but I have no idea what to do with them.

Answer 1

You are almost there. You need to delete those keys pointing to non-existent image files. (At least, that worked for me!) In order to delete them I had to download psexec (https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/psexec) and run psexec -i -s regedit.exe from an elevated command prompt.

Answer 2

In Folder options > View mode, mark the options to show hidden and system files. Under

%AppData%\Microsoft\Windows\AccountPictures
C:\Users\Public\AccountPictures
C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\User Account Pictures

and its subdirectories, delete existing images so that the account image returns to defaults. If the system prevents you, just follow these steps to become the file owner. If you have a hotmail linked to your system, you will have to unlink it or delete the custom avatar image from the account there as well. To end, restart Windows and the account image will return to default.