Windows 11 can use an animated GIF as a profile picture, even though its standard account settings only accept a still frame. With PsExec and a careful Registry edit, you can make that GIF appear across the system.
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Editor’s note: A version of this article by 克莱德 appears on September 8, 2026 on SSPAI with the title “一日一技｜我的 Windows 11 头像会动，你也可以”. Translated and published by agreement.
The idea for this piece came from a post by @Patrosi73. I’ve added the necessary tool-configuration details.
The feature image is from Untitled Goose Game.
Regular SSPAI readers may know that our site supports GIF user profile pictures, as long as the file is under 5 MB. Windows is less accommodating: upload a GIF in Windows Settings or on the Microsoft account management page and you get a static profile picture containing just one frame—dull and rigid, perfectly out of step with how you feel each time you open Windows to start work.
Windows does, in fact, support GIF files as user profile pictures.
Before proceeding, please back up your system, especially corresponding registry values.
Under Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\AccountPicture\Users\, the Registry stores profile-picture values in several sizes for use across different places of Windows.
If you take the conventional route—open regedit, find the values, edit them, and save—you’ll find that they cannot be changed directly:
To modify Registry values related to the user profile picture, we need to run Registry Editor as the System account. We’ll use PsExec, the tool mentioned in Microsoft’s Learn documentation. Download and extract, then right-click the Start menu, select “System,” and, in the Settings page that opens, find and open “Advanced system settings.”
In the “Environment Variables” dialog, follow the steps below to add the PsTools folder to Path.
Next, run Terminal or PowerShell as an administrator and paste:
psexec -i -s regedit.exeIn case you want to know more, the -i launches an interactive interface, while -s means it will run as the System account.
Once Registry Editor opens, return to Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\AccountPicture\Users\ and change every profile-picture value to the path of the GIF you prefer.
That’s it: you’ll now see an animated user profile picture throughout Windows, Start menu for example:
As you can see, Windows 11 also supports animated GIFs with transparent backgrounds. Thus we can make the sign-in screen feel more immersive, like this one:
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