Create a Windows Control Panel Display policy

You can customize computer and user policies to force a specific visual style on a Windows system. Instead of using the Windows Group Policy Editor to configure the appropriate Administrative template or editing the registry keys on each system, you can create a JumpCloud policy to do this. This type of policy lets you control the display settings and prevents users from changing the display.

This policy applies the same screen settings that are in the control panel display Administrative template (controlpaneldisplay.admx) for Windows systems. If you force a visual style on a system, a user can’t apply a different style when trying to change themes in the Personalization Control Panel.

Considerations

You can configure these settings in this policy:

• Force a specific default lock screen and logon image – Supported on Windows 8.1 and 10 Enterprise, Education, 2016/2019 Servers Editions. When no user is signed in, you can specify what’s displayed by enabling this and specifying an image. If the specified image isn’t available at user logon the default visual style loads.
• Prevent changing lock screen and logon image – Supported on Windows 8.1 only. By default, users can change the background image shown when the system is locked or displaying the logon screen.
  • If you enable this setting, users can’t change their lock screen or logon image, and will see the default image.
• Prevent changing start menu background – Supported on Windows 8.1 only. By default, users can change the look of their start menu background, such as its color or accent. If you enable this setting, users see the default start menu background and colors and can’t change them.
  • If the Force a specific background and accent color policy is also set, then those colors take precedence over this policy.
  • If the Force a specific Start background policy is also set, then that background takes precedence over this policy.
• Do not display the lock screen – Supported on Windows 8.1 only. This setting controls whether or not users see the lock screen.
  • If you enable it, users who aren’t required to press CTRL + ALT + DEL before signing in see their user tile after locking their PC.
  • If you clear it, users see a lock screen after locking their PC.
• Prevent enabling lock screen camera – Supported on Windows 8.1 only. If you enable this setting:
  • Users can’t enable or disable lock screen camera access in PC Settings.
  • Users can’t access the camera on the lock screen.
• Prevent enabling lock screen slide show – Supported on Windows 8.1 only. If you enable this setting, users can’t modify slide show settings in PC Settings, and no slide show starts when the screen locks.
• Force a specific background and accent color – Supported on Windows 8.1 only. By default, users can change these colors. You can force Windows to use the colors you specify in hex as #RGB and prevent users from changing them.
  • For example, the color Alice Blue is specified as #FFF0F8FF. 
  • For a list of predefined colors in hex, refer to Microsoft’s Color Class documentation.
  • This setting isn’t applied if the specified colors don’t meet a contrast ratio of 2:1 with white text.
• Force a specific Start background – Supported on Windows 8.1 only. By default, users can change their Start menu appearance.
  • To allow the default behavior, clear this option or enable it with a Background ID of 0.
  • To prevent users from changing the Start menu, select this option and enter a number between 1-20. If the background you specify is not found, then the default (ID = 1) is used.

Images that Correspond to Background IDs

If you want to force a specific background, enter a Background ID number that corresponds to one of the following images:

Create a Windows Control Panel Display policy:

1. Log in to the JumpCloud Admin Portal: https://console.jumpcloud.com/login.
2. Go to DEVICE MANAGEMENT > Policies.
3. Click (+).
4. In the New Policy page, select Windows.
5. Locate Control Panel Display, then click configure.
6. (Optional) In the Policy Name field, enter a new name for the policy or keep the default. Policy names must be unique.
7. (Optional) In the Policy Notes field, enter details like when you created the policy, where you tested it, and where you deployed it.
8. Under Settings, select the options you want to allow.
9. (Optional) Select the Device Groups tab, then select one or more devices on which to apply this policy. For device groups with multiple OS member types, the policy is applied only to the supported OS.
10. (Optional) Select the Devices tab, then select one or more devices on which to apply this policy.
11. Click save.
12. Click save again to confirm.
13. Restart all systems where you apply this policy.