Where Does Windows Vista Store The Profile Image?

Question

Hello Everyone,

I was just wondering if anyone knows where vista stores the profile images for each user account. I know in XP it is stored in C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Microsoft\User Account Pictures, but when I browse the equivalent path in vista, all I have is a user.bmp and a guest.bmp. I understand that these are the defaults IF I don't allow any custom user profile images, but that is not the route that I want to follow. I am assuming that vista is the same as XP where the profile image names are .bmp, but when I do a search, I cannot find any images anywhere. Has vista moved the profile image storage into the registry?

I also know that there is a temp directory, C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Temp, that has the files that I am looking for, but everything I modify them, when I load the profile, they are overwritten. I assume that this is happenning because it is a temp dir. This leads me to believe that there is a master directory with all these images.

Thanks,
Johnathan

Answer 1

I wanted to do the same, but I found out, that it is not possible under Vista to change the User Picture programmatically. I have found the answer here:

Change user picture?

Answer 2

This useful post has a vb script that modifies the SAM with the help of SysInternals psexec to set the User Account Picture (aka UserTile).