How to Add or Remove Account Picture Menu on Start Menu in Windows 11

This tutorial will show you how to add or remove the account picture menu on the Start screen in Windows 10 and Windows 11.

What is the Account Picture Menu?

The account picture menu (also called the “user tile menu”) appears on your Start menu. It lets you change account settings, Lock the computer, sign out, or switch to a different user.

If you don’t want this menu, you can remove it completely from your Start menu.

New Feature in Recent Windows 11 Updates

Starting with Windows 11 build 26100.7922 (24H2), build 26200.9822 (25H2), and build 2800.1764 (26H1), a new option was added to the account menu. This option now directs you to the benefits page (https://account.microsoft.com/). This makes it easier to explore and manage your Microsoft account benefits.

How to Add or Remove the Account Picture Menu

Why do this? You might want to remove this menu to simplify your Start menu. Or you might want to add it back if it’s missing.

What happens? Removing the account picture menu hides the user tile from your Start menu. Adding it shows the menu again.

What You Need

• Administrator access to your computer

⚠️ Admin Required: You must be signed in as an administrator to make these changes.

Steps

1. Open the Windows Terminal app as an administrator.
2. Run one of the commands below, depending on what you want to do.

Add Account Picture Menu to Start Menu

This is the default setting.

reg add "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\PolicyManager\default\Start\HideUserTile" /v value /t REG_DWORD /d 0 /f

Remove Account Picture Menu from Start Menu

reg add "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\PolicyManager\default\Start\HideUserTile" /v value /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f

Learn More

For more information, see Start Policy CSP and learn more about the Start Area in Policy CSP on docs.microsoft.com.

Summary

The account picture menu on your Start menu gives you quick access to account settings and sign-out options. If you want to hide it, you can use Windows Terminal to run a simple command. You need admin access to make this change. Use the first command to show the menu (default) or the second command to hide it.