How to extract an accountpicture-ms image to BMP on Windows 10
When you need to set a profile picture, a contact photo, or a wallpaper on Windows 10, a simple PNG or JPEG file will do the trick. Windows 10 doesn’t force you to use a specific file format for images and works with most common ones. That said, when you set an image as your profile picture, Windows 10 will convert it to a different file type: accountpicture-ms. This file type can’t easily be converted to a PNG or JPEG and it’s hard to use it for anything else unless you have a copy of it lying around. If you need to extract an accountpicture-ms image, you will have to use an app called AccountPicConverter.
AccountPicConverter was created for this very purpose. It can extract an accountpicture-ms image to a BMP file. Here’s how it works.
Find account profile picture
Before you can extract an accountpicture-ms image to a BMP file, you need to locate it first. These images are saved to the user folder of each user that’s configured on your system. Use the Win+R keyboard shortcut to open the run box and enter the following in it. Alternatively, you can open File Explorer and paste the address below in the location bar.
%AppData%\Microsoft\Windows\AccountPictures
Copy the images in this folder to your desktop or whichever folder you want to work in.
Extract accountpicture-ms image
Download AccountPicConverter from Github and move the EXE to the same folder that you copied the profile pictures to.
Open command prompt with normal user rights, and use the cd command to move to the folder with the profile pictures and the app’s EXE.
Example
cd "C:\Users\fatiw\Desktop"
Once you’re in the folder, execute the following command;
Syntax
AccountPicConverter.exe name-of-image.accountpicture-ms
Example
AccountPicConverter.exe f2953df1a0bdd323.accountpicture-ms
The command takes only a second to execute and the extracted images will be saved to the same folder that you’re in. They will have the BMP file extension and the same name as the original accountpicture-ms file.
This only works for the current profile picture that you’ve set. The folder where the picture resides does not keep a copy of older photos however, if you go to the Settings app, under Accounts, you may see an older image that you can select. Be warned that the images may not be from a long time ago and there’s no guarantee that they’re there. If you’re trying to retrieve an older picture, try signing into your account on Microsoft’s website. The Edit profile option may show you an older image.
Thanks very much for supplying the instructions for AccountPicConverter. They were very useful.
using the CD command – “C:\Users\fatiw\Desktop” just leads to me getting “The filename, directory name, or volume label syntax is incorrect.” message. Is it possible get a more detailed breakdown starting with the existing c prompt syntax. For example mine is C:\Users\theru>.
Thanks for any and all help.