Revision as of 11:47, 6 November 2012

This article explains how to change the Lock screen image of Windows phone 8 using application that can be set in Lock screen setting. Going further, this article also explain how we can change the lock screen wallpaper periodically with new image. This article also explains how to add text or image at runtime over Jpeg image to add more information on Lock screen wallpaper and compose image at runtime.

Introduction

Windows phone 8 has awesome features like new personalised home screen , Dynamic Lock screen , Integrated VOIP Skype etc. In Windows Phone 8, a user can choose to use an app as its lock screen background image provider. I think best feature is Dynamic Lock Screen as user first see phone is Lock screen image and which can have lots of information.

This article explains how to change the Lock screen image of Windows phone 8 using LockScreenManager. We will also show you how to change the Lockscreen wallpaper in background periodically using Background Agent Scheduler. This article also explains how to compose image dynamically by adding text or image at runtime over Jpeg image to add more information on Lock screen wallpaper.

To provide the lock screen background image in the phone, we need to declare the app's intent in the app manifest file, and add code to handle changing the background image and then to change image periodically need to use Windows phone Scheduler as Background Agent.

First we will show you how to set a default image to lock screen by app acting as Background image provide.

Setting up a default lock screen background image

To provide the lock screen background image for the phone, first we need to update the app manifest file to declare your app as a lock screen background provider.

Updating the app manifest file

To Update the app manifest file so that app can access the lock screen of the phone, we need to update WMAppManifest.xml file as below.

1. In Solution Explorer, expand Properties, right-click WMAppManifest.xml, click Open With, and then click Source Code (Text Editor) With Encoding.
2. Add the lock screen background <Extension> element in the <Extensions> element. If the <Extensions> element doesn’t appear in the file, place the entire code example below into the file. The <Extensions> element must be placed below the <Tokens> element.
   

<Extensions>
      <Extension ExtensionName="LockScreen_Background" ConsumerID="{111DFF24-AA15-4A96-8006-2BFF8122084F}" TaskID="_default" />
</Extensions>