Customize The Windows 7 Login Screen Background

Written by Alan Saturday, 23 April 2011 06:00

Everyone is familiar with the background displayed during Windows login.  It’s boring, but it used to be rather difficult to change.  With Windows 7, though, that has changed.  Changing it still isn’t for everyone, since it involves a dreaded Registry hack, but it is much simpler than it used to be.  Here is how to pull it off.

Before we started, though, you need to know that your new background photo has to be 256 KB or less.  You will also want it to match the aspect ratio of your monitor since it will be stretched to fit.

1. Click Start => Search and type REGEDIT.

2. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Authentication\LogonUI\Background.

3. Double-click the DWORD key called OEMBackground (not there? Create it) and set its value to 1.

4. Find the image you want to use and copy that image into the %windir%\system32\oobe\info\backgrounds folder (create the info\backgrounds folders if they don’t exist).

5. Rename the image to backgroundDefault.jpg, reboot, and you should now have a custom log-on image.

Alan

Alan is the owner and editor of Making Windows Easy. In addition to writing about technology he is also an avid distance runner and hiker. Read More

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