This tutorial has been created mainly for customization lovers. Many times you change Windows login screen background to your favorite wallpaper but the "Windows branding logo" which shows the installed Windows edition name, hides the bottom area of the wallpaper and annoys you like hell.
Today in this tutorial, we'll learn how to remove the "Windows branding logo" as well as "Ease of Access" button from login screen in Windows Vista and 7.
So here we start the tutorial:
1. We'll need to edit "%windir%\System32\authui.dll" file. First copy authui.dll file from "System32" folder to some other location for example Desktop.
Note: here %windir% represents "Windows" directory which can be found in the system drive where Windows is installed. In most of the cases its C:\Windows.
2. Now open the new file in Resource Hacker.
3. Now press "Ctrl+F" keys or select "Find Text" option from "View" menu.
4. To remove "Windows Branding Logo", type following string in the Find what text box:
element id="atom(Branding)"
Click on "Find Next" button and it'll go to following line as shown in the screenshot:
5. Replace the existing <element id="atom(Branding)"/> line with following one:
<element id="atom(Branding)" layoutpos="none"/>
6. Now to remove "Ease of Access" button, search for button id="atom(Accessibility)" string similar to Step 3. It'll show you following line:
<button id="atom(Accessibility)" tooltip="true" layoutpos="left"/>
Simply change layoutpos="left" to layoutpos="none" so that it'll look like following:
<button id="atom(Accessibility)" tooltip="true" layoutpos="none"/>
7. That's it, click on "Compile Script" button and save the file.
8. Now we'll need to replace original authui.dll file present in "C:\Windows\System32\" folder with our new authui.dll file which we saved at Desktop or some other location.
8 a. First take ownership of "C:\Windows\System32\authui.dll" file using following tutorial:
Add Take Ownership Option in File / Folder Context Menu in Windows Vista and 7
8 b. Now rename it to "authui_backup.dll" or any other name.
8 c. Now copy your new modified "authui.dll" file from Desktop to "System32" folder.
PS: If you are using 64-bit Windows edition, you'll also need to replace authui.dll file present in "C:\Windows\sysWOW64\" folder.
9. Restart your system and after restart Windows will start using your new modified file and you'll not see the "Windows branding logo" and "Ease of Access" button on login screen.
PS: Windows Vista "authui.dll" file contains only a single instance of (Branding) and (Accessibility) strings, so you'll need to replace them only once using Step 4 and 5 but Windows 7 contains 3 instances of these strings, so you'll need to change all the 3 instances in the file.
NOTE: If you want to use a free tool to customize Windows 7 login screen, check following list:
Ultimate Collection of the Best Free Tools to Customize Windows 7 Login Screen
Posted by: Vishal Gupta | Categories: Resource Hacker, Windows 7, Windows Vista
ThatRussianGuy
And if somebody cares, you can remove branding by following this quick guide:)
1 Go to the C:\Windows\Branding\Basebrd folder (System disk letter may diifer :) )
1.1 NOTE: You must have ResHacker already installed
2 If branding is written in English go to the en-US folder.
2.1 NOTE: If branding is written in different language than English you should choose folder that contains mui for your language (For me it's Russian, so I need to modify mui located in ru-RU folder)
3 Open basebrd.dll.mui with ResHacker and delete all bitmaps in bitmap folder (120, 121, 1120, 1121, 2120, 2121). Don't forget to make a backup just in case;) Save results. (be sure you are saving changes into basebrd.dll.mui !)
4 Step back to C:\Windows\Branding\Basebrd and make a backup for basebrd.dll. Open the ORIGINAL basebrd.dll with ResHacker and delete everything in bitmap folder again:)
4.1 I'm not sure if you should do STEPS 2,3 if your on English Windows 7, but those who have different language from English should do it.
5 Save all, reboot and PROFIT! :)
Ssory for my poor English, i'm from Russia:)
You can ask me a question here, in comments, i'll be notified.
Good luck mates!
Himanshu Rao
Great tutorial man, hats off to you.
rei
"Windows 7 contains 3 instances of these strings, so you'll need to change all the 3 instances in the file"
i didn't understand what 3 instances of the strings, i do all the procedures on my windows 7 64 bit with both system32 and syswow64,but they still on my windows logon after i restart my pc please help :(
VG
^^ The code mentioned in step 4 and 6 appears in 3 places in authui.dll file. So press F3 again and again and replace the code as mentioned in the above tutorial in all places.
manicbomber
This guide doesn't seem to work anymore.
VG
^^ It works absolutely fine in all versions of Windows Vista and 7. What problem are you facing?
roy haliva
error on edit the file authui.dll
after i edit the file like the tutorial to hide the ease of acces
i get black screen
Peter
Hi, Do you know how to do this in windows 8? The above entries no longer exist in windows 8.
Going Bats
How do I bring back the Branding?
Ericc
After replacing the .DLL file . My logon screen turns black and I can't do anything. Is there any way to recover it?
VG
^^ It seems you didnt edit the file properly which is causing this issue. You'll need to restore default file to fix the problem. If you have another Windows installed, boot into that Windows and then restore default DLL file. If you dont have any other OS installed, you can boot using Windows setup disc and perform a repair installation. You can also open Recovery Console using setup disc and then restore default DLL file using Command Prompt.
Some One
Great tutorial, altough it's a little bit confusing sometimes. Let me fill the gaps.
I did it on Windows Server 2k8 R2 with SP1, x64 platform. The steps on Windows 7 with SP1 x64 should be exactly the same.
1. Steps 1-3 as above.
2. Steps 4-7 in 12400 as shown above. Hint: Accessibility is just 3 lines below the Branding.
3. On Windows 7/Server 2008 R2: repeat steps 4-7 for 12401 and 12402!
4. Replace the original file.
4.1 Gather "Full control" permissions by becoming owner as in step 8a.
4.2 Backup the original authui.dll as in step 8b.
4.3 Copy/move the modified authui.dll to "system32" directory as in step 8c.
4.4 Can't believe, that this step is missing o.O See the security considerations below.
5. On x64 platform repeat all this but with the authui.dll from "SysWOW64" directory. Note: DO NOT USE THE FILE FROM SYSTEM32 -- THESE ARE DIFFERENT FILES! It won't work!
6. Test by rebooting the machine.
6.1 Reboot.
6.2 If you get a blank black screen with the cursor: you've done something wrong. Perhaps a typo, you used the x86 files in the x64 folder, you missed one passage which should have been edited, ... you might try again after recovering the system.
6.3 If you have to recover: do it as VG said in the comment above, or use a any Linux LiveSystem coming with NTFS drivers, preferrably from a fast USB stick. I'd prefer this version, as it seems faster to me than the recovery with the Windows setup disk.
7. If everything happens to be OK, you should totally this security considerations: There's a reason, the files are initially owned by the TrustedInstaller user. So after the successful manipulation you SHOULD restore the original permissions, which are:
- The groups "Users" and "Administrators" as well as the "SYSTEM" user are allowed to "Read" and "Read & execute" -- nothing more.
- The user "NT SERVICES\TrustedInstaller" has "Full control" AND IS THE OWNER!
- Everything else should be removed, especially if you restored things with a Linux system, the permissions might be set to "Full control" for the "Everyone" group.
As said above, I can't belive that there's nothing mentioned about that.
Some One
Sorry, it's "NT SERVICE\TrustedInstaller", the plural form above is wrong.
FrancisB.
followed all your steps up to compile script then system doesn't let me save changes! :(
I have already taken ownership????
FrancisB.
My UIFI File Numbers are
1100 & 1400...
not
12400, 12401,12402 &1400
like yours, does that make a difference???
VG
^^ Which Windows are you using?