How to Remove “Branding Logo” and “Ease of Access” (Accessibility) Button from Windows Vista and 7 Login Screens?

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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. First take ownership of "%windir%\System32\authui.dll" file and then open it in Resource Hacker.

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 press "Ctrl+F" keys or select "Find Text" option from "View" menu.

3. 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:

4. Replace the existing <element id="atom(Branding)"/> line with following one:

<element id="atom(Branding)" layoutpos="none"/>

5. 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"/>

6. That's it, click on "Compile Script" button and save the file. Now 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

Other similar articles that may interest you:

This article was posted by VG in following section: Resource Hacker, Windows 7, Windows Vista.

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Dementor

I guess, if write "layoutpos=top" instead of "none", I can move the Windows logo on top of the screen, right?
VG

^^ 100% correct.
SuperSoldier

That would be cool.
Dementor

Also, in Russian version I should edit .mui file?
cclloyd9785

On a x64 system, do I have to replace the one in SysWOW64 or System32?
VG

^^ I think both.
Bobthebuilder

Is it also possible to remove the shutdown options from the login screen? If so, what line should I search for and change in reshacker?
VG

^^ Here you go:

http://www.askvg.com/how-to-remove-shutdown-button-from-windows-vista-and-7-login-screens/
ambar

is there any .reg file for removing shutdown and ease of access from logon screen,it would be very helpful
giak

is possbile enter your Name?