Windows 7 Supports Login Screen Customization Without 3rd Party Software, How-to Instructions Inside

Now that's a fantastic news. In fact, the best news about Windows 7 for all customization freaks. Thanks to Rafael from WithinWindows for finding this awesome hack as he always does.

As you all know recently leaked Windows 7 build 7057 contains a new login screen background:

Windows 7 Build 7057 Leaked, Screenshots and Changes List Inside

You can even enjoy this new login screen in Windows XP, Vista and all previous Windows 7 builds using following tutorials:

Download Windows 7 Build 7057 Login Screen for Windows XP

Download Windows 7 Build 7057 Login Screen for Windows Vista and 7

But now the interesting thing is, Windows 7 allows you to easily change the background of this new login screen, so you can use any of your favorite wallpaper as login screen background without using any 3rd party software.

How to do that? Just follow these simple steps:

1. Type regedit in RUN or Startmenu search box and press Enter. It'll open Registry Editor.

2. Now go to following key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Authentication\LogonUI\Background

3. Now in right-side pane, change value of OEMBackground to 1

PS: You can use following ready-made registry script to enable custom login backgrounds, no need to manually apply the hack using 1-3 steps:

Download Registry Script

4. Now go to following folder:

%windir%\System32\oobe

Here %windir% represents "Windows" folder present in the system drive where Windows 7 is installed.

5. Create a new folder "info" inside oobe folder. Then again create a new folder "backgrounds" inside info folder. So the final path would be:

%windir%\System32\oobe\info\backgrounds

6. Now copy any desired wallpaper to this new "backgrounds" folder but following conditions must be followed:

The image name must be backgroundDefault.jpg.
The image size must be less than 256 KB.
The image format must be JPG.

7. That's it. Once you copy the wallpaper to "backgrounds" folder, your Windows 7 login screen will start using this new wallpaper as background. You can check the new login screen background by logging off or locking Windows.

PS: You can also use custom sized images based upon your screen resolution with the following names:

backgroundDefault.jpg
background768×1280.jpg (0.6)
background900×1440.jpg (0.625)
background960×1280.jpg (0.75)
background1024×1280.jpg (0.8)
background1280×1024.jpg (1.25)
background1024×768.jpg (1.33-)
background1280×960.jpg (1.33-)
background1600×1200.jpg (1.33-)
background1440×900.jpg (1.6)
background1920×1200.jpg (1.6)
background1280×768.jpg (1.66-)
background1360×768.jpg (1.770833-)

NOTE: The backgroundDefault.jpg image is loaded and stretched-to-fit when a resolution/ratio-specific background cannot be found. If the background cannot be loaded (e.g. image physically too large, incorrect ratio, etc.), the default image is loaded from imagesres.dll file.

Thanks again to Rafael for this awesome finding...

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This article was posted in Windows 7.

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28 Comments

watzabatza

i did it.. now i locked my screen. attempt for password before opening... thank you..
Laczyi

Good news, thank you. I will try tonight.
Dementor

It works!!
Thanks VG
Speed

the image doesn't load...
Speed

yipee it worked... had named d image as backgroundDefault.jpg, instead it should have been only backgroundDefault...
The Swiftman

Why can't M$ be nice and just let us do this where we change the wallpaper? Like it really matters if we change the background of the login screen, how does it affect them?
Dementor

BTW, it works not only in 7057. It worked in Beta 7000 as well.
But it doesn't work in NT6.0, even in SP2 RC. I hoped they'll add this feature to SP2.
zacaso

Hello. I have a problem, how can I change the background to one that is bigger than 256kbs...
Or how can I make it smaller without loosing resolution

Thanks

Zacaso
VG

^^ You can use software like photoshop, etc to resize, crop the image and save it as JPEG, it'll reduce the size.
sid

wow VG tryed this and it works fine on RC i was the logon screen changer thanks