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

Someone

Folder missing in Windows 7 RC 64-bit. What's the problem?
Someone

Folder missing in Windows 7 RC 64-bit. What's the problem?
Someone

Never mind. Didn't read carefully.
Seek

Thanks for the information. Is the background image shown above available for download somewhere? It's really very beautiful.
VG

^^ Which image are you talking about? First or second one?
Seek

The second one with the two people in silhouette on the hillside in blue.
VG

^^ here you go:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v374/vishaal_here/Windows_Vista_Welcome.jpg
Mark Williams

Thanks for the help, works like a charm on Win7 RC. Now I'd like to change the color of the text on the logon screen. I changed my background to a light color photo and the white text sort of disappears. Do you know where I can find that text? I assume I can use Resource Hacker to alter color? Thanks.
VG

^^ Unfortunately no.
hashim khan

that very good