Shep’s Pondering’s

Windows 7 now supports the ability to have your own graphics as the background for the login screen, without purchasing a third-party application.

Granted it is turned off by default, which means a regedit is required. The place to look is

HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Authentication\LogonUI\Background

And the Dword value to add is

OEMBackground 1 is for enabled 0 for disabled.

Once this has been set you need to create two folders and load some images.

The place to create the folders is from %windir%\system32\oobe\

The folders to create are info\backgrounds

The following files are supported in this folder.

• backgroundDefault.jpg
  
• background768×1280.jpg
  
• background900×1440.jpg
  
• background960×1280.jpg
  
• background1024×1280.jpg
  
• background1280×1024.jpg
  
• background1024×768.jpg 
  
• background1280×960.jpg
  
• background1600×1200.jpg
  
• background1440×900.jpg
  
• background1920×1200.jpg
  
• background1280×768.jpg
  
• background1360×768.jpg 
  

Note1 – file size has to be 256kb or less
Note2 – the file used will be the resolution of your Primary Monitor. If a resolution specific image is not found it will stretch to fit the backgrounddefault.jpg file.

If you’re not worried about the stretch to fit, and don’t feel comfortable making the regedit, there is a quick and dirty way to accomplish this, simply replace the backround.bmp file at %windir%\system32\oobe\.

Once the file is present it will automatically load, press CTRL+ALT+Del and you will see your new background.

Enjoy!

(Credit needs to be given to Rafael and his Within Windows Blog —-Thanks Raf!)