Alex’s Blogthing

Thanks to the digging of Rafael Rivera (www.withinwindows.com), we can now skin the Logon UI in Windows 7.  The instructions below are gleaned from two posts on his site, specifically http://www.withinwindows.com/2009/03/15/windows-7-to-officially-support-logon-ui-background-customization/ and http://www.withinwindows.com/2009/06/13/tweak-your-windows-7-logon-ui-button-set/.

Quick Logon UI skinning:

1. Have a background picked out that matches the rules in Rafael’s post (less than 256KB and sized appropriately if you don’t want it to be stretched).
2. Open the Registry Editor and browse to HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Authentication\LogonUI\Background. (if the key doesn’t exist, create it)
3. Set the DWORD value OEMBackground to 1.
4. Fire up Windows Explorer and browse to %windir%\system32\oobe\info\backgrounds (like the registry key above, create the folder if necessary).
5. Copy your background into the folder and name it backgroundDefault.jpg.
6. Hold Windows and press L to test the new Logon UI.

If you don’t like how the buttons look on the Logon UI after changing the background:

1. Open the Registry Editor and browse to HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Authentication\LogonUI.
2. Set the DWORD value ButtonSet to 1 for lighter backgrounds and 2 for darker backgrounds.

Thanks Rafael!

~ by barthag on . Tagged: 7, windows