Changing the Windows 7 login screen background?

Question

Is there somewhere within Windows 7 where I can change the lame background image for the login screen?

I know there are a bunch of hacks/utilities/Regedit changes and stuff like that to change it the 'hacker-way', but does Windows 7 not have a built-in way to change this? Or even make it look like the standard windows XP login (ie: user/pass/domain)?

Answer 1

Reading through the search results, they actually do let you without any hacking, but it's still a bit hackerish. From this site:

Use the following Group Policy setting in Windows 7

1. Start the Group Policy Editor (gpedit.msc)
2. Go to the following branch:
   Computer Configuration | Administrative Templates | System | Logon
3. Set the following option to Enabled
   Always use custom logon background

The next step, it says, is to copy your background into C:\Windows\System32\oobe\info\backgrounds\ as backgroundDefault.jpg.

Answer 2

The built-in way is not exposed to users via any nice interface, but it's simple enough to do it yourself -- I wouldn't describe it as a "hacker-way".

If you want the user/pass/domain style, you can get that by enabling the group policy setting for "do not show last username". If you have Windows 7 Pro, Ultimate or Enterprise, you can change it by opening gpedit.msc from the Run box, and navigating to Computer Configuration > Windows Settings > Security Settings > Local Policies > Security Options, and finding "Interactive logon: do not display last user name". If you have Windows 7 Home, you will have to change it in the registry by going to HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System and changing the value from 0 to 1.

Answer 3

As far as I can tell there are supposedly "official ways" to change it, but they still require a registry file to be run. There are also miscellaneous programs, hacks, etc. to do it, but here's a little guide they claim is the "official way" to change it:

1. Download the registry file from here. Extract the file and double-click on the file to enable this feature (Alternative method: right-click, select Merge).

2. Now, head over to the following folder:

   C:\Windows\System32\oobe^† (“C” is your Windows 7 Installation drive)

3. Here, create a new folder named Info.  Again, create a new folder inside the Info folder and rename it as backgrounds.

4. Copy your favorite image file to this folder and rename it as backgroundDefault.jpg^‡.  Note that the image must be in JPEG format and the size should be less than 256 KB.

5. You are done. Reboot your system and see the change.
   __________
   ^† “oobe” stands for “out-of-the-box experience” .
   ^‡ The file name may also be of the form backgroundDefaultDIMENSIONS.jpg; e.g., background960×1280.jpg or background1024×1280.jpg.  The system will look first for the file whose name corresponds to the dimensions of the display; if it doesn't find that, it falls back to the generic backgroundDefault.jpg file.  This is mostly useful if you are preparing a distribution that will be installed on multiple platforms (or a live CD or bootable flash drive that will be used on multiple platforms), or if you frequently change monitors, or the resolution on your display.

Answer 4

It is a shame that it isn't a baked in feature of Windows 7.

I use the Tweaks.com Logon Changer from CNet's download.com. I like it because it will automatically resize any picture to work for your machine.