2:00 AM
Paul B
This one I learned from episode 704 of Hak5. Snubs and Darren did a GoToAssist spot, and in that spot she gives a really cool tip on how to change the login screen of Windows 7 using a simple registry edit!
How friggin’ awesome is that? It is almost just like the good ol’ days with Windows XP! I wrote about how to change the login for Windows XP a while back. The process for Windows 7 is a little different, but is basically just as easy.
All you need is administrator rights so you can modify the registry, and create subfolders under your Windows directory, and a jpeg image that is under 256kb. Easy right? Lets do this!
Here is a screenshot from my Windows 7 Enterprise VM:
Boring right? Lets change this sucka! If you do not see any of these folders or keys, just create them! Here is how we change it:
- Click Start > Run type in Regedit and click OK
- Browse to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\
CurrentVersion\Authentication\LogonUI\Background - Double click the OEMBackground DWORD and change the value from 0 to 1.
- If it doesn’t exist create a new DWORD value called OEMBackground and set the value to 1.
- Browse to %systemroot%\system32\oobe\info (Once again, if info isn’t there create it)
- Create a folder called backgrounds
- Inside the backgrounds folder place your jpeg image (Must be under 256kb)
- Rename your jpeg to backgrounddefault.jpg
- Reboot
When Windows boots back up instead of boring Microsoft wallpaper, you will now have epic awesomeness! Check it:
Pretty cool right? I thought so too! Know of any other cool customization tips for Windows 7? Hit us up in the comments!
