Q. How do I customize the Windows 7 logon screen?

A. You can set a custom background for the logon screen in the release candidate and release to manufacturing versions of Windows 7, as shown here.

Click to expand.

To set a custom picture, place a JPG named backgroundDefault.jpg in the %windir%\system32\oobe\info\backgrounds folder. Now go to the registry and navigate to HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Authentication\LogonUI\Background. There should be a DWORD value named OEMBackground (create it if it's missing). Set the value to 1 and click OK.

Now when you log off or switch users the new background picture will be displayed. No reboot is necessary.

You can also place custom files in the backgrounds folder with the name background to have different pictures for different resolutions. For example, a 1024×768 resolution picture should be save as background1024x768.jpg.

Related Videos:

• A Guided Video Tour of Windows 7

Related Reading:

• Q. What are libraries in Windows 7?
• Q. What are the new features of Windows 7?
• Should IT Pros Install the Windows 7 Beta?
• Q. How can I create a new library in Windows 7?

Check out hundreds more useful Q&As like this in John Savill's FAQ for Windows. Also, watch instructional videos made by John at ITTV.net.