Rafael from WithinWindows has done it again. He has discovered a new logon UI background customization trick that Microsoft has put in Windows 7 for OEMs. It requires a registry change and a few folder changes but does it without the need of any third party tools or hacks.
This does require a bit of work to get it working. First of all, you’ll have to enable the functionality in the registry by creating ( if missing ) a DWORD value named OEMBackground in HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Authentication\LogonUI\Background and enable its value to 1 or to 0 if you want to disable the functionality. Or you can just use this registry file I created, to quickly enable it.
After you’re done, you’ll have to check if this location exists in you Windows installation %windir%\system32\oobe\info\backgrounds. If not, create it. Than use an image which is the same size as your desktop resolution and use the following file names, depending on the resolution of your image.
- backgroundDefault.jpg
- background768×1280.jpg (0.6)
- background900×1440.jpg (0.625)
- background960×1280.jpg (0.75)
- background1024×1280.jpg (0.8)
- background1280×1024.jpg (1.25)
- background1024×768.jpg (1.33-)
- background1280×960.jpg (1.33-)
- background1600×1200.jpg (1.33-)
- background1440×900.jpg (1.6)
- background1920×1200.jpg (1.6)
- background1280×768.jpg (1.66-)
- background1360×768.jpg (1.770833-)
If your resolution isn’t present in this list, don’t worry. Windows will pick a resolution closest to your desktop resolution. Also, keep in mind that the image must be less than 256kb in size.
Now, let’s see if and when Rafael finds a method to customize the Windows 7 boot screen. ;)
256k isn’t very big for a high resolution image, what’s the reason for the limit?
Larger images could potentially slow down your startup. Maybe that’s why they’ve put such a limit.
I’ll actually try to find out why from some Microsoftie.
I reckon it may be to prevent OEM’s from filling the logon background with random junk, multiple logos and the like.
It’s a shame logon screens will vary between OEMs, but the 256K limit should ensure that no OEM is able to make a particularly awful background and ruin the UX!