How to create a Custom Login Screen

Disclaimer:
This requires at least average knowledge in tweaking settings of your computer. This also involved editing your computer’s registry which is a vital part of your system and may affect system stability if you mistakenly edit something. Do not attempt this if you’re not sure of what you’re doing.

Your background image should not exceed 256kb and must match the aspect ratio of your screen since it will be stretched.

1. Click Start then type “regedit” in the search field. This will open the Registry Editor.



2. Before making any changes, backup your registry first in case you accidentally mess up something. Click File then Export. Save it to a convenient location, like your C:\ drive for example.



3. Navigate to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Authentication\LogonUI\Background


4. Double-click OEMBackground then set the value data to 1. Click okay.






5. If that key is not there, create one by right-clicking in the same window, select New then DWORD (32-bit value) and type the name as OEMBackground. Letters must have the same case as shown.






6. Now click Start then paste this address on the search field: %windir%\system32\oobe\info\backgrounds You can also paste this address from a Windows Explorer window. If you get a message that the folder can’t be found, try searching up to “oobe” folder instead.






8. If you don’t see an “info” folder, create one and create backgrounds inside it as well.






9. Paste your preferred image in the backgrounds folder and rename it to backgroundDefault.jpg. Make sure that the image type is JPEG.






10. Reboot your PC and your custom image should now appear.

Note: It seems that this works only on some versions of Windows 7. You can use third-party applications that will allow you change your logon screens without reboot or changing your registry. However, use and install these at your own risk.

Reference