How To Change Windows 7 Logon Screen

[W]indows 7 has many new features which allows you to customize different parts of the Operating System. This how-to article will show you how to change your Windows 7 logon screen. When you start your computer or switch from one account to another you see a plain blue background. Well after a while I get tired a looking at the same thing so this tutorial will so you how to manually change the logon screen. This tutorial will use the registry to change settings  it is really easy to do but if you don’t feel comfortable working with the registry there is a link at the end of the article that will let you download an application to change the Windows 7  logon screen. This application is easy to use but for people who like working on the computer the manual way is a lot more fun. I hope this how-to helps and enjoy!

The first thing you need to do is find the background picture you want to use for your logon screen. For this to work your image must be less than 245kb in size and in a .jpg format.

 

Step 1: Open the Windows Start menu and enter regedit into the search bar.

Step 2: You want to go to: \HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Authentication\LogonUI\Background

Step 3: Once there look for OEMBackground if you don’t find it right-click then New – DWORD (32 Bit) Value name it OEMBackground

Step 4: Double click on the entry OEMBackground, and change the value from 0 to 1.

 

Step 5: Open Windows Explorer and go to the following path: C:\WINDOWS\system32\oobe

Step 6: Create a new folder named info, and open it.

Step 7: Create a new folder within info named backgrounds.

Step 8: Copy the background image you want into backgrounds and name it backgroundDefault.jpg

Step 9: Enjoy!

 

If you would like to follow a video to do the manual Windows 7 logon change than here is a video I made that goes through the same steps and is easy to follow!

 

 

 

If you are uncomfortable with manually tinkering with the registry — or simply have better things to be doing with your time — we understand. Various third-party applications can change Windows 7’s default logon wallpaper, but our personal favorite is Tweak.com’s Logon Changer.

The software is ridiculously easy to use, doesn’t require installation, and it even has built-in tools to automatically resize and recompress your images while leaving the original file untouched. The Logon Changer also lets you quickly change your logon wallpaper back to the Windows 7 default.