User blog:Tama63/Windows 7 Lets You Change the Logon Background Image

Just what the title says! Windows 7 supports the ability to load images into the background of the login screen without the use of third-party software or manual hacks. This excellent tip was published by Rafael Rivera in his "Within Windows" blog. To change the logon desktop background, you just need to complete two simple steps. (Thanks & Credits to the Within Windows blog.) Step I – Creating a Registry Value

1. Click Start, type Regedit.exe and press ENTER:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Authentication \ LogonUI \ Background 2. Create a new DWORD value named OEMBackground 3. Double-click OEMBackground and set 1 as its value data. 4. Exit the Registry Editor. Step II – Include the Wallpaper Image (JPG)

Next step is to place the background wallpaper (JPEG file) in the following folder:

C:\Windows\System32\oobe\info\backgrounds ''Note that the info folder doesn’t exist by default. You need to create the info and backgrounds folders manually.'' Place the background image file (name it as backgroundDefault.jpg) into the above folder.

Altering shadows

As you know, the button and the text used to identify your user account on the Logon screen have shadows behind them to give them a 3D-like look, and these shadows work well with the default Logon screen wallpaper. Depending on what image you use for your new Logon screen wallpaper, these shadows might not work so well. In addition to making it easy to change the Logon screen wallpaper, Microsoft also made it easy to adjust or disable the text and button shadows to accommodate your particular image. To alter the shadows, launch the Registry Editor again as described above and access the

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Authentication\LogonUI folder Once you open the LogonUI folder, you’ll create a new DWORD value called ButtonSet, as shown in Figure E. You can then configure the shadow by setting the value data to one of the following numbers:

Figure E
 * 0 — Light shadow
 * 1 — Dark shadow
 * 2 — No shadow