Synchronize Login Screen Background with Desktop Wallpaper

[Gondorff]

Hi all,

So I know there are a thousand different ways to change your login screen's background image, but I would like to make it so that this background changes to match my wallpaper at all times (such as when I am using rotating wallpapers in Win7). I have not seen this option in the utilities I have used, but I imagine it must be possible.

If it doesn't already exist, where would I start to look in order to try and hack it myself?

[zhangm Supervisor]

First, modify your desktop background images to fit the requirements of the login screen: JPG format, less than 256 KB, same size as your display's native resolution, etc.

Dump the rotating images into some folder and go through the normal Windows routine to set them as a rotating series of background images.

Use a batch file to get the WallpaperSource string from HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Desktop\General, and tell it to copy that file to %WINDIR%\System32\oobe\info\backgrounds\backgroundDefault.jpg.

Tweak the login screen to take that image by setting the OEMBackground key at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Authentication\LogonUI\Background to 1.

Run the batch script via Task Scheduler at a rate that matches your wallpaper rotation interval.

[Gondorff]

Thanks a lot, Relativity!

Been extremely busy lately, so I haven't got it set up yet, but it looks like it'll save me loads of time.

Cheers!