Windows 7 to officially support logon UI background customization

By Nemo Live
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Nemo Live

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Windows 7 to officially support logon UI background customization

As you probably know, Windows 7 build 7057, a build recently leaked to the public, sports a new (yet ugly) login UI background. Delivering on the most-customizable promise, Windows 7 now supports the ability to load images into the background of the login screen without the use of third-party software or manual hacks.

login-thumb.pnglogin-customized-thumb.png

Although this functionality was designed for OEMs in mind, it is pretty easy to turn on and off using regedit and some images lying around your hard drive.

First, a check is made to determine if the customization functionality is enabled or not. More precisely, a registry value named OEMBackground in the HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Authentication\LogonUI\Background key is checked. Its data, of Boolean type, defines whether or not this behavior is turned on, i.e. 1 for enabled, 0 for disabled. Set this to 1.

Afterwards, if customization is enabled, the primary monitor?s screen height and width are retrieved via calls to GetSystemMetrics. These values are used in the computation of the screen width (w)/height (h) ratio. For example, my desktop resolution is 1920?1200. The ratio, computed by the division of w/h, is 1.6:1.

The result of this computation is looked up in an internal table that drives what image to load on disk. Although I don?t have a large enough monitor to test, it appears resolutions higher than 1920?1200 will force the loading and zooming of an image of closest compatibility (i.e. same ratio, smaller image).

As this is an OEM feature, images are derived from %windir%\system32\oobe\info\backgrounds. The following files are supported in this folder:

* backgroundDefault.jpg

* background768?1280.jpg

* background900?1440.jpg

* background960?1280.jpg

* background1024?1280.jpg

* background1360?768.jpg

* background1280?768.jpg

* background1920?1200.jpg

* background1440?900.jpg

* background1600?1200.jpg

* background1024?768.jpg

* background1280?960.jpg

* background1280?1024.jpg

The backgroundDefault.jpg image is loaded and stretched-to-fit when a resolution/ratio-specific background cannot be found. The other resolution/ratio-specific files are self-explanatory. If the background cannot be loaded (e.g. image physically too large, incorrect ratio, etc.), the default SKU-based image is loaded from imagesres.dll. You?ll see a Windows Server-themed grayish background in there, too, suggesting this functionality is not specific to client SKUs.

Should please the few who hated the change in 7057.

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Grand Master

Calum Veteran

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Good news :) Isn't this only changeable in Regedit at the moment though?

I hope they do allow users to change it in the control panel rather than reserving it just for OEM customisation.

I'm sure they will though :) It'd be stupid not too :D

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winlonghorn

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Ha! Word gets around. :)

LOL, this doesn't bother me one bit. :) More customization will make everyone happy and Microsoft is finally realizing it. :) Hopefully, they will include this ability in themes (if not, a software developer such as myself will have to try to create a program to integrate it). :) It is just too nice of a feature to pass up. :)

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Grand Master

Tech Star

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As you probably know, Windows 7 build 7057, a build recently leaked to the public, sports a new (yet ugly) login UI background.

I don't think that it is ugly. :/ I am glad Microsoft is moving towards a customizable Windows out of the box. :D

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Athernar

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I wonder if they would be receptive to feedback and actually make this an accessible feature in the personalisation control panel.

Edit: Thinking about it, could this be the "beginnings" of a new feature for the RC?

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DerAusgewanderte

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Should please the few who hated the change in 7057.

hmm, mine doesn't have anything under %windir%\system32\oobe\info. maybe because I upgraded instead of clean install? any hints?

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Tomoko

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It's about time. You would think they'd notice all the people hacking their logons, themes, boot screens, etc for the last decade and say to themselves "Hey, maybe people want this feature". Duh.

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Arkaic

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I don't think that it is ugly. :/ I am glad Microsoft is moving towards a customizable Windows out of the box. :D

I don't think it's ugly either, but it ****es me off because white text a a very light baby blue/ almost white background is hard to see.

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DrCheese

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Horray! I do this currently on XP with our systems at work, it's fairly easy to modify one registry key and have it load the logged off background from someplace else. However they removed this in Vista and to restore it required modifying a system file everytime. Not easy.

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pasty2k2

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Has anyone confirmed this working?

Ive tried going into this, and the registry key is there and is changeable, but the info folder is not in C:\Windows\System32\oobe. Likewise for the subfolder backgrounds.

Do we have to create these ourselves, after enabling the reg key?

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DerAusgewanderte

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I am using it in build 7057.

I guess somebody has to be so kind and upload the background folder from a working system. Mine is empty. a pointer if these can be extracted from the boot file would be great too. thank you for the good news.

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Litespeed

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Bit of a contradiction here:

...without the use of third-party software or manual hacks...

followed by:

...it is pretty easy to turn on and off using regedit...

Sounds like a manual hack to me. ;)

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pasty2k2

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?

I thought this was a Windows feature, it doesnt say anywhere that we have to download anything for W7 7057, just that prior to this build if we wanted this functionality we had to use third party software right?

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+Gary7 Subscriber²

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I guess somebody has to be so kind and upload the background folder from a working system. Mine is empty. a pointer if these can be extracted from the boot file would be great too. thank you for the good news.

Install Logon Studio Vista. It is free if you use pre built logons. If you want to build your own you have to buy it.

http://download.cnet.com/LogonStudio-Vista...4-10696252.html

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+Gary7 Subscriber²

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?

I thought this was a Windows feature, it doesnt say anywhere that we have to download anything for W7 7057, just that prior to this build if we wanted this functionality we had to use third party software right?

There is the hard way and the easy way. I chose the easy way.

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