Windows 7 to officially support logon UI background customization

[GreenMartian]

  Penryn said:

Nice tool. Would you add an option to reverse it back to the default. Thanks.

If you look closely, there's an option to "Disable" :yes:

[azz0r_wugg]

Shame they don't include this in the new "theme" stuff they're doing. Would really top it off.

[mdtaUK]

  DiEMOS said:

Pretty cool wall martinDTanderson

is that really yellow?

Yes I have a ribbon image with a gradient from Orange/yellow to blue, because these are the colours used by Windows 7 :)

Here is the image I made...

Edited March 20, 2009 by martinDTanderson

[blackroseMD1]

Here's mine :)

Sorry for the crappy digicam quality.

[rakeshishere]

@blackroseMD1

hahha.. I like pics of Retro games :)

[FiB3R]

That wall paper is ****ing awesome! Link?

@ GreenMartian, looks like the competition is hotting up :p

Click Me!

I must say, I do like the simplicity of your app though (Y)

[rakeshishere]

I think its from Desktop Gaming

http://desktopgaming.com/

[GreenMartian]

  DARKFiB3R said:

@ GreenMartian, looks like the competition is hotting up :p

Click Me!

Oh pfft. They could at least changed all of my messagebox texts, not just some of them :p

[xJakex]

  GreenMartian said:

Oh pfft. They could at least changed all of my messagebox texts, not just some of them :p

This is what happens when you give away your source :p

[GreenMartian]

  xJakex said:

This is what happens when you give away your source :p

It's always fun to see what ppl do with them. Some have the courtesy to give credits back, some just say they wrote it themselves. Helps me filter out which websites/people deserve my respect :D

[tranceandy]

  GreenMartian said:

New version. As usual, source included.

LogonChanger_1.0.1.zipFetching info...

Changelog:

• Fixed major bug in calculation. I did an automated test of 100s pics. Seems to work fine now.
  
• Warning if not running as admin.
  
• Changed double click to single click.
  
• Opening the background folder by right clicking.
  
• Some error handling so you see nicer messages instead of dying with cryptic errors.

Great little App, thanks for sharing it with us all :D

Would it be possible to have some kind of random chooser everytime the desktop is locked/logged off? :D

[Ayepecks]

  Calum said:

I can't see Microsoft not allowing the user to customise this in the Control Panel. They'd be uproar if they didn't ;)

I can. It's only for OEMs to use. That's like saying "I can't imagine Microsoft not allowing users to input their own game information into the Games Explorer" -- it's not for the users, for the most part.

[Udedenkz]

That little tool does wonders!

Although, I am not sure how it works, for I have this one Greyscale Jpeg Wallpaper (195,104 bytes), but after setting it as the logon UI background, its quality decreased - any tips at how to save it properly in Photoshop to achieve maximum quality? Thanks

EDIT: I think I figured it out, B&W does not work right, RGB does.

Edited March 21, 2009 by Udedenkz

[Lord Ba'al]

I've made a ready-made login screen collection here, in case anyone's interested:

https://www.neowin.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=748934

[FiB3R]

Response from the code thief...

"oh thanks to remind thanks ,to the author for that code ... which i obviously understood and re-coded to work with miine application..thanks :D"

@ Lord Ba'al, some nice pics there, thanks :)

[Imran Hussain]

  GreenMartian said:

It's always fun to see what ppl do with them. Some have the courtesy to give credits back, some just say they wrote it themselves. Helps me filter out which websites/people deserve my respect :D

Would you mind if I write about the LogonChanger on my blog? Link in the sig, and of course all credit will be yours. :)

[tinytimscrutches]

After seeing this entry, I bopped over to deviant art to find a good logon screen and since I couldn't find any I like enough, I took one that was almost right and fused it with the windows 7 wallpaper. If anyone else wants it you can get it here: http://tinytimscrutches.deviantart.com/art...oaded-116811472

But yeah, definitely just use Tweaks Logon Changer, or any other ones I don't know about.

[DWillens]

Wow what a great little tool!! Thanks for coding that for all of us that are too dumb to figure it our for ourselves! I couldn't stand that new logon screen in 7057!

Damon

[FiB3R]

Thanks blackroseMD1 for the wallpaper link :)

[Owen W Veteran]

  Ayepecks said:

I can. It's only for OEMs to use. That's like saying "I can't imagine Microsoft not allowing users to input their own game information into the Games Explorer" -- it's not for the users, for the most part.

True, but I can also see them potentially bringing this out in the RC as an extra 'surprise' feature! Have you not noticed the information lockdown recently? I'm thinking (and hoping) that they've got some surprises in store that they've been managing to hide between the 7000 build and the RC

[hdood]

They're not going to be introducing new things that require testing in the release candidate (what they consider the finished product). What you see now is what you're getting.

I thought it was obvious that this "feature" is so OEMs can plaster their branding all over the login screen like they do the wallpaper. Nothing more, nothing less.

[bradsh]

in that respect, this is kind of a negative feature, as users wont be able to get rid of the branding easily. at least changing wallpaper is easy.

[Lord Ba'al]

  bradsh said:

in that respect, this is kind of a negative feature, as users wont be able to get rid of the branding easily. at least changing wallpaper is easy.

Negative? not easily removed? What were you smoking? :blink:

It's certainly positive, very positive even, that you can have your own login screen :cool:

You can easily change it, too (just the file size is a little small for 1920x1200).

However, there still seems to be a little bug in it - when I shut down yesterday, it suddenly had the default screen again (without me doing anything).

When I booted up again, it still had the default screen. I looked in the registry (just in case) and found that, strangely enough, the value allowing custom login screens had been reset to 0, disabling it :blink:

After setting it to 1 again, it worked as it should.

[DerAusgewanderte]

  Lord Ba said:

Negative? not easily removed? What were you smoking? :blink:

It's certainly positive, very positive even, that you can have your own login screen :cool:

You can easily change it, too (just the file size is a little small for 1920x1200).

However, there still seems to be a little bug in it - when I shut down yesterday, it suddenly had the default screen again (without me doing anything).

When I booted up again, it still had the default screen. I looked in the registry (just in case) and found that, strangely enough, the value allowing custom login screens had been reset to 0, disabling it :blink:

After setting it to 1 again, it worked as it should.

this must be a secret hidden MS April fools joke. It happened on my notebook too just last night.

[bradsh]

  Lord Ba said:

Negative? not easily removed? What were you smoking? :blink:

It's certainly positive, very positive even, that you can have your own login screen :cool:

You can easily change it, too (just the file size is a little small for 1920x1200).

However, there still seems to be a little bug in it - when I shut down yesterday, it suddenly had the default screen again (without me doing anything).

When I booted up again, it still had the default screen. I looked in the registry (just in case) and found that, strangely enough, the value allowing custom login screens had been reset to 0, disabling it :blink:

After setting it to 1 again, it worked as it should.

Here's why it has negative potential

1. OEMs are likely to change these. Expect a huge DELL or SONY logo on your login screen out of the box.

2. It requires the registry to change, and they might not include a user interface for this functionality.

3. So, many users will have big ugly OEM logos on their login screen and not know how to change/fix it.

That is why it could be a negative feature. If they include a UI in the personalization setup, or change login screens with themes, it could be a positive. It all depends on whether they include a UI or if it ends up as obnoxious OEM branding.