Changing the Windows 7 Logon Background

I think that the Windows 7 login screen background is really ugly, so here's how to change it.

• Open the group Policy editor by typing 'gpedit.msc' in to the search box in the start menu.
• Navigate to - Computer Configuration-Administrative Templates-System-Logon - Always use Custom Logon Background
• Enable the policy.

  Or

• Use regedit and change the OEMBackground in HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Authentication\LogonUI\Background is 1.  Be careful when editing the registry, you can do damage here.

You could do both...

Prepare the image you would like to have a logon background:

• Your image must be less than 256Kb.
• Make your image the correct size for your screen resolution. The system has the capability of choosing an image based on screen resolution, so if you really wanted to you could create several images of different resolutions, but it is easiest to do one that fits your screen.
• If you want to create different resolution backgrounds you will need to name them as follows:

    backgroundDefault.jpg
    background768x1280.jpg
    background900x1440.jpg
    background960x1280.jpg
    background1024x1280.jpg
    background1280x1024.jpg
    background1024x768.jpg
    background1280x960.jpg
    background1600x1200.jpg
    background1440x900.jpg
    background1920x1200.jpg
    background1280x768.jpg
    background1360x768.jpg

If you are only using 1 image name it:"backgroundDefault.jpg"   Windows will automatically apply stretched-to-fit.
Create the path C:\Windows\System32\oobe\info\backgrounds and place your image(s) in the folder.
Restart and you should see your custom logon background.

Good Luck!