Share via

Change Windows 7 logon background image

Anonymous
2011-02-26T01:59:05+00:00

I already know the registry tweak and the Windows\System32\oobe\info\backgrounds jpg sizes and such, and I don't need to know where to download any free utility that does that for me.  I can do that (and have) myself, but that's not what I want to do now.

What I want to know is where Windows 7 stores the backgound image used as the default logon screen, and the name of that image file.  It is not the Windows\System32\oobe\background.bmp.  I've changed that one, but that doesn't change the default logon background image.  If it is an image file that has a name, I can change it if I can find it.

Does anyone know where the actual file is stored in Windows 7?

That's all I'm asking for; the location of the file that is actually used as the default Windows logon background.

"Let them that don't want it have memories of not gettin' any." "Gratitude is riches and complaint is poverty and the worst I ever had was wonderful." ...Brother Dave Gardner "Experience is what you get when you're looking for something else."...Sir Thomas Robert Deware.

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Accessibility

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

0 comments

14 additional answers

Sort by: Most helpful
Most helpful Newest Oldest
  1. Anonymous
    2012-01-03T20:47:20+00:00

    The logon screen background image is located in Windows\System32\imageres.dll.  There are two sets of background images; the wispy vine and bird with blue background, and a wispy greytone stringers with grey background.  There are 13 images in each set, 8 landscape and 5 portrait in various image sizes.

    A Utility called Resource Hacker can open dll and other resource files in all versions of 32-bit and 64-bit Windows and allow the internals to be manipulated.  The utility is fairly straightforward, and quite powerful.

    I opened imageres.dll, saved the IMAGE portion of the resource to a folder on my desktop in order to get the various image sizes.  I then used Paint to resize my personal logon background into matching sizes.

    Once I had corresponding image sizes of my personal logon background, I again used Resource Hacker to replace each size of the default logon background with the corresponding size of my personal logon background.

    Once this was completed, I saved a copy of imageres.dll to my desktop, went into Windows\System32 and took ownership of the imageres.dll file there, and then replaced it with the copy I had saved to my desktop.

    I rebooted, the wispy vine and bird were gone, and my personal logon background image was in its place.

    .

    3 people found this answer helpful.
    0 comments
  2. Anonymous
    2015-12-17T09:25:06+00:00

    I have read how you have finally changed the logon background, but that sounds very tedious and inefficient. I know how to do it without much hassle. Here's how

    1. open Registry editor. Type 'regedit' in the start search.
    2. navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Authentication\LogonUI\Background
    3. If it is not there, create a DWORD value on the right side named OEMBackground and give it a value of 1
    4. Your work in the registry is done. You can close it now.
    5. Go the folder c:\windows\system32\oobe\info\backgrounds and create any folder if needed.
    6. Inside the backgrounds folder put your picture and rename it to 'backgroundDefault.jpg'
    7. Note that the file size must be less than 256KB. The resolution of the image is immaterial.

    That should do the trick.

    2 people found this answer helpful.
    0 comments
  3. Anonymous
    2016-09-10T12:47:44+00:00

    Read my reply from January 3, 2012.  That method works.  Save a copy of your modified imageres.dll file in a non-system location, because if you do a repair/reinstall of Windows 7, it will put the standard Windows version of imageres.dll back in Windows\System32.

    1 person found this answer helpful.
    0 comments
  4. @CmdrKeene 90,616 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2011-02-28T20:25:27+00:00

    To my knowledge, the image is actually stored there (within the info/backgrounds folder), and is bound by the constraints you mentioned about sizes.  However, if you replace it with an image that is more than 256kb or has another resolution (even by 1 pixel), it will fall back upon the hard-coded default that is contained within the WinLogon.exe program.

    1 person found this answer helpful.
    0 comments