Set The Custom Background Of Your Logon Screen

Logon screen in windows Is the background that comes right after the boot process ..
There is nothing wrong with it but you might sometime need your own custom background.
In this Thread I will Explain how to custom change your Logon screen

There are two method available that can be used to achieve this

First Method : This is as far the easiest way to change your logon screen

Procedures:

1. You need to download this tool windows 7 logon changer
   
This small program is WPF based. It requires a decent GPU for the 3D animations to run smoothly.

How does it work

• It does NOT change any system file, and the program itself does not requires admin rights to run : it will just ask you to run as admin a very simple cmd file that creates the required folder and registry key with the appropriate rights. Any user of the computer will then be able to change the Windows 7 logon screen wallpaper. You can also prevent users from being able to change the logon screen wallpaper if you don't want them to be able to modify it without administrator rights (option available by clicking on the "Settings" button).
• It creates a few JPEG files based on the image you want to put as wallpaper for the Windows 7 login screen, applies the appropriate cropping and sizing and saves them using the best compression quality possible.
• It also allows you to select one of your photos in your gallery folders to use as the logon background

Download Windows 7 Logon background Changer

Second Method: This method allows you to change the background image without any third party software

The Method is a little bit hidden but clearly changes the screen background to your desired image
This feature is disabled by default,you will have to enable it from the Registry Editor. You can also use the Group Policy Editor if you have a Professional version of Windows.

• Click start button and type regedit in the search bar





• This wil bring up the Registry editor Windows then navigate to the following keys
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Authentication\LogonUI\Background

You’ll see an DWORD value named OEMBackground If you don’t see it, right-click in the right pane, point to the New submenu and create a new DWORD value with this name.
Double-click the OEMBackground value and set its value to 1

Note that changing a theme in the Appearance and Personalization window will “unset” this registry value. Selecting a theme will change the value of the key to the value stored in the theme’s .ini file, which is probably 0 – if you change your theme, you’ll have to perform this registry tweak again.

Changing the setting in group policy will allow it to persist even when you change your theme, but the Group Policy Editor is only available in Professional editions of Windows.
If you have access to the Group Policy Editor, type gpedit.msc from the Start menu.

     
Navigate to the following section in the Group Policy Editor window:

Computer Configuration\Administrative Templates\System\Logon 

You’ll find a setting named “Always use custom login background.” Double-click it and set it to Enabled.    

   

Setting an Image

Your image file must be less than 256 KB in size. It’s also a good idea to use an image file that matches the resolution of your monitor, so it won’t look stretched. You can use tools like Adobe Photoshop, Gimp or any Image editing software to set the resolution and change the file format of your desired image Windows looks for the custom logon screen background image in the following directory:

C:\Windows\System32\oobe\info\backgrounds



By default, the info and backgrounds folders don’t exist. Navigate to the C:\Windows\System32\oobe folder and create them yourself by right-clicking inside the folder, pointing to New, and selecting New Folder. 

Copy your desired background image to the backgrounds folder and name it backgroundDefault.jpg.

The change will take effect immediately – no system reboot required. The first time you log out or lock your screen (try the WinKey-L keyboard shortcut), you’ll see your new background.

To get the default logon screen back, just delete the backgroundDefault.jpg file. Windows will use the default background if no custom background image is available.

This is a bit handy and hard to get it working .. You can use the third party tool I have mentioned early if this doesn't work for you