*Taken from the ATOS website, http://www.g4tv.com/attackoftheshow/index.html*

If there's one thing i hate, it's the windows XP logo. I CAN'T STAND IT!

so like, wavy and multicolored... so, i'm posting this little tweak for your collective benefit:

first, get a program like regedit (google it, i'm getting lazy and don't want to dig up a link)

look for logonui.exe in your windows/system32 folder.

MAKE A COPY OF THIS FILE AND PUT IT IN YOUR ROOT FOLDER FOR EASY ACCESS!!!!

open it with regedit or another registry key editor, and look around in it. if you want to spend hours painstakingly figuring out how to edit it on your own, be my guest. i haven't bothered even doing that yet... just go to http://www.themexp.org/ and you can find tons of custom themes.

after you have downloaded your new logon screen, put that somewhere safe, and name it logonui.exe. DON'T try and copy it onto your real logonui while still in the windows envornment!

You can re-start in safemode and try this from the command line, but i have had amazing luck with BartPE. http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/
if you can't find a new best friend who has a PE disk, you can make your own with the pebuilder on that website. if you don't have it, and you plan on doing a lot of hacks, i would totally recommend this, you'll use it. A LOT...

Assuming you now have something like bartPE, just boot that up (hit F12 or whatever key at the boot screen to bring up your menu. select to boot from cd, and you're good to go.

open the file explorer and copy your new logonui.exe.

go to windows/system32, and delete the original (make absolutley sure you have your backup) and look for any backups that windows made. (i found only one on my computer: 'logonui.exe.mainframe')

put your edited file in place (make sure you named it right) and restart.


there you go. look for more windows hack tutorials in the future!

Quick update: the extra file you need to delete is 'logonui.exe.manifest'

I recently figured out an update for this hack that makes the procedure immensely easy. If someone else posted how to do this before, I'm sorry, I'm just not aware of it:

get up to the point where you have created or selected your preferred logonui.exe. just rename YOUR logon screen whatever you want (we'll use personallogon.exe) and put it in the same C:\windows\system32 folder.

open up registry editor (go to start, run, type 'regedit')

navigate to this key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon

select 'Shell'
you will notice that the value for this key is C:/Windows/System32/logonui.exe
change this value to (C:/Windows/System32/personallogon.exe)

bam! far easier than before. log off and you'll see if it worked or not.

the value for shell is Explorer.exe for me :-\

-

The hack is cool for sure but very recently I have seen some updates to this trick. The previous one posted in this thread does not work anymore.

The hack is cool for sure but very recently I have seen some updates to this trick. The previous one posted in this thread does not work anymore.

Can you provide the link to that tip articles.

Hack the Windows 7 Logon Screen using OEM method

Locate OEMBackground and modify 0 to 1 in regedit
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Authentication\LogonUI\Background
http://lookpic.com/d2/i2/804/6LbhHjzL.jpeg

Create folders " C:\windows\system32\oobe\info\backgrounds\ " and put your 1024x768 jpg under 256Kb called " backgroundDefault.jpg " in backgrounds folder. Use RIOT plugin ( hxxp://irfanview.tuwien.ac.at/plugins/iv_formats.zip ) for IrfanView and force it`s size to 255Kb.
http://lookpic.com/d2/i2/2428/veoGRpq.jpeg

Enjoy!

Compatible images for backgrounds folder

* backgroundDefault.jpg
* background768x1280.jpg (0.6)
* background900x1440.jpg (0.625)
* background960x1280.jpg (0.75)
* background1024x1280.jpg (0.8)
* background1280x1024.jpg (1.25)
* background1024x768.jpg (1.33-)
* background1280x960.jpg (1.33-)
* background1600x1200.jpg (1.33-)
* background1440x900.jpg (1.6)
* background1920x1200.jpg (1.6)
* background1280x768.jpg (1.66-)
* background1360x768.jpg (1.770833-)

(thanks to Raf)

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