Changing the logon screen? (XP)

Hey all--

While tinkering around with my computer I wondered weather or not I could change the logon photo for my windows XP machine (sick of the microsoft junk). Is there anyway to do it? I know that you can on 98/95 machines but they boot right from DOS and XP does not right? That's my hypothesis after looking it up on google and coming up with results only for 98/95 machines. Is there a technique to change the logon screen for my XP machine? Any help is greatly appreciated, thanks for your time...

--Peace :cool:

Head over to Xteq Systems and check out X Setup. This is a VERY nice way to tweak Windows and conveniently priced at FREE. I'm vaguely remembering something about changing the logon screen but the thing does so much that I can't remember everything you CAN do with it.....

Like the kid in the cereal commercials used to say... "Try it, you'll like it."

Similar to X Setup is a program called MagicTweak, available at:

http://www.magictweak.com/

I have used this program in the past on W2K and Win98 machines and it has a good number of tweaking options that you can do to Windows. I have never used it on Windows XP, but if I'm remembering right you could change the logon screens and such, so you might want to check it out for XP. Unfortunately it's not free like allenb1963's suggestion, but I recommend it because I liked using it in the past.

If I remember correctly the logon screen image is stored in a DLL, and custom progs are required to change the Logon Screen, the last time I checked these were still a bit sus.. not sure unless someone who has any experience in this area posts a reply regarding their experiences..
Oh there is a 'Hack" to disable the logon screen..

Cheeers

Found It:

Quote:

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Link:http://www.activewin.com/winxp/tips/basic/12.shtml


Disable Bootup Splash Screen
Posted By: Byron Hinson

You can, if you feel like it, disable the Windows XP boot up splash screen. Although this doesn't speed boot times at all, it does allow you to see if there are any boot up messages appearing on your computer that might otherwise be covered up.

Edit boot.ini
Add " /noguiboot" right after "/fastdetect".
You will need to restart your PC for the splash screen to disappear. To enable the splash screen again, just remove the switch that you added.

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/me kicks himself for not reading the question (again) and getting a clear grasp of the subject matter the first time around.....

start ----> control panel ----> user accounts.
click the account you wish to edit.
click "change my picture" and choose the "browse" option listed under the pictures of the M$ choices.
browse to the folder on your HDD where the photo is and....

VOILA, new logon pic!

Sorry for the misunderstanding above, didn't mean to tell you to use an elephant gun to kill a fly. ;)

The logon and boot screens for XP are stored as exe's in C:\Windows\System32. The boot screen is called ntoskrnl.exe and the logoin screen is called logonui.exe. Now, you can directly edit them if you like, but I don't recommend it. Here's a site that tells you more. http://www.themexp.org/howto.php . It also has boot and logon screens available for download.
Cheers,
cgkanchi

Try Style XP www.tgtsoft.com . It's an easy program to use, lets you change the logons, visual styles, etc. It's not free though although the demo version works fine. With this app you can go to www.themexp.org and download visual styles, logons and apply them easyly with style xp. If you're intrested in changing the boot up you can use Boot XP, www.bootxp.net , isn't free as well but the demo is good. For boot screen check theme xp as well. Check www.windowblinds.net as well.

ATT
Necrom

hello brothers,

Plz visit this site : http://www.thetechguide.com/howto/xpbootlogo/
It mentions about the use of resource hacker.I tried it and it works well.

Yea I found a really cool website on how to change your boot up screen for XP its a download and when you open it you can make really cool graphics and set it.
http://www.bootxp.net/news_archive.htm

>Hope that helps you.

I just wanted to thank everyone for thier responses reguarding my question. You all were very helpful and are a good example of informative and useful help. Thanks for the help, I hope that I will be able to return the favor someday. I basically wanted to do this because of I was sick of the big microsoft ad that was allways being stuck in my face at boot up, plus this way I think that my computer is more customized, therfore being more mine than just a product of microsoft ya know? Well thanks again for your help.

--Peace :D

So what was the outcome? Did you get it working and how?

Heh heh, sorry I didn't post the results I was so glad I finally did it that it escaped me. Yea, it works great now I used the website that "redhy" posted and his link talked me right through it, now I got this cool "Matrix" looking backround running on boot up instead of the microsoft ad campaign. Now all I need to is change the login and shutdown screen which I bet I can do with this tool too (heh heh)! I suggest it to anyone that wants to do this. You will need either photoshop or paint shop pro. Well that's it for me I'm out, school was canceled today cause of an ice storm so I gonna go catch up on so reading!

--Peace :cool:

http://********skinned.org/
They have a load of Logon screens and such, mine looks like KDE, they will tell you how. You can also use Resource Hacker to change the images in ntoskrnl.exe this is where the booting splash screen is...it's only an image, so you can change it, how ever....XP won't let you change it while it's running so you have to change it through DOS, I have one if u want it....has a bit Biohazard symbol on it.....to restore the old one...simply delete it and XP will write another one from a compressed file somewhere....

- Noia