Customizing the Logon Screen

Windows 7 includes a slightly improved logon screen similar to the one used in Windows Vista. Gone is the Windows NT-style classic logon screen with which many domain users are familiar (because it was included in the last several releases of Windows). The new Welcome screen, as I called it in Windows XP, is now your only choice for logging on. Not much changed except for a few visual enhancements that make the screen look more professional and make it fit in with the theme of the rest of the operating system.

New to Windows 7 and Vista is a more secure logon system that requires all components to be digitally signed by Microsoft. If any of the logon files are modified the digital signature is destroyed and you will no longer be able to log on. This prevents malicious software from hijacking the logon process, but it also makes it next to impossible for people like us who want to customize the logon screen; you can no longer just hack a system file and replace some resources in it.

The days of customizing every single element on the logon screen are over until someone writes an application that extends the logon screen or someone releases a patch that disables the digital signature requirement.

Is this the end of customizing the logon screen? Not at all! You can still do a lot of useful tweaks to the logon screen that will give it a personal touch, such as changing user pictures, hiding users, customizing the logon screen screensaver, and more.