Windows 7 - How to change Logon screen Picture frame (before logon)

Hi there,

I have a windows 7 pc in a "domain", so when you get to the initial windows 7 welcome screen (prior to logging in as a user), you get a blank transparent Picture

Its ok, managed to get it working, seemed to work when i did it again, strange. No blank picture frame now, just a customised "picture frame" that appears prior to logon, just what I was after. Hope this helps anyone else trying to achieve this.

Glad it sorted out by itself, but to answer this anyway (for other ppl who should need it) :

Windows provides two ways to achieve this : a registry tweak, and a group policy trick that instruct Windows not to remember and display the last user name who logged in.



First method, through the registry :

1. Run Registry Editor (RegEdit).
2. Navigate to the following registry key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System
3. In the right pane, double click on DontDisplayLastName registry key value, and set its value data to 1.

Second method, through gpedit :

1. Click on Start button, and type gpedit.msc into Start Search box, and hit Enter to open the Local Security Policy Editor.
2. Navigate to Computer Configuration -> Windows Settings -> Security Settings -> Local Policies -> Security Options.
3. In the right pane, double click on Interactive Logon: Do not display last user name.
4. Select and set the radio button of Enabled.
5. Click OK.

Now in your case you would want the oposite, and turn that off. So in registry to "0", and in gpedit "Disabled".

ShopBunny, that is uncorrect, both of your methods do nothing to the picture frame prior to logon.
My question was relating to the Picture Frame before logging being blank (if its in a domain)

That empty frame is exactly what is controled by the methods I described. I've done it myself several times. So sry but it IS correct.

Try it when connected to a domain... frame is always empty (because a user has not logged in and does not exist on the local machine)... I await your retraction :-)

Ok, my bad. didn't read the fact that you are in a domain. So that does tighten things up, don't it ?

Indeed, not even by m$ has a solution been provided (yet).

But I did find an interesting workaround you might want to check out :

I dont know if this will work in Windows Vista as I have not attempted it yet, but it does work in both 7 x64 and x86.

In both Windows Vista and Windows 7 when you enable the “don’t show last username” policy in group policy or in the registry, the user account frame will be shown as an empty frame instead of with the users account picture. Also when in a domain will this be the case. The following steps will enable a custom image or logo to be inserted into the frame for all users.


Warning: Changing system files or their settings can have an unwanted effect on the computer and can even make them unbootable. After this file is changed no user will be able to choose an individual picture.

Do the following at your own risk.


In order to add a logo to the frame you must first take ownership of C:\Windows\System32\authui.dll. You can do this by doing the following using explorer, navigate to the System32 folder, right click on authui.dll, click on properties, click on the security tab, click on advanced, click on the Owner tab, click on the Administrators group, then click apply. Click on the permissions tab, click on administrators, click on edit, tick the allow box for the full control permission, click OK on any remaining dialog boxes.
Use restorator to open the authui.dll file, browse to bitmap, then to 12223. Then you want to export/save the file as a bmp file. (That is given the fact that you know how to work with restorator...)

Open both your desired image and the bmp file in the bmp editor. Resize your desired image to roughly 120x120. Copy the image to the picture frame and position as desired. Once everything is the way you want, save the file.
In the resource editor again, you want to replace the 12223 bitmap with the custom image created. After this is done, save authui.dll and you should be able to see the effects immediately, if not reboot.


If you are familiar with some resource hacking skillz, this will be quite easy to do for you...
This method is the easiest and simplest workaround I know of.

That is the one i used :-)

Cool.
Have you come accross this yet ?

Windows 7 Theme & Resource Mods

I find that a fantastic guide for several things regarding resource hacking.
Maybe it'll serve you...

can you make me one like this for the user logon :P