Thanks for the reply and assistance.
It's not the login screen that concerns me ... it's the menu list that displays after I press CTRL ALT DEL. It's soooooo light. Is there a way to make the text darkerd, or is the solution - to use your "darker shadow" fix that you included above. I'd include a screen shot, but it would appear that Windows 7 CTRL ALT DEL screen won't go to the clipboard (tried Prt Scr, tried ALT Prt Scr ... nada). I can capture other windows, but not this one.
Thanks for any insights.