Welcome Log On Text Message - Change

How to Change "Welcome" Text Message at Log On in Vista and Windows 7​

   Information

This will show you how to change the Welcome text message you get after a user logs in to Windows 7 and Vista to any text message that you want it to say instead.

You can only do this tutorial while logged on as an administrator.

   Note

If you run a sfc /scannow command, then you will lose all changes made to the system file in the tutorial below since it and all other system files will be restored back to default by the command.


For Windows 7 Only:

• This tutorial works with UAC turned on or off.
• This tutorial works in all 32-bit and 64-bit Windows 7 SP1 editions.
  • Download details: Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1 (KB976932)
• For Windows 7 without SP1, you will need to turn off a Windows Feature (ex: Windows Gadget Platform), and restart the computer before this tutorial will work. Afterwards, you can turn back on the Windows Feature again.

   Warning

Making a mistake while modifying system files can render your Windows 7 installation unusable. To be safe, you should create a restore point before doing this tutorial in case you need to do a system restore at boot using the restore point to undo any mistakes that may be made.

EXAMPLE: Default and Changed "Welcome" Text Message at Log On

OPTION ONE

Change "Welcome" Text Message at Log On

1. In Windows Explorer, navigate to C:\Windows\System32\en-US\winlogon.exe.mui. (see screenshot below)

   Note

The en-US folder is in English Windows 7 copies. If you have a non-English Windows 7 copy, then this folder will have a different name reflecting your language instead.The table below are a few of the most common ones.

Folder Name	Language
da-DK	Danish
en-GB	English-Great Britian
en-US	English-U.S.
fi-FI	Finnish
fr-FR	French
de-DE	German
el-GR	Greek
it-IT	Italian
no-NO	Norwegian
es-ES	Spanish
sv-SE	Swedish

2. Take ownership of the winlogon.exe.mui file with your user account, and set it's permissions to Allow your user account Full Control. Close Windows Explorer when finished.

3. Copy this winlogon.exe.mui file to your desktop.

4. If you have not already, download and install Resource Hacker.

5. Right click on the Resource Hacker shortcut in Start Menu - All Programs, then click on Run as administrator. (see screenshot below)

6. If prompted by UAC, then click on Yes (Windows 7) or Continue (Vista).

7. In Resource Hacker, click on File and Open. (see screenshot below)

8. In Resource Hacker, select All Files (*.*) in the Files of type drop down box, navigate to and select the copied winlogon.exe.mui file on your desktop, then click on the Open button. (see screenshot below)

9. In the left pane of Resource Hacker, expand String Table, and 63, to 1033. (see screenshot below)

10. In the right pane of 1033, replace the Welcome text in quotes at both 1002 and 1005 locations with the text you want instead (ex: Hello) within quotes, then click on the Compile Script button. (see screenshot above and below)

11. Click on File and Save, then close Resource Hacker. (see screenshot below)

12. Copy the modified winlogon.exe.mui file on your Desktop, and Paste it into the C:\Windows\System32\en-US folder from step 1. (see screenshot below step 1)
NOTE: The en-US folder is in English Windows 7 copies. If you have a non-English Windows 7 copy, then this folder will have a different name reflecting your language instead.

13. Click on Copy and Replace. (see screenshot below)


14. If prompted, click on Continue (UAC) and Yes to approve.

15. Open a elevated command prompt, type mcbuilder, press Enter, then close the command prompt. (see screenshot below)
NOTE: Thanks to Fimble for pointing this out.

16. Restart the computer.

17. Restart the computer and log in to see the changes made.
NOTE: If this does not work for you in Windows 7, then see the NOTE box at the top of the tutorial.

18. You can delete the winlogon.exe_original.mui that ResHacker created if you like since you can easily do OPTION TWO below to restore the default settings.

OPTION TWO

Restore Default "Welcome" Text Message at Log On

1. Repeat OPTION ONE above, but type Welcome in both locations at step 10 instead.

That's it,
Shawn Brink

Related Tutorials

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• How to Display Information About Previous Logons During User Logon in Vista and Windows 7
• How to Change the Windows 7 Log On Screen Text Shadow
• How to Change the Windows 7 Log On Screen Background
• How to Change the Windows 7 Startup Sound
• How to Change the "Logging off..." Text Message at Shut Down in Windows 7 and Vista
• How to Change the "Shutting down..." Text Message at Shut Down in Windows 7 and Vista
• How to Change the Logon Screen Text Color in Vista and Windows 7

 

[JohnnyFootball]

Success!! My file ended in [.exe.mui] so i just deleted the [.mui] part, and it worked perfectly! thanks for the help, and a really great tutorial!

 

[Brink]

Ah, perfect. I'm glad to hear you got it sorted.

 

[Invisinak]

I've done everything repeatedly and followed all steps. my computer only has one account on it so it's an admin account. I've got windows 7 home premium with SP1.

Now I've tried using resource hack in both admin mode and non-admin mode, I've changed both files in just the system32 folder and the one in the en-US, to no avail, and I've made sure to compile and save and then do the "mcbuilder" trick in the command prompt. I've even tried the trick someone posted about maybe uninstalling a program so that windows has to reconfigure and that didn't work either.

The only issue that I think could be playing a roll would when I copy it over to the folder it seems to change the name of the file. I'll show you a screenshot below. (the issue being in the red circle)

Any thoughts on this?

 

[Brink]

Hello Invisinak, and welcome to Seven Forums.

Yep, that would be it. You would need to rename the file to remove the extra .mui, then copy it into the C:\Windows\System32\en-US folder.

 

[benjy206]

Very nice. Something I didn't know. As always great work Shawn

 

[Invisinak]

I tried the renaming it thing and that didn't work so what I did we start with a freshly created admin account and changed it there. Once I restarted it worked like a charm. Must have been the changes I've made over the years to the system files or something that wasn't allowing it to take effect. After that I just downgraded that account to a guest account and deleted the original guest account so I didn't have an extra useless account and I'm good to go. So thanks for making this tutorial and maybe what I did can help out some others.

 

[Brink]

Hello Invisinak,

I'm happy to hear that you got it sorted. Thank you for posting back with your results to help others that may have the same issue.

 

[Aaronk]

Could not get this to work at all tried all the alternative methods to fix but none worked (i.e i tried to add another admin account, I already am the only admin on the system).

I have win 7 Ultimate x64 with SP1, believe me when I tell you i have followed your guide step by step this is not the first time i have done something like this.

The file ("winlogon.exe.mui") itself changes to say what I want (in this case i want it to say "Welcome Back Commander") but when i restart the welcome message does not.

One thing that i was wondering is i have US win 7 installed but UK language settings could this be an issue (I also tried altering the code in "winlogon.exe.mui" so that under sub-language it said english UK instead of US but no luck).

I don't know what else to try, do you have any other methods to try or any ideas why this would not work?

 

[Brink]

Hello Aaronk, and welcome to Seven Forums.

As a test, enable and sign in to the built-in Administrator account to see if you may be able to successfully do it in this account instead.

 

[Aaronk]

Hi thanks for the reply.

sorry for taking so long to get back to you but no luck is there anything else i could try?

 

[Brink]

Just to see if using the UK language may be the issue, switch back to US, and see if it may work then.

If it does, then you will need to repeat this in your en-GB folder at step 1 instead to have it work while using UK language.

 

[hargreaves1992]

Thank's for this tutorial. I'm wondering if we can take this a step further and including a persons AD username from within a domain environment, E.G "Welcome John Smith" - when Jon Smith logs in, or "Welcome Jane Doe" - when Jane Doe logs in.


Maybe having: "Welcome <<username>>" - or something along those lines?

Kind Regards,

 

[Brink]

Hello Hargreaves, and welcome to Seven Forums.

That would be nice, but not that I'm aware of.

 

[hargreaves1992]

Thank you Brink.

I'm sure there is a way - There should be a way to pull the information from the Active Directory box - Maybe a little tweaking and this would work. Possible amend within the Group Policy (Even create a new policy) - would it be quick enough to find the information then display it?

Just a couple of questions that's all

Thanks,

 

[Shadowjk]

Just did some experimenting to see if this worked at all but unfortunately the %USERNAME% variable typically used to identify a user didn't work. As for applying via group policy, most likely not since the edit isn't done through the registry. The only way I could think is to capture a system image with the edit in place then install that image to the client machines whether it be through Windows Deployment Services or any other method.

Josh

 

[yamsrock]

I am having troubles with this due to the lack of a string table!

 

[Brink]

Hello Yamsrock, and welcome to Seven Forums.

Looks like you have the wrong file. It should be winlogon.exe.mui instead.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

 

[nooruddin76]

V cool Shawn, Thanks a lot .. Can I change other things like replacing the text "Starting Windows" ?

 

[Brink]

You're welcome nooruddin. I'm note sure, but you might take a look at this.

http://www.sevenforums.com/customization/106861-how-change-boot-animation-windows-7-a.html

We also have these for other items so far.

How to Change the "Logging off..." Text Message at Shut Down in Windows 7 and Vista

How to Change the "Shutting down..." Text Message at Shut Down in Windows 7 and Vista

Hope this helps.

 

[nooruddin76]

Thanks Shawn .. You know found out a program called Windows 7 Boot Updater which lets U change the 'Starting Windows' text.. and much more .. Download program Win7 Boot Updater by Coder for Life