Change logon background in Windows 7

Windows 7 is keeping up with other operating systems like Ubuntu Linux which allow changing the logon screen backgrounds. You can change the logon screen background easily in Windows 7. I have described the manual method as well as an automatic tool to change the logon screen background.

Note : You would need a JPEG image file for using as the background. This background JPEG file should not be more than 256 KB in size.

Manual method

1. Press the key combination Windows Key + R to open the Run dialog. Type regedit and press Enter to open the Registry Editor.
2. In the Registry Editor navigate to the following key :
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Authentication\LogonUI\Background
3. Right click in the right pane and select New → DWORD (32-bit) Value to create a new DWORD value of name OEMBackground.
4. Double click on OEMBackground and set the value as 1
   
5. Copy your JPEG file which you are going to use as the logon background to the following location (you may have to create the folders) :

   %windir%\System32\oobe\info\backgrounds

6. Finally, rename the JPEG file in %windir%\System32\oobe\info\backgrounds as backgroundDefault.jpg
7. You can check the logon screen background by pressing Ctrl + Alt + Del.

Using a tool

1. Download the program from here.
2. Extract the contents to a folder.
3. Right click on TweaksLogon.exe and select Run as administrator.
4. Choose a background file and you would see a preview.
   
5. You can click on Test to see the changed logon screen at work.