Group Policy Setting of the Week 39 – Always use custom logon background

This week setting of the week allows you to prefer a custom logon background image in Windows 7. This setting is called “Always use custom logon background” and can be found under Computer Configuration > Policies > Administrative Templates > System > Logon.

Microsoft brought back the option to easily customise the logon background in Windows 7 as this was previously possible in Windows XP but it was removed with Windows Vista which left people with some pretty messy workarounds.

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Once you have enabled this option all you have to do to create the “%windir%\system32\oobe\info\backgrounds” folder and populate it with a backgroundDefault.jpg image and your computer will then use that as the background image when logging on and off.

Note: Some sites will direct you to configured the OEMBackground or UseOEMBackground in the HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Authentication\LogonUI\Background however this setting will negate the need to set this key.

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For more info on how to configure a custom background check out Windows 7 to officially support logon UI background customization

Author: Alan Burchill

Microsoft MVP (Group Policy)

5 thoughts on “Group Policy Setting of the Week 39 – Always use custom logon background

  1. This setting is applied only to Windows Client (Vista, 7)? It´s possible to apply Windows Server (2008 and 2008 r2)?

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