The Real True skinny on Customizing the Windows 7 login page (OEMBackground)

There are multiple places on the net that tell you how to change the Windows 7 login screen.  There are multiple sites that describe the gotchas.  Here, I will put them all together, as well as provide a pair of registry files that will make customizers’ lives simpler.

I wanted to put a larger version of this image on all my Windows 7 computers:

It’s a photo of the cathedral in downtown Sàigòn (officially named “Thành phố Hồ Chí Minh,” or “Ho Chi Minh City”), which I took in 2002 from the steps of the Post Office.  The yellow pillars belong to the PO.  The cathedral’s name, “Nhà thờ Đức Bà,” is translated as “Notre Dame Cathedral.”  Nhà thờ is the term for any size church, while Đức Bà might be better translated as “Virtuous Lady.”  It’s clearly a cathedral, and out front there’s a tall white statue of the Virgin, so the distance from Virtuous Lady to Our Lady to Notre Dame is small—but present.

Step One:  Add OEMBackground DWORD value to the registry.  Start regedit and cruise to

     HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Authentication\LogonUI\Background

and add a new DWORD value, “OEMBackground” with the hex value of 1.  Or use this oembackground.reg file:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Authentication\LogonUI\Background]
"OEMBackground"=dword:00000001

Save and double-click the oembackground.reg file.

Step Two: Ensure that your OEMBackground image is a jpg file and less than 256K.  Note that this means “file size on disk,” which can be different from the actual image size.  One byte larger and it won’t work.  Note that the simplest way to make a jpg file smaller in size without changing the dimensions is to edit it in Photoshop Elements and save it with lower “Quality” than usual.  To meet these requirements, I saved my 1920x1080 image with quality set to 3, rather than 12 (the max).  In paint.net, save the file as a jpg, but change the image quality slider.  Naturally, you can use your favorite image editor, such as Gimp, to perform similar tricks.

Step Three:  Ensure that the following path exists (substituting the appropriate drive letter for “C:”):

    C:\Windows\System32\oobe\info\backgrounds

Step Four:  Copy your modified jpg background into that directory and name it “backgroundDefault.jpg” (even though Windows is supposed to be a case-insensitive OS, case is important here).  Do not name it defaultBackground.jpg.  A few sites claim that’s the right name, but they are wrong.

Step Five:  Log out (or hit Ctrl-Alt-Delete).  If you see your new background on the login page, you can skip the rest.  You’re done.

Step Six:  That obviously failed for you.  (This often happens with Windows 7 Home Premium, or Windows 7 Enterprise [which you’ll most likely encounter at work].)  You need to modify another key in the registry; this is because you need to set a policy that tells Windows to always use the custom background, even if some built-in, or installed, theme overrides the OEM background.  Start regedit and go to:

    HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\System

and add a DWORD value, “UseOEMBackground”, again with the hex value of 1.  Or use this registry file:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\System]
"UseOEMBackground"=dword:00000001


Save it to a file called “alwaysuseoembackground.reg” and double-click it.  Log out, and you should immediately see your new background.

If you don’t, you’ve misspelled something.  Really.  Double-check the spelling (including case) of your saved file, of the directories you created (if they didn’t already exist) and, especially, of the keys you added to the registry.  If you typed them in by hand, it’s likely you misspelled something.  You should save the registry hacks I’ve provided here to files on your drive, rather than type them in by hand.

I’ve found this works even at work, where they impose a rather ugly background on all Windows 7 systems.  Just be sure to use both registry hacks.