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Software pick of the week: Windows 7 Logon Background Changer

Sep. 11, 2009 Paul Thurrott | Paul Thurrott's Supersite for Windows

I recommend a software pick of the week in each episode of the Windows Weekly podcast, but this one is particularly nice, so I wanted to toss it out in case you're not listening. It's called Windows 7 Logon Background Changer, and as the name suggests, it lets you easily replace the Windows 7 logon screen background with an image of your choosing.

Windows 7 Logon Background Changer is a free open source software that let you change the wallpaper of the Windows 7 login screen. It has been tested successfully with the final version of Windows 7 (RTM) and Windows 7 RC 7100.

On a side note, this small program is WPF based, it's a nice technical demo of Windows Presentation Foundation capabilities for those interested in WPF. It requires a decent GPU for the 3D animations to run smoothly. It runs fine with my Radeon HD 3200 on my laptop computer, but it should also work with lower end graphic cards, albeit slowly.

Developers can also download the source code. Thanks to Michael for the tip!

Discuss this Article 19

techfan
on Sep 11, 2009
Nice! I'll make a note of this when I get my Windows 7 PC. It would be cool if it changed the background every time the machine boots.
panache1023
on Sep 11, 2009
Techfan, That would be cool. Why don't you download the code and see if you can make the modifications necessary to do that?
ggolcher
on Sep 11, 2009
While you're at it, set it so that you can set a color as the background... When I use Live Mesh and my background is an image, it's a lot slower than if my background is a color... and it takes forever to load the login screen image...
sunco
on Sep 11, 2009
"It runs fine with my Radeon HD 3200 on my laptop computer, but it should also work with lower end graphic cards, albeit slowly." Don't know why people is talking about WPF is slow. Maybe is slow if you run Win98. I don't have any special video card (just integrated) and have no problems on WinXP, Vista and Win7 RC and RTM
subzerohitman721
on Sep 11, 2009
I choose never to use integrated graphics card on a desktop when possible. While its decent, a few extra dollars can give you so much more. Even on my notebooks mobile graphics card, WPF is very quick and responsive. Nice tip Paul, thanks to you and Michael for it!
panache1023
on Sep 11, 2009
We found WPF so horribly so slow, we had to go back to WinForms. Granted, this was a year or two ago, so things might have changed....
yipcanjo
on Sep 11, 2009
This is a handy utility that my Mom would love, but not me. At work I not only 1) hardly ever see my wallpaper, but 2) have had the same wallpaper for about 3 years now. It's mostly black. At home, we use hibernate *exclusively*, so we are nearly always "logged on" -- thus this utility would only kick in every few weeks, if that. Still, handy for some folks :)
techfan
on Sep 11, 2009
@panache1023: Ha! I wish I knew how to do that. I think it would be cool also if the login background matched the desktop background. (Well, maybe...)
panache1023
on Sep 11, 2009
techfan, I'd do it if I had time....and the desire. :)
robertsjoe
on Sep 11, 2009
You can tell there's not much in Windows 7 when this gets Micronerds excited.
Ocean
on Sep 11, 2009
"Micronerds" LOL
evgenij
on Sep 11, 2009
Paul, I love the photos you have there. Do you have a flickr account or something where I could view them in higher quality?
winlonghorn
on Sep 11, 2009
Ok, I added the first component of a requested feature so far. :) I added the registry key to get the program to auto load when Windows Boots. The next step is rotating the background automatically. :) That shouldn't be too hard. I will complete it tomorrow most likely.
winlonghorn
on Sep 11, 2009
@techfan I'll implement that feature if I get some extra free time. That shouldn't be too much of a problem. At least I wouldn't think so. :)
techfan
on Sep 11, 2009
@winlonghorn: Hi! Cool. I can't wait to download your program. I would be using the RC release of Windows 7 but had to uninstall it when I couldn't run Aero (I want my glassy goodness! LOL) and couldn't find a driver for my video card (or something like that). @panache1023: Ah :-)
winlonghorn
on Sep 11, 2009
@techfan Yeah, I am happy to be able to add this to the program. It isn't my program though. It is just open source and I am modifying it to add these features. :) I want to make sure credit is given where it is due obviously. Thank you. :)
winlonghorn
on Sep 11, 2009
@techfan Yeah, it shouldn't be too hard to implement these features as I said. However, this isn't "my" program. It is open source and I am simply modifying it to add these features. I just want to make sure that credit is given where it is due. Thank you to the author of this program! It is a very useful utility and the design is great! :)
winlonghorn
on Sep 11, 2009
oops, the above post is a duplicate post by accident. It didn't seem like the other one was going through, so I had tried again. Please delete the first post of this response if possible. Thank you.
pezzonovante
on Sep 11, 2009
While this option should have been built-in, it's really obsolete given the default logon background is so nice.

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