Changing the Pre-Login Screen Background Picture

How can I change the initial screen before the domain login page? Right now it's set with a Seattle picture that scrolls up to reveal the login screen. I've tried changing the Lock screen but that doesn't change it.

August 21st, 2012 7:07pm

How can I change the initial screen before the domain login page? Right now it's set with a Seattle picture that scrolls up to reveal the login screen. I've tried changing the Lock screen but that doesn't chan

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August 21st, 2012 10:31pm

Hello Ronnie,

Thanks for the information. I have changed the Lock picture using WinKey+I - If I Press WinKey+L the system locks and the picture I've changed it to appears. However, when I restart in the morning, right before the domain login, the old Seattle, Space Needle picture still shows there. Guess I've got to live with it. Maybe it's because I'm running Windows 8 Enterprise?

August 21st, 2012 10:42pm

Hi Sandy

I have not had a chance to test the Enterprise version yet, but you may be correct.

There are many differences with this new version of Enterprise.

Best

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August 21st, 2012 11:19pm

Thanks Ronnie. I can live with it for now.
August 22nd, 2012 12:43am

Looks like you are using domain accounts, right?

In that case, I guess that they are showing the default lockscreen since many users can connect to the machine, it wouldn't make sense to use a specified user lockscreen instead of the default one.

/my 2 cts.

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August 22nd, 2012 12:47am

Yes, we are. It does make perfect sense what you're saying. I'll keep digging to see if I can find out where the setting might be. Maybe a GPO.
August 22nd, 2012 12:50am

In a multi-user environment on a non-domain machine, a logged in user who locks the screen gets their background, but when no user logs in, it gets the default. I guess they automatically apply this to a domain machine.
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August 22nd, 2012 4:33am

On my domain-joined machine, I can lock the screen and get my custom background. It's just the initial screen before the login prompt that I can't change.
August 22nd, 2012 5:54pm

I know what you mean, i have the same setup.  It might be in group policy where you can change it.  I'm going to look for it.  It'd be nice if we can change it to maybe a company picture.
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August 22nd, 2012 6:24pm

Open Group Policy Edit, locate to Computer Configuration\Administrative Templates\System\Logon. Enable the policy Always use custom login background and see the result.
August 23rd, 2012 11:13am

I set the policy that was mentioned and added a sample .jpg to the folder mentioned in this article ( http://www.grouppolicy.biz/2010/08/group-policy-setting-of-the-week-39-always-use-custom-logon-background/ ). It didn't change anything. I also changed the value of OEMBackgroud to 1 in the registry HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Authentication\LogonUI\Background. Still no change.
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August 23rd, 2012 5:35pm

Try this:

Open: C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\SystemData\S-1-5-18\ReadOnly\LockScreen_Z\

Replace the picture in there with your custom background picture. IT MUST MATCH THE NAME OF THE CURRENT BACKGROUND PICTURE (for me, it's LockScreen___1680_1050.jpg). Logoff (or restart) to see the result.

*NOTE* You may have to take ownership (or grant yourself permission) to view the contents of the SystemData folder and it's subfolders.


*EDIT* It seems Microsoft may have released an update which the above solution no longer applies. It's still a picture in the SystemData folder, but it now has _notdimmed appended to the end of the name of the picture.
September 18th, 2012 8:32pm

That worked, Brian! Thanks a bunch. 

Really wish there was an easier way to do this, though. That Seattle image looks terrible. (IMHO, of course.)
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October 9th, 2012 5:37pm

Thank you.

This almost worked for me. I renamed the original file to "<same file>_2" and put in a new jpg that had the same exact name as the original file ("Lockscreen__1920_1080_notdimmed.jpg") however now no image is seen at that login screen. It seems it Windows does not find an image and just chooses to display a color.

I can't restore the original Seattle image either (not that I want to).

Anyone have an experience like this one?

November 1st, 2012 6:51am

Yes, that same thing happened to me. I've got a nice light-blue screen now. I can't get the Seattle picture back or substitute one that I like either. Just solid colors.
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November 1st, 2012 5:08pm

Sorry everyone. The _notdimmed is in ADDITION to the original image in my first answer (so you will end up with two images). I think the_notdimmed part was because I tested this on a laptop. Try my original answer and if you have a laptop, add the second image with_notdimmed added to it. Again, sorry for the confusion.
November 1st, 2012 6:59pm

You need to give 'SYSTEM' permissions then it will work.  This can be done by right-clicking the image and selecting properties.  Select the tab for Security and click edit and then click add.  Under object name type SYSTEM and click the 'Check Names' button then click Apply.  Give SYSTEM Full Control by selecting the check boxes below
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November 2nd, 2012 5:25am

 

The solutions mentioned above worked for me; now I want to restore the defaults, so I want to choose manually a lock screen picture from Settings>Change PC Settings>Personalize.

I gave SYSTEM permission to the folder C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\SystemData, mentioned above and thus I was able to change lock screen manually as default procedure.

I saw that in the folder C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\SystemData\S-1-5-18\ReadOnly, everytime I change my lock screen, manually from Settings>Change PC Settings>Personalize, it is created a folder named LockScreen_Y, LockScreen_X, LockScreen_U etc, as the same as in the folder C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows.

That's OK, but when I wanted to come back to your sollutions above, I deleted all the folders in C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\SystemData\S-1-5-18\ReadOnly, after I took all permissions, and also I delete all the folders such LockScreen_Z in C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows and then I restarted the machine, but, for my surprise, I discovered that the current lock screen was last which I had set manually (not and empty blue screen as mentioned in an above post).

So I think there is another path where is the cache for lock screen in Windows 8.

Could you tell me where it is?

Thanks.

November 7th, 2012 4:32pm

I had the same problem. Wanted to change the ugly Seattle montaged picture, why couldnt Microsoft just use the real picture, eh? But I managed to change the space needle login without editing the registry. Just assign a new password to your account and the login screen can be changed to your liking (according to your lock screen) , no more space needle montage. Any resolution seem to be okay, just dont use HD. It seems this is the only way for windows 8 to detect the new picture assigned for lock screen. As for the blue screen login background change dont know how yet, but there are software you can use to change that. Still trying another way to change manually.
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December 7th, 2012 7:33pm

You can change the lock screen but hovering the mouse in the bottom left to get the charms bar, click settings, on the bottom click on "Change PC settings", Personalize, Lock Screen...    
December 7th, 2012 7:42pm

Try this:

Open: C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\SystemData\S-1-5-18\ReadOnly\LockScreen_Z\

Replace the picture in there with your custom background picture. IT MUST MATCH THE NAME OF THE CURRENT BACKGROUND PICTURE (for me, it's LockScreen___1680_1050.jpg). Logoff (or restart) to see the result.

*NOTE* You may have to take ownership (or grant yourself permission) to view the contents of the SystemData folder and it's subfolders.


*EDIT* It seems Microsoft may have released an update which the above solution no longer applies. It's still a picture in the SystemData folder, but it now has _notdimmed appended to the end of the name of the picture.

This worked for my personal pro version at home, didnt need to use the _notdimmed part. MS really needs to find an easyier solution.

But after a restart of the computer the folder containing the image had removed system for the folder rights, but the custom image was still present and being used. so Thanks a bunch Bri

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December 19th, 2012 10:00am

MSFT listened and released a ways to customize the lockscreen image:

Win8: How to Manage the Lock Screen Image on Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2787100/en-us

The update Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012 cumulative update: November 2012 adds functionality to the Control Panel group polices that allow an administrator to designate a lock screen image on their Windows 8 and Windows 2012 computers. This setting lets you specify the default lock screen image shown when no user is signed in, and also sets the specified images as the default for all users (it replaces the inbox default image).

The new group policy is named Force a specific default lock screen image and can be found in this path in the group policy editor: Computer Configuration\Policies\Administrative Templates\Control Panel\Personalization

December 19th, 2012 11:23am

MSFT listened and released a ways to customize the lockscreen image:

Win8: How to Manage the Lock Screen Image on Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012

The update Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012 cumulative update: November 2012 adds functionality to the Control Panel group polices that allow an administrator to designate a lock screen image on their Windows 8 and Windows 2012 computers. This setting lets you specify the default lock screen image shown when no user is signed in, and also sets the specified images as the default for all users (it replaces the inbox default image).

The new group policy is named Force a specific default lock screen image and can be found in this path in the group policy editor: Computer Configuration\Policies\Administrative Templates\Control Panel\Personalization

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December 28th, 2012 4:01am

Totally agree... as a designer I would prefer to "Personalize" my Win8 with images I choose.

Look forward to MS sorting it out ASAP!

December 28th, 2012 7:49pm

This is NOT the answer to the question. This tells you how to change the image when the PC is at the Account Lock Screen. The question asks how to change the "Pre-Login picture".

edit:

I also love how when you comment on a post it doesn't list you anywhere near the post you commented on. Very useful for anyone else reading the thread at a later date.

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January 10th, 2013 8:03pm

This is NOT the answer to the question. This tells you how to change the image when the PC is at the Account Lock Screen. The question asks how to change the "Pre-Login picture".

Hi arthiusc

There is no background "picture" on the log-in screen. That screen only shows a 'color'.

You can change the color of that screen, but this only changes the color if you are viewing All User Accounts. It does not change the color of the log-in screen if you are just viewing the last user account.

Here is a tutorial to make this change.

Sign in Screen - Change Background Color in Windows 8:
http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/15554-sign-screen-change-background-color-windows-8-a.html

Regards

January 10th, 2013 10:57pm

I have to agree with arthiusc. So far my original question has not been answered. I'm still rooting around looking for a way customize the PRE-login page. Not the Lock Screen. When you first power things on, the screen with the clock on it. Out of the box, my install came with the Space Needle. I've tried mucking around with the Lockscreen*.jpg files and now it's just a different color. Maybe time to open a support case on this one.
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January 11th, 2013 7:29pm

>When you first power things on, the screen with the clock on it. Out of the box, my install came with the Space Needle.   Hover the mouse in the bottom right to bring out the charms bar, select the settings charm, then left mouse click on "Change PC settings" on the bottom, the select "Personalize", if it isn't already selected and you can change the screen on the right.    
January 11th, 2013 7:40pm

move to start screen -

left click the user name ( mine is Admin)

left click change  account picture.

left click lock screen

select what you want.... by using browse to find your new screen. 

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January 11th, 2013 11:54pm

This still don't do it. I'm not worried about the Lock Screen or the Start Screen. It's what happens before everything. There's not a setting on our systems that does this.
January 12th, 2013 12:49am

>It's what happens before everything.   It changes it here on all my machines. I switched from the sky needle to the honeycomb on all of them.    
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January 12th, 2013 1:19am

you mean the backgrond color? This can be changed in the registry:

Go to HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Accent\ create a DWORD32 DefaultColorSet and give it a value with the base of 2.

You can also try this tool:

http://winaero.com/comment.php?comment.news.190

January 12th, 2013 1:20am

No, not the background color, a .jpg is what we'd like to add to the first screen. We want to brand our systems so when they're logged off and the screen has the Time, Date and Network Icons, we want to have a picture instead of a color.
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January 12th, 2013 1:46am

No, not the background color, a .jpg is what we'd like to add to the first screen. We want to brand our systems so when they're logged off and the screen has the Time, Date and Network Icons, we want to have a picture instead o
January 12th, 2013 10:01am

 We want to brand our systems so when they're logged off and the screen has the Time, Date and Network Icons, we want to have a picture instead o
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January 12th, 2013 10:46am

Hi Sandy

You can purchase a program from Stardock called Decor8 for about 5 dollars and it will let you change all the screens...Enjoy

http://justaboutwindows.blogspot.com/2012/11/windows-8-pro-my-waya-new-begining.html

just visit my blog and I have instructions to customize windows 8 any way you want to.

January 14th, 2013 10:44am

Wow, there's a remarkable amount of confusion on this thread, probably caused by the way Windows 8 automatically remembers the last login and has both a lock screen and a login screen. Here's what's going on, and here's how I have achieved this.

First, the important thing to recognize is that Windows 8 has two different lock screens plus two different login screens. There is a lock screen that is customizable per user, and that one is changeable via WinKey+I, "Change PC Settings", "Personalize". This is the screen that appears whenever that user has locked his/her workstation, until a key is pressed, which brings up a user-specific login screen with only one user shown. The color, but not a regular full background image, of this latter screen (the single-user login screen) can be changed (at the same place as above, by changing the "Start Screen" instead of the "Lock Screen".

The user-specific lock screen, besides appearing when you lock your computer, also shows after a restart, because Windows 8 automatically jumps to the last logged-in user upon rebooting. This is why everyone is confused here, because what isn't obvious is that there is actually a second, system-wide lock screen, one that typically only appears after a user actually logs out (not restarts). This is the lock screen that, after a key press, goes not to the login screen with just one user tile, but the login screen with all the user tiles- two screens which you may not be able to tell apart if you only have one user. And if you only have one user, you likely never log out, just shut down and restart and log in, so you might not care in that case about the system-wide lock screen.

But if you switch users, you'll see it, and it is a pain in the neck to change from the space needle picture, but it can be done. There seem to be two ways. The most common way you'll find by searching the web involves the group policy editor. This solution only (allegedly, I can't test it with my own system) works on systems that connect to a domain, so if you aren't running Server 2012 or logging onto a Windows domain, forget about that one. (If you don't know, and this isn't a business machine, then you probably are not using a domain.) After a bunch of trial and error (that for a while resulted in losing my image altogether in favor of just a pale blue screen before finally getting it back and then successfully customizing it), here's how I did it:

1) Log in as a user with administrative privileges.

2) Open Windows Explorer, browse to C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows (or the equivalent if your system drive is not C:). (Also note, ProgramData is a hidden folder, so you will have to either type it in yourself or have viewing hidden folders turned on.) Here you will see a folder called SystemData. Getting into that folder is tricky, because even the Administrator doesn't have permission to view it, so the only way to do so is to use your administrative privileges to take ownership of it, then assign yourself rights to view it. Do so by right-clicking on the SystemData folder, choose Properties, then the Security tab. Click the Advanced button. It will say "Unable to display current owner" because you don't even have permission to see that, but you do have permission to change the owner. Click the "Change" link. Put in the name of the administrative account you're using, click OK just once, then when it comes back to the Advanced Security Settings dialog, check the "Replace owner on subcontainers and objects" box, and click OK again. Click "Yes" on the warning that comes up about granting yourself full control, then OK on the one remaining properties dialog. Now you should be able to look inside the SystemData folder...but don't yet. One more thing we have to do here is give back one of the permissions that just got overwritten. Right-click on SystemData again, choose Properties, and the Security tab. Your user is probably the only one listed there now, which is going to result in the system not being able to read the directory and see the image file you're placing there. So click on the "Edit..." button, then on the "Add..." button, type "SYSTEM" (without the quotes), click OK, and click in the "Full Control" box under "Allow", so the system can again control these files and directories. Click OK, then OK again to close out the dialog box.

3) Inside the SystemData folder will probably be a few folders with names of the form "S-x-x-xx-xxx...". There might be several, but there should be (or is in my case) only one with a much shorter name than the rest, on mine it is "S-1-5-18". Browse to that folder, then to the ReadOnly folder inside it. There are probably several folders there with names like "LockScreen_X". These have copies of the images used by the per-user lock screens, but LockScreen_Z has the images used by the system-wide lock screen. Go into that folder. Depending on your computer, you may have one or two images there, and they will have names based on your screen resolution- for me, it is LockScreen___1920_1080.jpg and LockScreen___1920_1080_notdimmed.jpg. These are the space needle pictures. Take a look at these files and verify their dimensions. Copy them somewhere to back them up so you can put them back if you want to later.

4) Now go find the image you want to use. Size or crop it to the same exact dimensions of the images found above.

5) Finally, remove the images that were there and copy your image in, twice if both the regular and _notdimmed versions were present, and give your image files the same names as the files that were there before.

6) Finally, log out. You should see the new image as the system-wide lock screen. The goofy thing is that if you log back in and look again with Explorer, you'll find that all those folder and file permissions have been reset back to what they were, so if you need to go back into that directory, you'll have to go through the whole ownership-changing and permissions-adding process again. But hopefully you won't have to do this until you decide to change this lock screen again.

I hope that's helpful to someone. It took me quite a while of fooling around to figure out a way that actually worked. And I do note that there is another copy of the Space Needle picture in the C:\Windows\Web\Screen directory, called img100.png and with 1920x1200 resolution, so it is possible that the jpg version I described replacing is actually created by Windows from this png version at some point, based on its determination of your screen resolution. (Let's just hope that doesn't mean it will at some point overwrite your replacement image from this source copy and require you do to this over again...but I wouldn't be terribly surprised if exactly that does happen if you replace your main monitor with another having a different resolution.)

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January 26th, 2013 9:00am

TMcGill, that's a very informative and thorough answer.  Thank you.

Here's an alternative to your interesting but intricate step number 2).  From the charms bar, go to Change PC Settings > General > Advanced startup and click Restart now.  From there, click Troubleshoot > Advanced options > Command Prompt.  The system will restart and prompt you for an admin user and password.  From there, you get a command prompt, with no permissions issues.  Change your default drive to C: (if that's where Windows is), then navigate to ProgramData and beyond, as in your instructions.  Of course you need to do everything at the command prompt.

This is a dangerous method, since you have wide open access to sensitive directories and files.

January 30th, 2013 1:15am

Wow, there's a remarkable amount of confusion on this thread, probably caused by the way Windows 8 automatically remembers the last login and has both a lock screen and a login screen. Here's what's going on, and here's how I have achieved this.

First, the important thing to recognize is that Windows 8 has two different lock screens plus two different login screens. There is a lock screen that is customizable per user, and that one is changeable via WinKey+I, "Change PC Settings", "Personalize". This is the screen that appears whenever that user has locked his/her workstation, until a key is pressed, which brings up a user-specific login screen with only one user shown. The color, but not a regular full background image, of this latter screen (the single-user login screen) can be changed (at the same place as above, by changing the "Start Screen" instead of the "Lock Screen".

The user-specific lock screen, besides appearing when you lock your computer, also shows after a restart, because Windows 8 automatically jumps to the last logged-in user upon rebooting. This is why everyone is confused here, because what isn't obvious is that there is actually a second, system-wide lock screen, one that typically only appears after a user actually logs out (not restarts). This is the lock screen that, after a key press, goes not to the login screen with just one user tile, but the login screen with all the user tiles- two screens which you may not be able to tell apart if you only have one user. And if you only have one user, you likely never log out, just shut down and restart and log in, so you might not care in that case about the system-wide lock screen.

But if you switch users, you'll see it, and it is a pain in the neck to change from the space needle picture, but it can be done. There seem to be two ways. The most common way you'll find by searching the web involves the group policy editor. This solution only (allegedly, I can't test it with my own system) works on systems that connect to a domain, so if you aren't running Server 2012 or logging onto a Windows domain, forget about that one. (If you don't know, and this isn't a business machine, then you probably are not using a domain.) After a bunch of trial and error (that for a while resulted in losing my image altogether in favor of just a pale blue screen before finally getting it back and then successfully customizing it), here's how I did it:

1) Log in as a user with administrative privileges.

2) Open Windows Explorer, browse to C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows (or the equivalent if your system drive is not C:). (Also note, ProgramData is a hidden folder, so you will have to either type it in yourself or have viewing hidden folders turned on.) Here you will see a folder called SystemData. Getting into that folder is tricky, because even the Administrator doesn't have permission to view it, so the only way to do so is to use your administrative privileges to take ownership of it, then assign yourself rights to view it. Do so by right-clicking on the SystemData folder, choose Properties, then the Security tab. Click the Advanced button. It will say "Unable to display current owner" because you don't even have permission to see that, but you do have permission to change the owner. Click the "Change" link. Put in the name of the administrative account you're using, click OK just once, then when it comes back to the Advanced Security Settings dialog, check the "Replace owner on subcontainers and objects" box, and click OK again. Click "Yes" on the warning that comes up about granting yourself full control, then OK on the one remaining properties dialog. Now you should be able to look inside the SystemData folder...but don't yet. One more thing we have to do here is give back one of the permissions that just got overwritten. Right-click on SystemData again, choose Properties, and the Security tab. Your user is probably the only one listed there now, which is going to result in the system not being able to read the directory and see the image file you're placing there. So click on the "Edit..." button, then on the "Add..." button, type "SYSTEM" (without the quotes), click OK, and click in the "Full Control" box under "Allow", so the system can again control these files and directories. Click OK, then OK again to close out the dialog box.

3) Inside the SystemData folder will probably be a few folders with names of the form "S-x-x-xx-xxx...". There might be several, but there should be (or is in my case) only one with a much shorter name than the rest, on mine it is "S-1-5-18". Browse to that folder, then to the ReadOnly folder inside it. There are probably several folders there with names like "LockScreen_X". These have copies of the images used by the per-user lock screens, but LockScreen_Z has the images used by the system-wide lock screen. Go into that folder. Depending on your computer, you may have one or two images there, and they will have names based on your screen resolution- for me, it is LockScreen___1920_1080.jpg and LockScreen___1920_1080_notdimmed.jpg. These are the space needle pictures. Take a look at these files and verify their dimensions. Copy them somewhere to back them up so you can put them back if you want to later.

4) Now go find the image you want to use. Size or crop it to the same exact dimensions of the images found above.

5) Finally, remove the images that were there and copy your image in, twice if both the regular and _notdimmed versions were present, and give your image files the same names as the files that were there before.

6) Finally, log out. You should see the new image as the system-wide lock screen. The goofy thing is that if you log back in and look again with Explorer, you'll find that all those folder and file permissions have been reset back to what they were, so if you need to go back into that directory, you'll have to go through the whole ownership-changing and permissions-adding process again. But hopefully you won't have to do this until you decide to change this lock screen again.

I hope that's helpful to someone. It took me quite a while of fooling around to figure out a way that actually worked. And I do note that there is another copy of the Space Needle picture in the C:\Windows\Web\Screen directory, called img100.png and with 1920x1200 resolution, so it is possible that the jpg version I described replacing is actually created by Windows from this png version at some point, based on its determination of your screen resolution. (Let's just hope that doesn't mean it will at some point overwrite your replacement image from this source copy and require you do to this over again...but I wouldn't be terribly surprised if exactly that does happen if you replace your main monitor with another having a different resolution.)

I would like to thank you, as well as Sandy Wood. Your conversation helped me get through this !!! THANKS GUYS! :)
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February 14th, 2013 3:32pm

I'm SO annoyed because this is just NOT working. I've done everything, and the image is STILL there.

After I go through the process of logging out and back in to see the image, it's still the needle building and not the image I picked. Whenever I go back to the Lockscreen folder, the file "LockScreen__1600_0900_notdimmed" managed to come back on it's own...

What can I do?

February 18th, 2013 3:45am

Sandy -  I have spent the last hour trying to get this to work with Win 7 and it did not stick either. I have a big project on my list for this weekend. To set up my machine for a dual boot with Ubantu . Only Windows has such consistent problems. I would never consider buying Windows 8. I was half way impressed with Win 7 until I started running into all it's standard limitations.
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February 19th, 2013 4:39pm

Funny how we learn to "Live with it" in so many Windows situations. Are we stupid or just swallowed the Bill Gates Kool-Aid? 
February 19th, 2013 4:40pm

I've pretty much resigned myself to let it be. I've messed with many of the suggestions in this thread and at this point I've got solid colors, instead of the image, on both of my test systems. We originally wished to put our agency seal on the first page instead of the default image. I would've hoped there'd be at least a Group Policy to get this done by now.

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February 19th, 2013 7:08pm

Wow, there's a remarkable amount of confusion on this thread, probably caused by the way Windows 8 automatically remembers the last login and has both a lock screen and a login screen. Here's what's going on, and here's how I have achieved this.

First, the important thing to recognize is that Windows 8 has two different lock screens plus two different login screens. There is a lock screen that is customizable per user, and that one is changeable via WinKey+I, "Change PC Settings", "Personalize". This is the screen that appears whenever that user has locked his/her workstation, until a key is pressed, which brings up a user-specific login screen with only one user shown. The color, but not a regular full background image, of this latter screen (the single-user login screen) can be changed (at the same place as above, by changing the "Start Screen" instead of the "Lock Screen".

The user-specific lock screen, besides appearing when you lock your computer, also shows after a restart, because Windows 8 automatically jumps to the last logged-in user upon rebooting. This is why everyone is confused here, because what isn't obvious is that there is actually a second, system-wide lock screen, one that typically only appears after a user actually logs out (not restarts). This is the lock screen that, after a key press, goes not to the login screen with just one user tile, but the login screen with all the user tiles- two screens which you may not be able to tell apart if you only have one user. And if you only have one user, you likely never log out, just shut down and restart and log in, so you might not care in that case about the system-wide lock screen.

But if you switch users, you'll see it, and it is a pain in the neck to change from the space needle picture, but it can be done. There seem to be two ways. The most common way you'll find by searching the web involves the group policy editor. This solution only (allegedly, I can't test it with my own system) works on systems that connect to a domain, so if you aren't running Server 2012 or logging onto a Windows domain, forget about that one. (If you don't know, and this isn't a business machine, then you probably are not using a domain.) After a bunch of trial and error (that for a while resulted in losing my image altogether in favor of just a pale blue screen before finally getting it back and then successfully customizing it), here's how I did it:

1) Log in as a user with administrative privileges.

2) Open Windows Explorer, browse to C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows (or the equivalent if your system drive is not C:). (Also note, ProgramData is a hidden folder, so you will have to either type it in yourself or have viewing hidden folders turned on.) Here you will see a folder called SystemData. Getting into that folder is tricky, because even the Administrator doesn't have permission to view it, so the only way to do so is to use your administrative privileges to take ownership of it, then assign yourself rights to view it. Do so by right-clicking on the SystemData folder, choose Properties, then the Security tab. Click the Advanced button. It will say "Unable to display current owner" because you don't even have permission to see that, but you do have permission to change the owner. Click the "Change" link. Put in the name of the administrative account you're using, click OK just once, then when it comes back to the Advanced Security Settings dialog, check the "Replace owner on subcontainers and objects" box, and click OK again. Click "Yes" on the warning that comes up about granting yourself full control, then OK on the one remaining properties dialog. Now you should be able to look inside the SystemData folder...but don't yet. One more thing we have to do here is give back one of the permissions that just got overwritten. Right-click on SystemData again, choose Properties, and the Security tab. Your user is probably the only one listed there now, which is going to result in the system not being able to read the directory and see the image file you're placing there. So click on the "Edit..." button, then on the "Add..." button, type "SYSTEM" (without the quotes), click OK, and click in the "Full Control" box under "Allow", so the system can again control these files and directories. Click OK, then OK again to close out the dialog box.

3) Inside the SystemData folder will probably be a few folders with names of the form "S-x-x-xx-xxx...". There might be several, but there should be (or is in my case) only one with a much shorter name than the rest, on mine it is "S-1-5-18". Browse to that folder, then to the ReadOnly folder inside it. There are probably several folders there with names like "LockScreen_X". These have copies of the images used by the per-user lock screens, but LockScreen_Z has the images used by the system-wide lock screen. Go into that folder. Depending on your computer, you may have one or two images there, and they will have names based on your screen resolution- for me, it is LockScreen___1920_1080.jpg and LockScreen___1920_1080_notdimmed.jpg. These are the space needle pictures. Take a look at these files and verify their dimensions. Copy them somewhere to back them up so you can put them back if you want to later.

4) Now go find the image you want to use. Size or crop it to the same exact dimensions of the images found above.

5) Finally, remove the images that were there and copy your image in, twice if both the regular and _notdimmed versions were present, and give your image files the same names as the files that were there before.

6) Finally, log out. You should see the new image as the system-wide lock screen. The goofy thing is that if you log back in and look again with Explorer, you'll find that all those folder and file permissions have been reset back to what they were, so if you need to go back into that directory, you'll have to go through the whole ownership-changing and permissions-adding process again. But hopefully you won't have to do this until you decide to change this lock screen again.

I hope that's helpful to someone. It took me quite a while of fooling around to figure out a way that actually worked. And I do note that there is another copy of the Space Needle picture in the C:\Windows\Web\Screen directory, called img100.png and with 1920x1200 resolution, so it is possible that the jpg version I described replacing is actually created by Windows from this png version at some point, based on its determination of your screen resolution. (Let's just hope that doesn't mean it will at some point overwrite your replacement image from this source copy and require you do to this over again...but I wouldn't be terribly surprised if exactly that does happen if you replace your main monitor with another having a different resolution.)

This worked for Win8! Thank you.

I had just spent an hour on this previous to reading this reply. The "sign in screen" would change to the image I copied to the folder but then when logging out I would get a blue screen again. I believe adding "SYSTEM" to the permissions solved the issue I was having

Edit* I have no idea why the text changed size mid-sentence...


February 25th, 2013 2:54pm

Found it. This video explains a way to mess with the lock screen image without messing with permissions:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yusczt18RGg

Windows 8 generates the LockScreen_Z (and _Y and _V, etc) images from img100.png, but the folder where that lives only has modify permissions for the TrustedInstaller user.

Rather than mess with permissions, I used the Windows 8 startup DVD and copied the file using that. Then I deleted the generated LockScreen*.jpg images in the TrustedInstaller's user profile as described in earlier posts.

If you have a domain or use Windows 8 Enterprise, do use the new Group Policy settings instead of messing with your file system, though.

--


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February 25th, 2013 5:23pm


I should test before I ask.  But it'd be generally good to know.  What happens if you run SFC /scannow.

Does it change it back?  I've had that happen with other mods in the past.

February 25th, 2013 6:36pm


I should test before I ask.  But it'd be generally good to know.  What happens if you run SFC /scannow.

Does it change it back?  I've had that happen with other mods in the past.

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February 28th, 2013 9:30am

why are you not using the official way which was added with the update?
February 28th, 2013 9:43am


Maybe your "answer" is glowing such bright green that you cannot see the post directly beneath it?


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February 28th, 2013 11:05am

double click whatever picture it is that you want to switch it to,when the pic comes up right click on the screen and a "set as" prompt will come up click "lock screen" and there u go!hope it helps

March 8th, 2013 2:34am

I didn't test this solution yet, or other solutions to that problem that can be found at various places, but my guess is that while this might change the picture to another one, this probably won't fix the issue that the time displayed on the 'no one's logged in' lockscreen is Pacific, and not the correct localtime (UTC+1 as far as I'm concerned).

Do you concur?

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March 24th, 2013 10:26am

Microsoft needs to note something here:

That so many people are working so hard to not have to send the space needle into orbit every time they log in is testament to the fact that people believe they own their systems - NOT YOU, MICROSOFT.  They want things to look the way THEY want them to look, NOT YOUR WAY, MICROSOFT.

Did we forget that the P in PC stands for "Personal"?

 

March 25th, 2013 6:10am

After reading top to bottom every post I managed to do the trick this way:

First, I found I had "img100.png" in  C:\Windows\Web\Screen  and
C:\Windows\WinSxS\x86_microsoft-windows-themeui-client_31bf3856ad364e35_6.2.9200.16384_none_69ee3fa2269e545e

1. Belonging to the Administrators Group, I replaced file Owner TrustedInstaller with my Username on both "img100.png" files

2. After resizing the image I wanted to see on the Login screen to the resolution of "img100.png" file,
I copied and pasted it to both "img100.png" files keeping this way the format (extension) and resolution of the original "img100.png" file,
which I permanently deleted. In Portugal we use to eat what we like, not what others may give us like that IMHO ugly image...

Of course I only arrived here after reading the few very good posts I read on this thread, which I thank.



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May 9th, 2013 2:13pm

Actually, just right click the space needle picture, click Edit, and it will open the file in paint. Just paste your own picture right smack over that one, and log out. You'll notice your own picture on the pre login screen. Sorry you all went through the trouble of trying to change it.
May 21st, 2013 3:38am

Here is the definitive explanation that will solve the default lock screen problems everyone is having on Windows 8 Pro. I'll offer the short cliff note answer, then explain a little more how-to in detail. The following steps require you to take ownership of the folders youll be working in:

  • CN: Replace "C:\Windows\Web\Screen\img100.png" with your own PNG graphic @ 1920x1200 resolution, keeping the same name. Then, delete (yes, delete) the SystemData folder in "C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows". Reboot. Enjoy.

I've tried all of the solutions listed in this thread and they did not work for me. I, too, was stuck with a solid blue background for a lock screen while testing these methods. We've established that replacing the LockScreen_1920_1080_notdimmed.jpg , etc files with our own replacement background is not a sure thing.

Fortunately I've been observant as to what the SystemData folder in "C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows" does from the time you boot Windows 8 from a full OS restore to when you start adding users. When you get into Windows after a restore or fresh OS install, you'll actually notice that if you navigate to "C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows", there is no SystemData folder at all...

What the hell, right? That's because the SystemData folder is automatically generated when Windows grabs img100.png from the "C:\Windows\Web\Screen" folder and automatically converts it to a JPG at whatever resolution the display is currently set to. It then puts that converted JPG file into a subfolder based on the SID of the current user. If you were to reboot after your restore / clean install, log back in as the user you created then navigate back to "C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows", you will now see a SystemData folder that is locked down and won't allow you to open it until you take ownership of it. Once you do that and then open it, you'll now see two subfolders: one called S-1-5-18 (the default user folder), and another one with the SID of the current user you're logged in as. Inside those folders youll see a ReadOnly folder, then a LockScreen_Z folder in that, then LockScreen_1920_1080_notdimmed.jpg with the numbers representing whatever resolution your display is currently at. In time, you may see another file without the _notdimmed in it and if you happen to change resolutions or dock your portable to a display thats different than the native one, youll see other resolutions too.

So basically if youre like me and want a unified lock screen across the board for company, enterprise or any reasons, just replace "C:\Windows\Web\Screen\img100.png" with your own background in PNG format with the same name and at 1920x1200 resolution, then take ownership of "C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\SystemData and delete it! It will regenerate after you reboot and will use img100.png as its default background. You should notice the change as soon as the login screen appears. Feel free to use this in conjunction with the Prevent changing lock screen image policy in Computer Configuration\Policies\Administrative Templates\Control Panel\Personalization of the local computer policy editor. Hope this helps!


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June 25th, 2013 9:11pm

just a note. windows does not convert the picture to jpg, it only renames them to jpg. IrfanView tells the images in the lockscreen_z folder are png's with a wrong extension and if i want to correct it. this may be one reason why so many have problems. maybe windows expects png images and then finds the user created jpg ones...
June 30th, 2013 1:11am

1. Press the Windows Logo+I keys together and a menu will appear in the right-hand side.

2. Click on Change PC settings as shown below.

3. Click on Personalize and youll be able to see the images you can set as the background.

4. Just click on any image and itll become your background image.

5. Youre done!

you can set any picture by clicking the browse option

http://theunlockr.com/2013/05/05/how-to-change-lock-screen-background-in-windows-8/


Thanks and Regards
Exchange Imran

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July 8th, 2013 5:50pm

This IS NOT THE ANSWER, at best it is half the answer.  The question is how to change the PRE-LOGIN screen. NOT THE LOCK SCREEN IMAGE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! the PRE-LOGIN IMAGE !!!!!!!!!!!

Can't the MS tech READ?????????

What is so hard to understand about that.

I double dare a Microsoft Engineer to prove that works on a Windows 8 Home PC, or any PC to change the PRE_LOGIN SCREEN. Also you have to give the registry equivalent for Home PC users due to Microsoft greed. Duh So don't claim that is the answer. It is NOT. ALL GPEDIT abased answers MUST come with the registry equivalent setting, for both domain/enterprise support and automation and especially for ALL the poor people who are STUCK with home due to MS greed. And again this wansn't the answer to the question it is for the PRE-LOGIN SCREEN not the Lock Screen. And there MUST only be ONE place for ALL users to get help. Home users, Domain users, ALL users. I as a professional tech need answers FOR ALL VERSIONS OF WINDOWS, for ALL my questions, DUH !!!!! It is not my fault that MS forces us to support so many different versions and it is unacceptable that they deny the home users access to the same answers where relevant, LIKE HERE, for this question DUh. Not providing an answer that is good for ALL versions of Windows, as this is an obviously COMMON problem amongst them, is just plain incompetent.

How disgusting for the so called top of the line Operating system and Software company.

Fix it MS, put an end to the segregation to lesser quality answers and sub par knowledge bases for the Home users and the techs who have to support them.

July 16th, 2013 8:43pm

Again we want the PRE-LOGIN screen NOT the Lock Screen please. That other info is all over the internet, just Google it. But the PRE-LOGIN screen, MS is trying to hide that info. I will find it though. And I am calling on ALL hackers to find a free safe solution to this problem.
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July 16th, 2013 8:47pm

Logon background picture IS removed in 8. The only thing you can change is the LOCK-Screen!

Stop shouting around if you don't understand this!

July 17th, 2013 12:52am

I started this post almost a year ago and I'm still amazed that there's still not a definitive fix forthcoming from Microsoft. Certainly there's the need and desire from the general populous. I had hope to see something functional in 8.1 but alas it's not to be. Maybe it's window dressing (have to say, nice pun) but I'm sure there are many organizations, like our own, that want to add some 'branding' to their systems and one would think it would be possible without busting into and taking ownership of certain files and directories.

I'm off my soapbox now.

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July 17th, 2013 10:17am

"Definitive fix"?  They broke it on purpose, don't you see?

Why on Earth, given all the other "our way or the highway" changes Microsoft been making, do people think that Microsoft gives the slightest damn what you want to make your pre-logon screen look like?  You should be happy there's a drawing of the Space Needle there.  That's not digitally authentic.  Solid blue or black is probably coming.

Theme support is systematically being removed.  Windowing itself is being deprecated.  "To Work" functions like backup are being removed. 

Why?  So Microsoft can take 30% of future sales of Angry Birds MMLXII.

We are clearly watching the undoing of a company.  An empire crumbling.

 

July 17th, 2013 6:50pm

There are Microsoft employees that don't know how to read the initial question, or come up with canned answers.

Here is the situation:

When you have a Win 8 machine, when you first power it on it has a login screen. 

That login screen is the cartoonish space needle.  It is NOT, I repeat NOT the lock screen even though it uses the same picture. 

There are two issues here.  The user login screen and the user lock screen.  You can change the lock screen but not the login screen.  All the instructions that have been given has dealt with the lock screen or the color of the login screen. So far, no one has given the correct answer.  Not even the so called Microsoft experts.

Okay.  I hope the issue has been clarified.  I repeat again, the login screen and the lock screen are two different issues.

From my analysis, the problem is that there are two types of settings.  One is a custom user setting.  The other is a system setting.  The user can customize the lock screen because that is a configurable user setting.

However, the login screen must be a system setting.  The question is whether the user can change it.  Let's say the user is logged in as administrator (not a user with administrator privileges, but actually as administrator)  The administrator SHOULD be able to customize the login screen by changing the background image, not just a regular or power user.   That way Win 8 can be set up with a company logo on the login screen, and a normal user cannot change it.  However, the administrator should be able to do this.  Microsoft has made a mistake here.

The fault of Windows 8 is that there is ANOTHER level of access called SYSTEM.  The question is whether the administrator account has SYSTEM access to make those types of changes.   I'm not sure about that.  I hope this gets addressed in SP1.

Another issue is that if you are a Windows 8 home user, you don't have remote access server or many of the features that pro and above offer. 

Again, I find that most Microsoft people don't understand the difference between the login screen and the lock screen.  Mainly because they don't read the question carefully, think you don't know what you are talking about, and then give you a canned answer that can easily be found using a web search on the internet. 

So far I haven't found a true answer in being able to change the login screen.  I believe that it is not possible right now.  Again hopefully SP1 will allow the administrator to change and customize the login screen.

 

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July 30th, 2013 3:27pm

you are wrong. This comic screen is the LOCK Screen.
July 31st, 2013 1:27am

Wrong.

The easiest way to demonstrate there is a "lock" screen is to connect to a Windows 8 machine over Remote Desktop.

While the connection is active, the PC's console is locked (because it's not permitted to have two interactive users at the same time) and the display shows the Seattle Space Needle pic, and you cannot configure that picture.

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July 31st, 2013 1:46am

this is not the lock screen, this is the login screen. changing this background ONLY works in Windows 7! If you don't understand this difference, it is not my problem.
July 31st, 2013 3:09pm

I am using Windows 8 64 bit pro.  You power on the computer.  A screen appears.  By default it is the cartoon space needle.  You can change the background for that.  When you click on that screen or hit enter, then the login screen appears. It is a solid color background with the user icon and login area.  Unfortunately, you cannot change the background image for the login screen.   If you have multiple accounts on a single computer, each person who logs in will have the default cartoon space needle pre-login unless you manually change it for each user.  Is this correct?

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August 3rd, 2013 8:12pm

Hi Ronnie,

I've already changed the lock screen picture and I'll be darned if I can find the option again. I'm not running Enterprise...just Windows 8. Your directions to hit WinKey + I and click lock screen in top right corner is not an option for me. There is no lock screen in the top right corner. Nor can I find it with a help search for lock screen settings. Can you help me find it?

August 4th, 2013 6:17am

Hi Ronnie,

I've already changed the lock screen picture and I'll be darned if I can find the option again. I'm not running Enterprise...just Windows 8. Your directions to hit WinKey + I and click lock screen in top right corner is not an option for me. There is no lock screen in the top right corner. Nor can I find it with a help search for lock screen settings. Can you help me find it?

Hi

After you press WinKey+I, select Change PC Settings at the bottom of the menu.

On the next screen you can select the Lock Screen options.

Regards

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August 4th, 2013 4:29pm


Hi

After you press WinKey+I, select Change PC Settings at the bottom of the menu.

On the next screen you can select the Lock Screen options.

Regards

Wow, I find it amazing how many MS professionals and moderators do not understand this question and continue to propose the wrong answer. Perhaps that gives us all some insight into MS product development. Yes, you can use the above to change a single users lock screen, and customizing the login screen color is also easy enough. However, changing the "pre-login" screen for multiple users requires considerable gymnastics. I would think that MS MVPs with 26000 points would be able to understand the difference even if there is no easy solution. As others have posted in great detail multiple times, you will not have this problem if you are a single users or always log in to a single account, as WIN 8 remembers the last login and shows that users screen. However, if you have multiple users and log out, you will get the default space needle skyline in the "PRE-LOGIN" screen.

Tell us, what is the direct system method (without changing permissions and renaming files) for changing that on a home (non-domain) system? Hint: WIN-I is not the answer.

I looked for a solution for this 8 months ago when  I got my first WIN8 computer and ultimately gave up, figuring that there was enough noise about it that it would be fixed in a reasonable time frame. Frankly I forgot about it for a while. Here we are in Aug 2013 without a fix.

p.s.: gpedit only works on PRO and enterprise.

August 8th, 2013 12:22pm


Hi

After you press WinKey+I, select Change PC Settings at the bottom of the menu.

On the next screen you can select the Lock Screen options.

Regards

Wow, I find it amazing how many MS professionals and moderators do not understand this question and continue to propose the wrong answer. Perhaps that gives us all some insight into MS product development. Yes, you can use the above to change a single users lock screen, and customizing the login screen color is also easy enough. However, changing the "pre-login" screen for multiple users requires considerable gymnastics. I would think that MS MVPs with 26000 points would be able to understand the difference even if there is no easy solution. As others have posted in great detail multiple times, you will not have this problem if you are a single users or always log in to a single account, as WIN 8 remembers the last login and shows that users screen. However, if you have multiple users and log out, you will get the default space needle skyline in the "PRE-LOGIN" screen.

Tell us, what is the direct system method (without changing permissions and renaming files) for changing that on a home (non-domain) system? Hint: WIN-I is not the answer.

I looked for a solution for this 8 months ago when  I got my first WIN8 computer and ultimately gave up, figuring that there was enough noise about it that it would be fixed in a reasonable time frame. Frankly I forgot about it for a while. Here we are in Aug 2013 without a fix.

p.s.: gpedit only works on PRO and enterprise.

I fully agree, the Mircosoft response to this issue is really blunt. As a user of Windows 8 I feel abused everytime I have to see this this poorly design Seattle reference. It makes no meaning to me, I'm from Sweden and have different preferences as any other user outside Seattle would have. I'm very disappointed. And even if there is a solution to W8 Pro it's way too complicated.

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August 11th, 2013 5:07am

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