Changing Your Windows XP Login Screen
Changing Your Windows XP Login Screen
ghost | 4976 Reads | Changing Your Windows XP Login Screen By BlackAce227
This Article will teach you to change that boring login screen to something a little more exciting like whatever you want. Interested? I thought so.
***Note: This can prevent your computer from booting if you do this incorrectly. It is highly unlikely, but you should make a system restore point or something to that affect before you begin with this. Also I am not responsible if you can�t follow directions, so don�t blame me if your computer won�t start! ***
So you wanted to change that boring login screen, but didn�t know where to start? Well, I will tell you. Our first order of business is to make a system restore point just in case you screw up somewhere and are unable to reboot your computer. You can do this by going to my computer and pushing the change a setting button. From there go to Performance and Maintenance and click on the system restore button. It only takes a second to do this so I would highly recommend doing this before you go any further. Follow the directions and then we can proceed to the next step.
Here is a picture of a login screen that we are about to change.
<img src='http://www.moviereel.net/hbh/fusion_images/XP%20login%20Screen.gif'>
You can change your login screen by using a 3rd party program that makes your own login screen, or you can download a login screen made by a developer and use that instead. The developers� login screens have to be inserted manually. What, you were hoping not to learn anything in this article? To bad. Since I like the developers login screens, we will use one of those. There are thousands of free login screens at www.themexp.org just waiting for you to download and use. These login screens are compressed onto the site so that they will save recourses because login screens are .exes and not just a script. These login screens were mostly made by professionals so all you have to do is replace them with the old login file by following the steps below.
The login file is located in the C:WINDOWSsystem32 folder and is called loginui.exe. I think the UI part is user interface, but that�s just a guess. Now you must be thinking, �Just delete the file and change it with the new one.� NO! There are a couple reasons why that�s not a good idea. 1. It�s a system file so it cannot be deleted while windows is running. 2. There might be a slight chance you might do something wrong and you don�t want to be without a login screen. 3. Backup! Backup! Backup!
You must do restart your computer and immediately press the F8 button. Please click on the Safe mode instead of Start Windows Normally This will let you boot your computer in �Safe Mode�.
Safe Mode
<img src='http://www.moviereel.net/hbh/fusion_images/Safe%20Mode.gif'>
Once you are in safe mode, login as you would regularly do and then open the C:WINDOWSsystem32 folder and the folder you put your new login screen in. Scroll though the System32 folder and look for the loginui.exe file. Now switch your old login screen with your new one and put the old login screen somewhere safe.
Example of New Login
<img src='http://www.moviereel.net/hbh/fusion_images/New%20Windows%20Login%20Screen.jpg'>
Now, when you are finished with all of that, close out of all of the windows and reboot your computer. You should now see the login screen of your choosing instead of the old boring login screen. Enjoy!!!
BLACKACE227
<span class='small'>Submitted by BlackAce227 on December 05 2004 - 08:57:56