WS2008 logon screen background colour

User avatar
John Gray
PlatinumLounger
Posts: 5401
Joined: 24 Jan 2010, 08:33
Location: A cathedral city in England

WS2008 logon screen background colour

Post by John Gray »

I haven't been able to find a way of changing the dirty dark green background colour on the Windows Server 2008 logon screen (the first one presented, which has "Windows Server 2008" at the bottom, and two large icons at the centre). The colour seems to be either RGB=29,95,122 or RGB=24,93,123.

The usual registry edit
  • navigate to HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Colors
    (alternative location, which overrides, HKLM\Software\Microsoft\WindowsNT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon)
  • and change the contents of the Background value from (say) 29 95 122 to whatever your heart desires
doesn't seem to work (or requires a server reboot, which hasn't happened yet).

Does anyone know of a way to change this background colour? Thanks!
John Gray

Venison is quiet deer, and quite dear.

User avatar
HansV
Administrator
Posts: 78236
Joined: 16 Jan 2010, 00:14
Status: Microsoft MVP
Location: Wageningen, The Netherlands

Re: WS2008 logon screen background colour

Post by HansV »

The following article for Windows 7 will probably apply to Windows 2008 too: Change Windows 7 logon screen background image.
Best wishes,
Hans

User avatar
John Gray
PlatinumLounger
Posts: 5401
Joined: 24 Jan 2010, 08:33
Location: A cathedral city in England

Re: WS2008 logon screen background colour

Post by John Gray »

Thanks, Hans - I will 'check it out'. More complicated than changing three numbers in a registry key value, unfortunately...

Later... No, sadly this is one area where Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 differ. The indicated directories, files and registry keys do not exist in Windows Server 2008...
John Gray

Venison is quiet deer, and quite dear.

User avatar
HansV
Administrator
Posts: 78236
Joined: 16 Jan 2010, 00:14
Status: Microsoft MVP
Location: Wageningen, The Netherlands

Re: WS2008 logon screen background colour

Post by HansV »

John Gray wrote:The indicated directories, files and registry keys do not exist in Windows Server 2008...
Have you tried creating them?
If that doesn't work, I don't know whether it's possible at all without hacking operating system files (which I wouldn't recommend).
Best wishes,
Hans

User avatar
John Gray
PlatinumLounger
Posts: 5401
Joined: 24 Jan 2010, 08:33
Location: A cathedral city in England

Re: WS2008 logon screen background colour

Post by John Gray »

No, there were too many differences (for example, the backgrounds appear as two files msoobe.jpg and msoobe_server.jpg in a lower-level directory, and registry keys are missing) so it would be safer to leave well alone. i don't mind changing three RGB values in the registry, but it all looks too much like hard work (and potentially dangerous!). The aim was simply to make a background less horribly-coloured, but you only see it for a few seconds while logging on.

Thanks for your efforts!
John Gray

Venison is quiet deer, and quite dear.

JoeP
SilverLounger
Posts: 2051
Joined: 25 Jan 2010, 02:12

Re: WS2008 logon screen background colour

Post by JoeP »

John Gray wrote:No, there were too many differences (for example, the backgrounds appear as two files msoobe.jpg and msoobe_server.jpg in a lower-level directory, and registry keys are missing) so it would be safer to leave well alone. i don't mind changing three RGB values in the registry, but it all looks too much like hard work (and potentially dangerous!). The aim was simply to make a background less horribly-coloured, but you only see it for a few seconds while logging on.
Since Win7 & Server 2008 are very similar, see if Windows 7 to officially support logon UI background customization - Within Windows helps.

Joe
Joe

User avatar
HansV
Administrator
Posts: 78236
Joined: 16 Jan 2010, 00:14
Status: Microsoft MVP
Location: Wageningen, The Netherlands

Re: WS2008 logon screen background colour

Post by HansV »

Joe, that's basically the same information as in the link I posted higher up in this thread. I was not what John wanted.
Best wishes,
Hans