Monday, June 23, 2008

Windows Server 2008: Logon Screen Customization = not yet

Update: I have noticed that people are still reaching this post. There is a newer post that says that YES IT IS POSSIBLE TO CHANGE THE LOGIN SCREEN OF WINDOWS SERVER 2008. I however am currently lazy to go put a link, so just navigate through the blog. It has cookies, er... basic instructions.

Some Server 2008 users, including myself, have encountered the nasty blue logon screen. Sure, I like the fact that it's simple and different than Vista's. However, being the customization freak I am, I just have the UUUURRRRGGGEEE of changing the background.

Part 1: The 'ol fashioned way. I quickly grabbed a copy of LogonStudio Vista and noticed that where it says "Windows Vista Default"(?) there wasn't any image in there. I placed my carefully crafted logon and when it threw me to the Logon Screen... BAM! Still the blue background.

Part 2: After a big f-up with my PC, I decided to reinstall Server 2008. Frustrated with what happened before, I took a peek inside imageres.dll with Resource Tuner. And what did I found? VISTA'S LOGON SCREEN FIRST IN LINE! I once again applied my logon and re-checked it with Resource Tuner and THERE IT WAS. But I could only see the blue BG in the Logon Screen.

Part 3: Desperate times means desperate measures. What did I do? I just grabbed imageres.dll from my Vista installation and slammed it onto Windows Server 2008. The result? NOTHING.

I also tried with a modified version of imageres.dll from a certain Visual Style, still nothing.

Conclusion thoughts: What I believe that's causing all of this is the -source- of the blue background. I have NO idea of where it comes from. If someone could just find a way to remove that layer, I'm 95% sure that the real logon screen will be visible.

Note: I am not a programmer... this is just based of what I have experienced and may not be accurate. Please consult your life manual if you want to follow this all the way.

3 comments:

FaCuRoLo Stuff said...

Yes, take a look at Tokens.dat. That file manage the logon screen. Just change it by Windows Vista tokens.dat

Dan Jacobs said...

i wouldn't advise changing tokens.dat
this is one of those files related to licensing that, if changed, will cause windows to complain about activation errors, and you might get locked out of your pc becuase of an 'unauthorized modification'.

Wolf said...

Wow, I'm amazed to see that I missed the first comment and to see a comment from this year. There's a "yes it's possible" version of this in a more recent post. Ironically... I moved to Windows 7 in october, so it was found out a little late. Good info though.