Have you ever tried your hands at customizing your XP logon screen? Or how about making one for yourself ? Sounds tough? Well, it is not…as you will learn right now. There are easier ways of accomplishing this feat, e.g, by using software and tools.
For our use however we’ll learn the basics first. We’ll go on to the easier way later. That will ensure your better control over the OS and software that you are using.
Step 1
Let’s begin by bringing up our friendly little tool, Resource Hacker. If you don’t have it,get it from our Essential Downloads section. I recommend you go through the previous tutorial “Change the Start Menu Text in Windows XP” if you have never worked with Resource Hacker before. There I have introduced and explained the basic use of Resource hacker which I won’t be repeating here.
Step 2
In the above mentioned tutorial you have learned how to change texts within executable files. Here, we will learn how to change other resources such as bitmap pictures, icons, etc. in addition to textual changes, within such files. For the purpose of this tutorial, we will need to edit LogonUI.exe file which you can find in the %windir%\System32 folder. (%windir% is the directory which contains Windows files. This is commonly” C:\Windows”)
Step 3
LogonUI file contains the bitmap pictures used in the XP logon screen as well as most of the texts like “Welcome”, “Username” , “Type Your Password”, etc. So first we’ll edit the LogonUI.exe file. Open the file using Resource Hacker and immediately go to File ->> Save As and save the file using any name. Here, we will use the name “MyLogon.exe”. Don’t forget to add the extension (.exe) as Resource Hacker doesn’t add it automatically.
Step 4
Working on your own copy of logonui.exe gives you the freedom to experiment without worrying about damaging the original one. Now go ahead and open the “Bitmap” node. You will find sub-nodes listed from “100″ to “127″. Each sub-node contains a bitmap image by the name “1033″. Expand the first sub-node – “100″ and click on the “1033″ resource. This is the logon background screen, which is used “stretched” by default. Right-click the “100″->>”1033″ resource and select Replace Resource. You will be prompted to select a new bitmap to replace the existing one. So, go ahead and select any bitmap image (.bmp) of your screen resolution or less. Once its loaded, select Replace. The logon background will be changed.
At this step, I got an “Access violation at specific address” error as I clicked on the Replace button after choosing my bitmap and every time I clicked on the “100″–>”1033″ node afterwards. What I did was simply close Resource hacker without saving changes to “MyLogon.exe”. Then I restarted Resource Hacker and loaded my logon file directly,i.e, “MyLogon.exe”. After that I tried the above step and it worked without error. If you get the same error, try what I did and if that doesn’t seem to work, try working with another bitmap, as some bitmap files contain corrupt information although they display correctly.
Step 5
Once you have successfully replaced the “100″–>”1033″ resource, you have changed your logon screen background. Now, its time to change other bitmaps that are used on the logon screen for a more personalized look. I have listed below the bitmaps which can be replaced without much of an error. But I would suggest you to determine the dimensions of the original bitmap and make your own with the same so that there is no incompatibility issue. You can copy the resources by right-clicking the images in the preview pane. Then use a Paint-like editor to determine their size or edit them. While making new resource images, remember to save them as 24-bit Bitmap. Ok, now here goes the list …
- 100 ->> 1033 — Centre Background
- 102 ->> 1033 — Password textbox background
- 103 ->> 1033 — Go Button when Mouse Over
- 104 ->> 1033 — Go Button when Mouse not Over
- 105 ->> 1033 — Password hint button when Mouse Over
- 106 ->> 1033 — Password hint button when Mouse not Over
- 107 ->> 1033 — Turn Off button when Mouse not Over
- 121 ->> 1033 — Turn Off button when Mouse Over
- 112 ->> 1033 — User Name Panel Background
- 113 ->> 1033 — User Icon background when Mouse not Over
- 119 ->> 1033 — User Icon Background when Mouse Over
- 124 ->>1033 — Center Vertical Divider
- 125 ->>1033 — Top Panel Horizontal Divider
- 126 ->>1033 — Bottom Panel Horizontal Divider
Step 6
Now we move unto text changes. Expand the String Table node. You will find sub-nodes listed from “1″ to “7″, of which only “1″, “2″ and “3″ are of use to us. As you view the “1033″ resource of each sub-node “1″, “2″ and “3″, you will find many familiar strings and text dialogues within quotes (” “). Find and replace whichever you want as you did in the previous Start menu tutorial. Remember to Compile Script after changing and replacing text in a “1033″ string table resource.
You may also change the font names such as “arial”, “tahoma”, etc. by replacing them with names of other system fonts that you know, if you find out which text is being affected by which font entry. But this would require a lot of trial and error. So, better leave this out if you are making you first logon screen.
Note :- Donot change or edit the “%s” and “%d” or other such texts which you don’t understand, in the entries as they refer to system variables and if changed or removed may cause your logon file to malfunction. The “\n” symbol is used for a newline character, i.e, text after this symbol will appear on the next line.
Step 7
Now that we are done with the MyLogon.exe file, save it and close Resource Hacker. What we now need to do is that tweak the Windows Registry to use our “MyLogon.exe” file instead of the normal “LogonUI.exe”. To do that, first open the Registry Editor (Start –> Run –> regedit). Now browse to the following key :-
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon
Once you click on the Winlogon node, you will see many keys on the right hand side pane. Search for the “UIHost” key and double-click to open it. If if haven’t changed your logon screen yet, its value should be “%windir%\System32\LogonUI.exe“. Change this to “%windir%\System32\MyLogon.exe“ or whatever name you had given to your own logon screen instead of LogonUI.exe. If you haven’t moved your logon file, it should be in the %windir%\System32 by default, so no need to change the path.
Now, click OK and close the Registry Editor. You are done! Just log off to see you own logon screen and adjust anything that might needed to be.
Step 8
If you want to restore the original Windows XP logon screen, just change back the value of Registry Entry “UIHost” to “%windir%\System32\LogonUI.exe“. As simple as that! (For an even simpler way, to apply your logon screen from any folder or restore the original logon in a single click, read on to Step 10) So, keep making new and innovative logon screens. Keep a backup of all your logon screens in a folder that you prefer, by copying them from the System32 folder.
The Easier Way
Now, that you know how the thing is done, I would like to tell you about a software that makes all the above steps automated. Although you won’t have complete control over what you make, as the tool doesn’t allow some bitmaps and most of the Strings to be changed, but there are certain things that can be done with it which is very difficult to achieve with the above hardcore method. A perfect logon screen can be made by using both the methods in conjuction. For that, I’ll tell you how exactly the software works.
Let’s begin with the name….the Software is called Logon Studio XP. Ever heard of it? Well even if you did, I assure you that you might not be knowing how this cool thing works. I’ll tell you that in brief.
Logon Studio XP provides a GUI interface for you to edit the various bitmaps, texts and their properties on the logon screen. It gathers these information as values of variables required in the logon file. For example, if you open LogonUI.exe in Resource Hacker, you’ll find that the text in String Table > 1 – 1033 > Line No. 6 is “Type your Password”. When you edit the same text on the GUI interfaced logon editor, it simply gathers the value to use instead of “Type your Password” in String Table > 1 – 1033 > Line No. 6 of its own logon file. All these values are stored in a file which is then stored by the software with a “.logonxp” extension. Whenever you select any such file and click OK, the data in it are used to immediately create a logon file named “LogonUIX.exe” which is copied to the System32 folder. Then the aforementioned Registry tweak is applied to use their own logon file, “LogonUIX.exe” instead of “LogonUI.exe” as the system logon file. You can check this by visiting the “UIHost” registry key after applying a logon in LogonXP. When you click on Restore Windows Logon, it simple changes back the value of “UIHost” Registry entry to its default value (“%windir%\System32\LogonUI.exe“) – The same thing I told you to do in Step 8. The only difference is that the whole damn process is automated which saves us time. But when you start using this software, you will learn that it has its own shortcomings too : )
You can download Logon Studio XP from the Essentials section under Downloads.
Distributing Custom Logons
Once you make a really cool logon screen, you might just want to share it with your friends. To do that is really simple, and I think you have already got it. For those who are still confused, here are the steps.
Step 9
If you have made the logon screen using Logon Studio XP, then start the software (Logon Studio XP) and select the logon that you have made. Now, click the Export button. You’ll be prompted to enter a name. Do so and save the file. The file is saved with a .logonxp extension. You can now give this file to your friends who will just have to install LogonXP on their systems and then double-click your file to open it in LogonXP which can then be applied to their system. Simple : )
Step 10
The above step is good but has one problem. The file that you give to your friend is in .logonxp format and hence needs to have Logon Studio XP installed to work. Now let me tell you how you can distribute your logon files in Executable (.exe) format. Its simple really. Once you have made your own logon screen in LogonXP, select it and press OK to apply it. As I told you, it has now been bundled into a LogonUIX.exe file and been saved in the System32 folder. So, browse to your %windir% > System32 folder. Find and copy the LogonUIX.exe file to your desktop or somewhere. Rename it and your are ready to go!
Note:-You can also use Resource Hacker to further tweak and enhance the LogonUIX.exe file that you copied from the System32 folder. That’s what I meant by “conjunction of both methods” .
Now download this Logon Helper Package (its just 2 KB in size :p )and extract it using WinRAR. You will get a folder named Logon Helper in which you will find 2 Registry Entry Files (.reg) (they are hidden), 2 Batch files (.bat) and a Readme.rtf file that can be opened in Wordpad. The Readme file contains all the instructions your friend will need to apply your logon screen as well as restore his original logon screen.
Now, make a copy of this folder. Rename your “logonuix.exe” (your logon screen file) as “Custom.exe” and put it in this folder, and that’s it! Now rename the folder to whatever you want to name your logon screen.
You may then compress the folder into a single archive using WinRAR, WinZIP or any other compression utility. You may also just give away the folder as it is after renaming it. Your friend would be just 2 clicks away to apply your logon screen without ever having a need to install any software. You may use this package for yourself too for applying logon screens in an “even simpler way” as I mentioned in Step 8. : )
The rest is creativity.
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You can download the logon screen that is displayed as header of this article in My Creations section under Downloads. I named it as Matrix Logon.
Enjoy!
P.S : Feel free to post your suggestions and comments on this tutorial below. It will help me to make this and future tutorials better.
Filed under: Basic
