Login Screen Tutorial

Posted by Madison Parks on May 20th 2005 to Articles

NOTE: I WILL NOT BE HELD RESPONSIBLE FOR ANYTHING RELATED TO THIS TUTORIAL THAT CAUSES ANY ERRORS ON YOUR COMPUTER.

With that out of the way, let’s get on with it.

I was tired of my default windows xp login screen, and thought it would be cool to make my own. So I did, and now I’m writing a tutorial about how you can do it.

Part I: The Bitmaps

1. First, go to your Windows\system32 folder and COPY your logonui.exe file to another directory. (I suggest your My Documents folder.)

NOTE: MAKE SURE YOU COPY THE FILE, NOT MOVE IT. YOU MIGHT ALSO WANT TO BACK UP YOUR OLD ONE, BUT YOU DON’T HAVE TO.

2. Download ResourceHacker and unzip it to the desired location.

3. Open ResHacker and open (File > Open) the copy of the logonui.exe (not the original)

4. Let’s start with the Bitmaps. Here’s a run-down of what’s what.

-100: Background of the Login screen. Make sure you remember what the resolution of your image is, we’ll need it.

-102: Password Box. You might want to change the border color if you have a solid background

The Rest really don’t concern us, but you’ll see what they are if you view them.

5. Right, let’s get to work. Go to Action > Replace Bitmap. Click on 100, then go over and click on “Open file with new bitmap.” Go to the bitmap file of the background image you want, and click Open. Then click Replace.

Now we should have the new background image. Do the same procedures on any other images you want to replace, and then move on.

Part II: The UIFILE

Now we get to change some code to move some stuff around on the screen.

1. Close the Bitmap folder and expand the UIFILE folder, then the 1000 folder, and then click on 1033.

2. You should see a whole lot of script. Pretty much all we want to do here is possibly move the User Account List if it conflicts with your image.

3. You should see some code like this:

<element id=atom(contentcontainer0) layout=flowlayout(1,3,2,3) layoutpos=client content=argb(0,0,0,0)>
<element id=atom(leftpanel) sheet=styleref(leftpanelss) layoutpos=left>
</element>

That will align the user account list to the left. To move it to the right, replace it with this:

<element id=atom(contentcontainer0) layout=flowlayout(1,3,2,3) layoutpos=client content=argb(0,0,0,0)>
<element id=atom(rightpanel) sheet=styleref(rightpanelss) layout=borderlayout() layoutpos=left width=384rp>
</element>

4. Now click “Compile Script” and move on to the third section.

Part III: The Version Info

This will let you add your own tag to the login. Go to the Version Info Folder, then 1, then 1033.

The rest is pretty self explanitory.

Part IV: Installing

First, go to File > Save as… then go to the directory you want to save it to (Not your system32 folder yet). Type your filename, and make sure you put .exe on the end to make it the right type of file.

Now, you have one of two choices:

1: Boot into safe mode and overwrite the logonui.exe file in system32, or

2: Get a program like StyleXP.

Hope this tutorial helped you.

Here’s what I made using this technique:

EDIT (5.31.2006): I wrote this article a long time ago. It has been a long time since I worked with login screens, and because of this I can no longer support any questions you may have. If you still have questions, Google might be a good place to start.

23 Responses to “Login Screen Tutorial”

  1. Cec
    April 19th, 2006 | 2:35 am

    Hi
    Your explanations were very clear even for a basic user like me which I liked very much. However the resourcehacker indicated that I commited a violation of an address when I was trying to replace the bitmap. I could not find any info on this problem. So I gave it up. Pity it was a nice start.
    Thanks all the same.
    Cec

  2. mani
    May 19th, 2006 | 12:45 pm

    nil

  3. aquana
    May 21st, 2006 | 8:16 am

    I get the same error too… :/

  4. suraj
    May 27th, 2006 | 1:52 pm

    the access violation oocurs because you people are morons, the size of the image you’re trying to replace with cannot be bigger than the original’s size, you idiots! no wonder resouce hacker will complain!

  5. Justin
    May 28th, 2006 | 12:29 am

    Never hurts to be friendly suraj…

  6. Dan
    May 31st, 2006 | 2:11 pm

    I did everything as above but then when i loaded my logon using logon loader the logon was the same as before only with my picture in the top lefthand corner at about 10% of the size.

  7. Lachlan
    June 11th, 2006 | 1:50 am

    I had the same problem as Dan, anyone know how to fix it?

  8. Aoshi
    June 14th, 2006 | 11:59 pm

    just download the new version of the program, use Style XP to put the log on and ur set ^^

  9. j6ey
    June 24th, 2006 | 8:51 pm

    thanks for the tutorials, i haven’t tried it yet because im here at an internet cafe. i’ll try it as soon as i get home. i knew this will work

  10. ice
    July 5th, 2006 | 9:47 pm

    yo does anyone know what tha background resolution is? thank you

  11. redcalx
    July 23rd, 2006 | 11:38 am

    you fucking idiot isnt there a pgm i can download and it dose it all 4 me?

  12. anonymous
    July 28th, 2006 | 5:13 pm

    Beware! you may get an error at the logon screen as I did, and will not be let in to your desktop again! To solve this you have to keep clicking like 100 times before u get that old Windows ME logon box.

  13. lb84
    August 4th, 2006 | 12:36 pm

    i still cant adjust d bitmap to 100%.. pls teach me….

  14. OMFG - Joker
    August 8th, 2006 | 6:17 am

    Hi.. man i dont understand very well Part II: The UIFILE — at first step it says1. “Close the Bitmap folder and expand the UIFILE folder, then the 1000 folder, and then click on 1033.” .. what UIFILE folder, what 1000 folder & what 1033 ??? … ( ::: sorry 4 my english ::: )

  15. OMFG - Joker
    August 8th, 2006 | 6:19 am

    oooooops.. srry .. i got it…

  16. neelabh
    August 13th, 2006 | 10:57 am

    what about comment admin boss,,,,, not will be goin for it……
    delete them……

    Don’t be microsoft coder bhai……

  17. Mary
    August 20th, 2006 | 8:52 pm

    i think that thing of changin the login theme is cool but idk
    is it safe?
    im scared of doin somethin wrong n then messed up my new laptop…
    can somebody tell me if they got technical problems after changin the login themee??
    plzzz answer i wanna know!!

  18. cipher
    August 22nd, 2006 | 6:05 am

    i got a problem just like everyone else, when i replace a bitmap with my own picture, it shows 10 % of the picture in the upper left corner. please help me

  19. matty
    August 25th, 2006 | 2:41 am

    10% to 100% is really a problem. the new image really sticks at the left top. please modify the twick who ever can

  20. ARTbird309’s Blog » Article » links for 2006-09-01
    August 31st, 2006 | 8:29 pm

    […] TheOneGreatX.com ยป Login Screen Tutorial (tags: windows xp login screen howto) […]

  21. Jemch
    September 3rd, 2006 | 9:08 pm

    And what happens if I have a Spanish Windows XP Professional and the script is different?

  22. br
    September 4th, 2006 | 9:48 pm

    READ THIS IF YOU ARE HAVING PROBLEMS!!!

    just seen the tutorial it isnt bad ive gotta say. however instead of messing around in system files which could end up causing fatal system errors the best option would be to download logon studio, as it is easier to use and comes with a tutorial so even really basic users can grasp it…

    link to logon studio download below…
    http://www.stardock.com/products/logonstudio/download.html

    it’s 1.8Mb, so even people on dialup can get it.

  23. Currupt_policeman
    September 5th, 2006 | 3:19 pm

    This is why the author has stop continuing giving us help as he knows it doesn’t work - i get the same thing 10% in the top left corner. He most likely done the login using some other program and just tried to be the man by putting up this bullshit tutorial then runs away!

    Script kiddies! :(

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