Change the Classic Logon Image

Posted on Sun, 2006-02-12 16:50

This tutorial with guide you through how to change the image on the login screen like the one below:

WARNING: Knowledge of the registry is required.

 

normalloginscreen

 

I have no reason to say why this won't work on Windows 2000 but I don't have a Windows 2000 machine to test it on.

 

With Windows XP SP2, Windows has file protection on which means you can't save over the existing msgina.dll file. This is a good thing as if anything goes wrong you need the original to have a working PC again.

 

You are doing this at your own risk. Skeletorscorpse can not be held liable for any damages.

By following this tutorial you are not holding Skeletorscorpse liable.

 

If you do continue there are instructions at the bottom on how to recover Windows with no lost data. It is advisable that you print this information out just in case.

1.

First download ResourceHacker from their website here
2.

Once the download has finished extract the zip and open ResHacker.exe
3.

resource hacker

 

Click File » Open and navigate your way to C:\WINDOWS\system32 folder and select msgina.dll
4.

From the left click the + next to Bitmaps.

 

For Windows XP Home you will need to change Bitmap numbers 128 and 129.

 

For Windows XP Professional you will need to change Bitmap numbers 101 and 107.

 

To do this, click the image so that it appears on the right hand side:

 

101 image

 

Right click the image and select Copy:

 

101 copy
5.

Now paste this into your favourite image editing suite and change it to suite your needs. Save the file as a 24-bit BMP file.
6.

Back in Resource Hacker right click where it says 1033 and select Replace Resource.

replace resource
7.

From the new window click Open File with new Bitmap

replace bitmap

Select the image you wish to replace it with. Make sure the dimensions are the correct size, 107 is slightly larger than 101 by its height.

 

101 is 413x72

107 is 413x88

 

Select your image then press Replace.
8.

Replace any other images that you wish to change then go to File Save As, and type in msgina1.dll and save this to your C:\WINDOWS\system32 folder. Do not save it over the old msgina.dll just incase something goes wrong. With SP2 you won't be able to save over it anyway due to the File Protection.
9.

Now open up the registry and navigate your way to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon
10.

Create a new String and name it GinaDLL.

11.

For its value type in C:\WINDOWS\system32\msgina1.dll
12.

You will have to restart for the effects to happen.

 

HELP! Windows Won't Boot Properly Now!!

 

13.

If it didn't work and Windows tells you it can't load msgina1.dll press Restart then press F8 on startup to boot in to safemode. Select Safe Mode (no networking, if you select networking it will still come up with the message.
14.

Windows will then load up with a backed up msgina.dll

 

Go in to the registry to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogonchange the name of the GinaDLL string to msgina.dll or delete the string.
15.

Reboot and everything should be back to normal.