Displaying Computer Name on Logon Box

[Hybrid]

I'm not sure this is possible, but here goes...

 

Is there a way, through either Windows mod, or 3rd party app, to display the computer name somewhere on the logon screen? I know I can get it to display through user interaction by typing .\ into the username field, but I'm looking for something like what the RM Network User Banner does, or indeed BGInfo.

 

Anyone know of anything that could fit the bill?

 

Many thanks.

[6Foot2]

Our LEA set up our network with BGInfo stamping the station name and IP in the logon screen. I won't be able to share the details with you as when I look at scripts they have a copyright declaration included in them. However as our network uses BGInfo I would say that you are looking in the right direction when thinking about solving this little probelm.

 

HTH.

[ben_mayo]

We use BGinfo customised to show our school logo in the middle of the desktop with the computer name and the date and time the user logged on.

[JATSO]

I'm not sure this is possible, but here goes...

 

Is there a way, through either Windows mod, or 3rd party app, to display the computer name somewhere on the logon screen? I know I can get it to display through user interaction by typing .\ into the username field, but I'm looking for something like what the RM Network User Banner does, or indeed BGInfo.

 

Anyone know of anything that could fit the bill?

 

Many thanks.

 

Maybe this will help

 

SysInternals Pro: Using BgInfo to Display System Information on the Desktop

[mrwoberts]

@Hybrid

 

One problem I've read about with BGInfo is that it creates .bmp files, which to my knowledge cannot be used as a Logon screen wallpaper - Windows requires the Logon wallpaper to be .jpg

 

I'm just working on a solution now...

 

Some questions:

 

1. What exactly do you want displaying on the Logon/Lock screen?

2. Do you want the same to then be displayed once the user has logged in?

3. Do you have a specific background image that you want the text to be 'superimposed' on?

[_techie_]

I have a script for this.

You will need a wallpaper and custom BGI file (easy to create).

I made several size background images for screen sizes:

1280x1024

1280x800

 

Gets harder with dual screen setups as you have lots of possible screen sizes in widths dependant on whether you have 1x 16:9 or 16:10 screens or multitude setups. For computer suites its dead easy however.

 

I'll post it tomorrow, as I copy everything to the machine, from a network share, then run the command via GPO.

[mrwoberts]

Thanks _techie_, yours sounds a bit more tried and tested.

 

Here's what I came up with.

 

You'll need this bmp to jpg command line conversion app.

Convert BMP to JPG Command Line Tool (Free) | microtom.net

I saved it to the windows folder

 

First, I enabled the OEM/OOBE change to allow a custom logon wallpaper

reg add HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Authentication\LogonUI\Background /v OEMBackground /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f

 

I then created a simple script to launch bginfo with a .bgi file that purely displays the hostname, convert the BMP to JPG, and copy that to the correct folder.

bginfo.exe   c:\hostname.bgi   /timer:00   /silent   /nolicprompt

BMP2JPG.exe   %windir%\bginfo.bmp   %windir%\backgroundDefault.jpg   overwrite

copy /v /y   %windir%\backgroundDefault.jpg   %windir%\system32\oobe\info\backgrounds\

 

That works as a one off if you want, as the hostname will hopefully not be changing that often.

 

The script can, however, be launch via GPO or set as Task at System Startup.

There is a further step needed to force a refresh of the wallpaper at the logon/lock screen, which is really to force close the logonui.exe, which in turn restarts itself and refreshes the wallpaper.

Edited May 9, 2016 by mrwoberts

[Hybrid]

Morning guys.

 

Firstly many thanks for the responses to this thread.

 

The idea was to simply have the machine name printed somewhere on the logon screen. We thought this would be useful for laptops which tend to go roaming around the school site and often left on the logon box.

 

The idea of the script to display this sounds great, however I'm starting to sway towards getting the Brother P-Touch label printer out.

[mrwoberts]

Hi @Hybrid

 

That's as simple as I could make it ;-)

This script is really a run once in your case then, and the extra step to refresh the wallpaper is not needed either.

 

So, it then becomes

reg add HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Authentication\LogonUI\Background /v OEMBackground /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f

bginfo.exe   c:\hostname.bgi   /timer:00   /silent   /nolicprompt

BMP2JPG.exe   %windir%\bginfo.bmp   %windir%\backgroundDefault.jpg   overwrite

copy /v /y   %windir%\backgroundDefault.jpg   %windir%\system32\oobe\info\backgrounds\

 

Run once and you're done.

Edited May 10, 2016 by mrwoberts

[_techie_]

Post #8 here describes the entire thing. I stole this from Adam, and it works a treat:

Can we get a new BGInfo for Windows 7? - Sysinternals Forums - Page 1

[ITGuyNW]

Hi does anyone have a copy of the LeadTools utility described in the link above?