Kids to design Windows 7 Logon and wallpaper for school

[Jaan]

Hi guys,

 

i had on kid ask me this last week. hes a good kid and always telling me who and where people in his class are getting games from .

 

Anyway, he asked if it was ok with us (techies) and his teacher, if the school could hold a design competition to design windows 7 logon and wallpaper screens. (the site is changing to W7 this year).

 

its not just him, but other kids (and teachers) are really excited about the move.

 

i dont have an issue with this, but thought id ask you guys who have modded the logon screens about the difficulties i might face.

 

Am i shooting myself in the leg with trying to deploy a modded logon screen....

[Michael]

Placing a copy of the image (.jpg) on the server and deploying it shouldn't be a problem. Just be aware of the file size over wireless connections for example.

[Jaan]

Placing a copy of the image (.jpg) on the server and deploying it shouldn't be a problem. Just be aware of the file size over wireless connections for example.

 

oh its as simnple as that for the logon screen also? I was under the impression that i had to build and recompile and logon file of some kind

[FN-GM]

It's really as simple as copying a few .jpg files and then enabling a group policy.

[Jaan]

Ok then thx for the help guys

[glennda]

You just need to place the files in C:\Windows\System32\oobe\info\backgrounds and set a GPO to use the custom Screen.

 

One thing you will find is that you cannot remove the frame for where the user image would be - instead what you can do is place a logo in the center of the screen of the screen so that it appears as though the logo is in the square.

 

the original version of mine is here - although its been cleaned up since i created it.

 

[FragglePete]

Bear in mind you ideally need different 'sizes' ( x & y ) of .jpg in this directory for any different aspect ratio of screens you may use. Overwise it just stretches this image and looks abit shabby. I think I have about 5 different .jpg files for our logon screen. And they have to be less than 256Kb as well or it'll ignore them.

 

Pete

[Michael]

Just to clarify, logon wallpaper can be changed and there are apps out there that can do the hard work for you.

 

As for desktop wallpaper, this is easy to change and can be done via GPO.

[FN-GM]

Bear in mind you ideally need different 'sizes' ( x & y ) of .jpg in this directory for any different aspect ratio of screens you may use. Overwise it just stretches this image and looks abit shabby. I think I have about 5 different .jpg files for our logon screen. And they have to be less than 256Kb as well or it'll ignore them.

 

Pete

 

Are you not restricted of what sizes you can use? I was under the impressions you can only use a set list?

 

Just to clarify, logon wallpaper can be changed and there are apps out there that can do the hard work for you.

 

As for desktop wallpaper, this is easy to change and can be done via GPO.

 

Its not worth it. I used the provided group policy and robocopy to copy down the wallpapers.

[mdench]

the logon screen as far as im aware has to use an image of 1024 x 768? I could be wrong tho been a while since ive played with it

[Arthur]

I was under the impression you can only use a set list?

Correct.

 

The following files (sorted by width-to-height ratio) are supported in this folder:

 

backgroundDefault.jpg
background768x1280.jpg  (0.6)
background900x1440.jpg  (0.625)
background960x1280.jpg  (0.75)
background1024x1280.jpg (0.8)
background1280x1024.jpg (1.25)
background1024x768.jpg  (1.33-)
background1280x960.jpg  (1.33-)
background1600x1200.jpg (1.33-)
background1440x900.jpg  (1.6)
background1920x1200.jpg (1.6)
background1280x768.jpg  (1.66-)
background1360x768.jpg  (1.770833-)

 

NOTE: Images must be less than 256KB in size.

 

The backgroundDefault.jpg image is loaded and stretched-to-fit when a resolution/ratio-specific background cannot be found. The other resolution/ratio-specific files are self-explanatory. If the background cannot be loaded (e.g. image physically too large, incorrect ratio, etc.), the default SKU-based image is loaded from imagesres.dll. You’ll see a Windows Server-themed grayish background in there, too, suggesting this functionality is not specific to client SKUs. (Source)

 

As you can see from the list above not all resolutions are covered, so if you have a 27" 2560x1440 LCD for example, you will get the backgroundDefault.jpg wallpaper due to the 1.77777778 width to height ratio.

[FN-GM]

What size would you say to put backgroundDefault.jpg at?

[mdench]

personally always used 1024 x 768 as this is what the standard windows 7 logon page image is sized at