Windows® 7 Tweaks: A Comprehensive Guide on Customizing, Increasing Performance, and Securing Microsoft® Windows 7

Chapter 4. Customizing the Startup

Windows 7 has a great new look, but after a while, the new look can get old. With the help of some cool tools and tricks, you can customize many components of Windows 7.

This chapter guides you through customizing the logon screen. This screen can be customized in several ways, such as customizing the user pictures and various settings that will allow you to increase your privacy and change the way the logon screen behaves. I even show you how to change your logon screen background.

Customizing the Logon Screen

Windows 7 includes a slightly improved logon screen similar to the one used in Windows Vista. Gone is the Windows NT–style classic logon screen with which many domain users are familiar (because it was included in the last several releases of Windows). The new Welcome screen, as I called it in Windows XP, is now your only choice for logging on. Not much changed except for a few visual enhancements that make the screen look more professional and make it fit in with the theme of the rest of the operating system.

New to Windows 7 and Vista is a more secure logon system that requires all components to be digitally signed by Microsoft. If any of the logon files are modified the digital signature is destroyed and you will no longer be able to log on. This prevents malicious software from hijacking the logon process, but it also makes it next to impossible for people like us who want to customize the logon screen; you can no longer just hack a system ...