(Before telling me to Google the solution, please read the thread.)

I recently purchased a notebook and I wanted to customize the background of the login/lock screen, so I did a bit of digging around and found a quick solution to doing so. Sure enough, I tried it and it works. However, after I let Windows update itself, the custom background disappeared and reverted back to the default Microsoft image.

I went to regedit and made sure that the key was still there, and it was. I checked the \backgrounds folder in which I placed the file, and the image is still there. Perplexed as to what may be preventing it from working, I tried several alternative software solutions to this (each of which seems to really just be the registry key and a rudimentary image to JPG converter packaged into an .exe that automated this process for you), and as expected, none of them worked.

Has anyone else found themselves with this issue recently? If so, how did you resolve it, if you managed to at all?

EDIT> Before anyone posts it, this fix does not work since Group Policy editing is not available in Windows 7 Home Premium. Additionally, since gpedit.msc is just a front-end that simplifies regedit, it effectively just makes sure that the OEM logon background registry key is set to 1.

Essentially, any fix involving that registry key at the moment is completely null and void for my machine. The OS seems to be completely ignoring changes made to that key. If any alternative solutions exist for replacing the logon backgorund, please post them here.

Post has been edited 2 time(s), last time on Jul 20 2011, 2:06 am by Aristocrat.

I'm not sure why it doesn't work anymore... (Perhaps the update was there to block it?) But here is something that may be better:

(It doesn't use any registry keys.)
If this is the way it works across the whole system, you can probably change other pictures the same way. (I haven't tried it thought.)

Here you go: http://danielnet.deviantart.com/art/Windows-7-Logon-Screen-164128684

Use it myself, works like a charm.

That's exactly the same as what I did. The reason the person in the video did not need to install a registry key was because his computer came with the key already enabled (if you noticed, it was a prebuilt from HP), so all he had to do was navigate to that folder and put an image in. The key was added for OEM and these third-party modifications exploit that functionality to replace the image with custom ones.

@JamaL: That program does not work for me, unfortunately. It simply edits the key and compresses an image you feed it into JPG format, then places it in the \backgrounds folder, so it is exactly the same thing as what I have described.

Please don't just Google "Windows 7 Lock Screen Change" and link the results here, since I probably tried what you linked already.

I'm using TuneUp Utilities 2011 for that (and a ton of other useful stuff) and it's working for me. Can't promise it's working in your special case but in my experience this program is quite thorough, isn't messing up your system and not thrown off as easily as other programs.