Tweaking the classic Logon screen (Windows XP/2000)

This article will run through how to change the overall appearance of the classic logon screen in Windows XP and Windows 2000. Not to be confused with the Welcome Screen in Windows XP, the logon screen is shown as the main log-on option in 2000, and was still available in XP, often preferred over the more consumer-friendly Welcome Screen in certain professional environments.

Both screens have methods to modify them, with third-party software to help, but if you lack confidence in your IT ability, it can be rather daunting. While the welcome screen can be modified by changing values in the Windows Registry, changing the look and feel of the classic logon screen in XP is done by running in a user account with even higher privileges than the standard administrator account, or even godmode (and yes, that does exist!). This user account is referred to as 'SYSTEM'. You can learn more about the SYSTEM account by clicking here.

This step-by-step tutorial is going to run under the assumption that you have already turned off the Welcome Screen. This tutorial also works for Windows 2000.

First, you want to open the command prompt. This can be done by either going to the Start Menu, All Programs and accessories. Mkae sure you are running as an administrator.

You can also find the command prompt through the Start Menu. Click Start, Run type "cmd.exe" without quotes and hit OK or Enter on the keyboard.

From here, you want to type this command:

at.exe 15:30 /INTERACTIVE "cmd.exe"

15:30 is the clock time, change this to a few minutes ahead of your current time. So if your current time is 18:50, maybe type 18:53. Just give yourself enough time to type out the full command and hit enter. "Interactive" is effectively another name for the SYSTEM account. This command is adding a timed event to the Task Scheduler wherein a seperate Prompt window will begin with you logged in as SYSTEM.

If this is successful, a new text line in Command Prompt will read

Added a new job with job ID = 1

You can now close this instance of command prompt. Depending on how long ahead you set the job, a new Prompt window will appear.

When the new instance of Command Prompt shows, keep it open, but you dont need to do anything else in it. What you want to do now is end Windows Explorer, that being The Taskbar, Start Menu and Desktop.

To do this, you can either right-click the taskbar and select Task Manager. Alternatively, you can use the keyboard combination CTRL+SHIFT+ESC.

Select the Processes tab and find "explorer.exe". select it and click End Process. You can also right-click explorer.exe and End Process from there.

Once the desktop minus the wallpaper disappear, relaunch Explorer from the Command Prompt window. Type explorer.exe and hit Enter

Now when you open the Start Menu, it will say you are logged in as "SYSTEM". Be really careful what you do while running Windows like this. Any tampering with files may cause problems. All you want to focus on is customising the theme - Desktop Background and colours.