How to change Window 7 login Background in a simple way

Microsoft Windows 7 has incorporated many visual customisation options, including the screen saver and theme settings. Microsoft understands the need for customization, and hence it comes with a lot of options to change the appearance of your system. However, Microsoft has not given a direct option to change Windows 7 login background under the control panel as we have for Windows 8, 10, and 11. Changing the Windows login screen is very easy on later versions of Windows 7 (i.e., Windows 8, 10, and 11) as the option is already present under the Windows Settings screen.

For Windows 7, setting a custom logon background was intended for original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to customize their systems. However, nothing is stopping you from using this feature for yourself. Changing the Windows 7 login background requires a few additional steps through the Group Policy Editor. If you don’t want to change any settings in Group Policy Editor, you can also try third-party software available for Windows 7.

Step 1: Enable Custom Windows 7 Logon Background Settings

• Open the Group Policy editor. Press Win + R, and type “Gpedit.msc” in the Run command. Alternatively, go to Start and type “group policy“. You may find “Edit Group Policy” in the list.
• Go to the following branch:

Computer Configuration >> Administrative Templates >> System >> Logon

• On the right pane, change the setting for “Always use custom logon background” to “Enabled”, Apply the Setting, and exit the Group Policy Editor.

This will enable the option to customise the logon background.

Step 2: Add an Image for the Login screen Background

Settings are changed, now it’s time to add the image you want in your logon background.

1. Open Run Dialog box (Press Win + R), copy below path and paste in the Run Dialog box. Press Ok button

%windir%\System32\oobe

2. Create a new folder named “info” and inside the same folder, create one more folder named “Backgrounds”. The folder path should look like this.

 %windir%\System32\oobe\info\backgrounds

3. Now, place your desired logon wallpaper in this background folder with the file name as backgroundDefault.jpg

Note: The image should be less than 256kb in size

If you feel lazy or are not comfortable performing the above method, you should use third-party software. The software that can do this task efficiently and quickly is the Tweaks.com logon changer. This tool also supports Windows 8 and Windows 10.