It does not really make sense to display the screen on a single-user system, but it definitely is the way to go on multi-user systems.

Logon Workshop is probably the most sophisticated logon customization software yet for the Windows 7 operating system. It is currently available as a release candidate 2 build, which might turn away a few users who prefer to wait for a final release. Those who do not wait have a highly configurable program at their disposal.

Logon Workshop ships with several skins for the login screen of Windows. It displays the default screen by default, and offers to change to one of the five additional screens available.

A new logon screen can be set by clicking the apply button after making the selection. But changing the skin of the logon screen is not the only feature of Logon Workshop.

It is possible to add new skins right in the program. This is done by clicking on New and entering a name of the new logon skin. The new skin becomes available in the selection menu. It looks like the default logon screen after creation. A click on Edit in the menu offers a mighty tool to change that.

Here it is possible to change pretty much everything, from buttons to messages, fonts and locations of elements on the screen. It takes some fiddling to get it right, but the result is a personalized logon screen exactly the way it has been created in the editor.

It may take some experimenting and testing to understand some of the settings and options offered, as there is currently no explanation of their doings.

Logon Workshop is without doubt more than just a background changer. It can be used to customize the Windows logon screen in every detail imaginable. The program requires the Microsoft .net Framework 3.5 (which is preinstalled on Windows 7 systems) and a 32-bit or 64-bit edition of the Windows 7 operating system. (via)

Windows Logon Notifier has been created with users of unsupported editions, and users who prefer a direct way of editing the Windows Logon Notifier, in mind.

The portable program displays all necessary parameters after it has been started.

To be precise, if gives the user the opportunity to configure a notification title and text. Both the title and text can be edited by simply clicking into the relevant fields.

windows logon notifier

A click on Add Message sets the message as the new login notification, which will be displayed to all users who log onto the system.

Notifications can be removed again with the Remove Message button in the program interface.

Windows Logon Notifier is a lightweight program for Windows 7. The developer mentions that it may work under Vista as well, but that is has not been tested.

Download is provided at the Windows Club website.

You do need the software Stardock Logon Studio which is available for Windows XP and Windows Vista. This article concentrates on logons for Windows XP and a future article will do the same for Windows Vista.

Once installed you can already change the default logon screen with three default ones that ship with the software. The logon studio has an option to randomize the logon screen whenever Windows starts. I have collected nine beautiful logon screens that can be used with logon studio to change the default Windows XP logon screen.

You need to place the downloaded logons into the Logon Studio directory creating a new folder in root for them. The default directory is C:\Program Files\WinCustomize\LogonStudio. Just create a new folder and move all of the contents of the downloaded logon into it. After that refresh the the list of available logons in the program itself and the new logon should be visible.

Once you have selected a suitable logon screen you click on Apply and Ok to set this logon screen as the default one for your operating system. Just click on an image to be taken to the download page of the logon screen. You can browse through more than 4000 logon screens at the wincustomize website.