Special Thanks to my good friend Brandon for hosting this tut on his site :)

Disclaimer:
I take NO responisbility for any problems and I'm sure Microsoft does not either.
This has been tested on beta 1, beta 2, and Final of Windows XP PRO
If you do not know how to back up files and restore them or are scared you might
mess somthing up CLICK HERE

About :

This Is a tutorial on how to skin / customize the logon screen that comes with windows Xp pro (havent tested on home edition)
This is the screen you see where you clcik the user name to enter your password to log in
(you do not see this if your on a domain)

What we are going to do for the tutorial is change this

Tools:

Resource Hacker ( lets you somewhat edit exe and dll files exchange bmps edit text ect... )

Winzip or Power Archiver ( Any zip utility to extract the zip file containing the bmps for the tutorial )

Color Cop ( This is Optional - Really nice little program to get RGB color codes with a dropper tool ect.. )

Misc:

Logonbmps.rar ( The replcement BMP files for this tutorial )

Backing up :

First things first goto windows\system32 and make a backup copy of Logonui.exe like logonui.bak for example.
now make a copy of logonui.exe on your desktop (or any other folder im going to use the desktop for further referance)

Getting Started

Ok extract the logonui BMPS from the zip file you downloded (you did download it right) to the desktop
Open up Resource hacker and goto file open and select the logonui.exe file from the desktop

If you look at what comes up in the white left hand section you will see the resources in logonui.exe
if you then look at the BITMAP section you'll see some numbers click on one and then click on the 1003 that came up
now on the right you will see the bmp that resides there.

So the first thing we are going to do is replace most of the BMPs
goto the Action menu in resource hacker and select Replace Bitmap a little window will pop up. The first bmp
100 is already selected to be replaced as you can see on the right. Click on the button that says
Open file with new bitamp

Navigate to the desktop where you extracted the BMPs for the tutorial and select the 100.bmp then hit the replace button
The bmp has been replaced. Do this for all the BMPs that correspond with the numbered BMPs included in the zip file
for the tutorial. (when your done with that let me know .. I mean read on)

Ok now that your done replacing the BMPs save the file

Editing the UIFILE:

The next thing we are going to do is edit the UIFILE which is basicaly a script that contains the color codes for the
logon screen background and text colors layout pic size ect...)

In resource hacker click on the UIFILE resource of logonui.exe open it all the way to where you see the 1033 section
highlight the 1033 section and you will see the white work space on the right turn all white and it looks like theres
nothing there (but there is) SCROLL WAY THE HELL DOWN.

you will see the script file I'm talking about now make the following changes,

Look at the section where it says

element [id=atom(contentcontainer)]

{

change the background rgb color to read

background: rgb(237,238,237); -----------this changes the whole middle section color (from the baby blue crap)

then scroll down to where it says

element [id=atom(toppanel)]

change the background rgb color to read

background: gradient(argb(0,224,225,233), argb(0,143,144,145), 0); <-- entire top panel color

then scroll down to where it says

element [id=atom(bottompanel)]

change the background rgb color to read

background: gradient(argb(0,224,225,233), argb(0,143,144,145), 0); <--entire bottom panel color (where the shutdown button is at)

then scroll down to where it says

fontsize: rcint(42) pt;

foreground: white;

cursor: hand;

and change it the foreground section to say

foreground: rgb(133,134,133);

then scroll down to where it says

element [id=atom(leftpanel)]

{

foreground: rgb(239,247,255);

and change the foreground rgb color to read

foreground: rgb(133,134,133);

then scroll down and look for the section that says <style resid=hotaccountlistss>

under this look for logonaccount and change the background rgb to say

background: rgb(195,220,195);

Scroll down a little farther in that section till u see

element [id=atom(userpane)]

and change the bordercolor rgb to say

bordercolor: rgb(195,220,195);

Then scroll down to where it says

element [id=atom(username)]

and change the foreground rgb to say

foreground: rgb(111,117,111);

then under button [class="status"]

change the foreground rgb to say

foreground: rgb(111,117,111); <- this is the color for the text that tells how many emails and programs running the user has when selected

under the section

<style resid=accountlistss>

where it says

logonaccount

change the background rgb color to read

background: rgb(237,238,237); <- this is the color behind the user names when not hovering or selected

then under element [id=atom(userpane)]

change the bordercolor rgb to read

bordercolor: rgb(237,238,237);

scroll down to element [id=atom(username)]

and change the foreground color RGB to read

foreground: rgb(111,117,111); <- this is the color of the user name when not hovering or selected

then under button [class="status"]

change the foreground rgb to

foreground: rgb(111,117,111); <- this is the color for the text that tells how many emails and programs running the user has non selected

Finally hit the Compile Script button at the top and save the file close Resourse Hacker copy the logonui.exe from the
desktop to windows\system32\dllcache and then copy it again to windows\system32\ and replace the files there

(Note: Dllcache is a hidden directory you must have show hidden files and show system files turned on in Explorer to see it)

Wait a second and windows will pop up a error saying system files have been replaced please insert CD blah blah yak yak
hit cancel then a window will pop up asking if you want to keep the modified files click yes

Goto start then click logoff and click switch user to see your new logon screen :)

Jerry's Final Thoughts: (wait my names not Jerry)

You can change the text thats displayed on the logon screen by editing the string table resources in logonui.exe
like I did for the screen shot.

You can make bmps pretty much any size but you then need to change the size for its "container" in the UNIFILE
section of the resources.

Hell you can do alot crap.

however be very carefull messing with the UIFILE you might have to use the backup file you made if you do somthing wrong there.

there are some issues changing bmps behind the user icons see bmp 113 if you do this it causes a error. if you do
happen to get a script error from the logon screen hit cancel like 5 times and it will let you login the old win 2k way
so u can then replace with the backup file or fix what you screwed up.

If anyone makes any please send me screen shots brandonc@efn.org I prefere PNG format cause its smaller file size.

And if you want Ill put the screen shots up on this site (UNLESS THEY SUCK) hahhahaah just kidding

If anyone wants to add info to this tut or related Xp System file " hacks " email me ill put it up.

Also u can edit your little screens that pop up when you hit shutdown or logoff my shut down one currently looks like this:

the bmps for that are in msgina.dll look around open all the dlls and exes you can find all kinds of crap :)