» Tweak your Windows 7 Logon UI “button set” Within Windows

Jun 2009

44 Comments

Tweak your Windows 7 Logon UI “button set”

Back in March, I wrote about how you could easily customize the background of a Windows 7 logon screen. One problem you may have run into is that lighter wallpapers affect button and text readability. To overcome this issue, Microsoft added the ability to change the active “button set” to a couple of alternatives.

Starfish really loves you!
Comparison of Windows 7 Logon UI “Button Sets” (from left to right: default, set one, set two)

To change your button set, simply jump to HKLMSOFTWAREMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionAuthenticationLogonUI and add a DWORD value named ButtonSet. The supported integer values range from 0 to 2, with each value defined below.

0 – Lighter text shadows, darker (more opaque) buttons (Windows default)
1 – Darker text shadows, lighter (more translucent) buttons (for lighter backgrounds)
2 – No text shadows, opaque buttons (for darker backgrounds)

Sponge Finge

Thanks for this tip. It has changed my life. No more will I wander through a pointless existence.
Darren Tebo

@Sponge If that was meant as sarcasm, come on. He is trying to help people out here. If you don’t like the tip don’t use it. Don’t come in here flaming him for a useful tip.
GoodThings2Life

Thanks for the tip, Rafael… I opted for setting 1 for the image of the city of Atlantis (from Stargate Atlantis) that I use for my login image… much easier to read now! :)
http://tom.is-a-geek.org Tommo

Aha. Darren, I live by “fight fire with fire” and so, respectively, persons such as Sponge Finge can DIAF.
There’s no point in wasting your time trying to reason with him…
I respect your desire to try though
Darren Tebo

Thank you Tommo. I appreciate that. I agree though, it does seem pointless.
Darren Tebo

I am also updating my program to implement this feature. As soon as Rafael clears me to use his images (if he does, I will upload the program). :) Thank you.
http://wacker.is-a-geek.net pizzaboy192

sounds amazing! I can finally switch back to my strange image that was once an eclipse… and not use my mangled inverted one…
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Darren Tebo

Ok, my login background changer version 1.10 is completed. The following changes have been made:

1. Images are now automatically converted to the appropriate file size. You no longer have to manually change them in an image editing program.

2. If there is no info\backgrounds folder present on the system, it will be added automatically.

3. Added Support for the new Button Sets. You can now set the best button style to match the background. The button style selection is accomplished by clicking the appropriate image that corresponds to the desired button style.

*Note: If you have any questions or concerns, or if you would like a copy of the program, please email me at winlonghorn@adelphia.net. This software is available at no charge. Enjoy. :)
http://www.askvg.com Vishal Gupta

Awesome find once again. Thanks. :)
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Sponge Choad

Hey, Sponge Finge! Eat a dick!
EclipseSin

Now all we need is a way to move the user picture and password area around like on XP. <3
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Panda X

Are these different bitmaps (authui.dll > BITMAP) and different DUIXML references that read from the registry?
http://www.thewindowsclub.com/ HappyAndyK

Another nice find ! Thanks :)
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SCOTT

That is great, but how would you enable the fingerprint logon as a default. I always have to click other credentials, then the fingerprint icon then swipe. Just seems like a waste of time if I have a fingerprint reader and I programmed my finger with it.
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Darren Tebo

Ok, here is the link to download my program without having to email me. There is a 10 download limit right now, but once it is up, I will repost it. Link: http://rapidshare.com/files/245371478/loginbackgroundchanger_v1.10_.zip.html . Thank you and Enjoy. :) Please feel free to report any issues with it to me and I will fix them promptly. :)
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Christian

Great Charlie the Unicorn 3 Reference :)!
Jonny

Thanks! This just came in _very_ handy!

W7 is the first MS OS I’ve been excited about that actually delivers.
So happy with this OS and I hope to find more great tweaks for it like this one.
http://techgeeks-online.com TechGeek

I’ll apply this to my Windows 7 installation. There is also some program that does this for you but it requires registration so this works better. Thanks for the tip.
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Anonymous

Can you change the circle with the arrow in it to say, a square? Or a small image of the same dimensions? Perhaps a small logo like this fellow has done http://i270.photobucket.com/albums/jj114/PhillipH_01/MYLOGIN.jpg ?
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http://vrasstroistva.ru Тимур Макаров

Почитал, обрадовало :) А может и реально всегда думать исключительно о хорошем, а все плохое отбрасывать?
Sponge Finge

Hey Everyone. Just to be clear: I’m sorry for the message. I was really tired and cranky when I wrote it and just trying to be funny. I thought I would make some new friends, but I guess I didn’t. Again, I’m very, very sorry.
AIB

Hi there,

This is a very interesting and useful find. Specially in the context of large IT environments when multiple user profiles need to be maintained based on multiple user preferences. Thank you for this as this will resolve many headaches and overhead(s).

Regards,
AIB
Sean

But where did you scam this concept from and how do you use it?
I mean I’ve *HEARD* of this implausible idea that when you log on it presents one with icons. But how?
All I get is a prompt to enter my user name and password.
Sanfoor

Hi there

is’t possible to hid the logon button, i had a logonui for win xp that has hidden button, and when you move the mouse over the button place then you can see them

is’t possible to move the button place down or up

Best Regards

Sanfoor
http://www.leland-national-gold-exchange.com JonBB2

Nice post, I was trying to figure out how to do this for a while before I found your blog