Logon Screen Changer

CNET Editors' review

by: CNET staff on August 13, 2012

So you're still logging on with the same old Windows log-on screen, day in, day out....You're right: it's extremely boring. Can't something be done about it? Yes. You can change the Windows log-on screen, but Windows doesn't make it as easy as changing your wallpaper or even your user account picture. Still, it's simple enough to do with help from tools like Saurabhorange's Logon Screen Changer.

This free app can banish the blue and replace it with high-resolution images that don't take up much space. It comes with a gallery of images, and you can download more online or make your own, as long as you start with images smaller than 256 KB. Logon Screen Changer is an open-source freeware project.

Logon Screen Changer is portable, so it doesn't have to be installed to do its thing. The program's interface opened with a vivid science fiction scene. Logon Screen Changer has three widely dispersed buttons: About and Exit, which we skipped for the time being, and Change Login Screen (log-on, log-in, same procedure), which we pressed. A wizard opened with an image gallery displaying all installed templates, each with its own Apply button. We merely had to choose our new log-in screen and click Apply, and the program handled the rest. Logon Screen Changer asks if you'd like to log off and on again to view the change, so be sure you've saved any open windows or work. The images are about what you'd expect in such a gallery: field of tulips, group of penguins, Firefox logo, and so on. But the blandest of them is better than the plain Windows log-on screen, even if just for variety.

You can click Create Logon Screens or Download Logon Screens to broaden your choices, though you're limited to JPEGs smaller than 256KB. That's our only gripe, since other log-on screen changers we've seen fit your images to the screen just like desktop wallpaper. Keeping the screen image small helps keep log-on time down, though, so you can simply resize big pics to use them in Logon Screen Changer.