I'm very pleased with my new iMac 3.06 GHz Intel and with the rock-stable OS 10.6.2, but I really don't like the cheap-looking purple Star Trek-style space view that comes up on the log-in screen. I can easily change the desktop picture and the screen saver, but haven't yet figured out how to alter the log-in background. Am I missing something?
If you are looking for an obvious switch, preference, or setting somewhere you are out of luck. However under the Login tab of Marcel Bresink's excellent
TinkerTool System, the shareware tool not its freeware sibling, there is a background setting that permits you to choose almost any jpg on your system for the login background.
If you are technically inclined, the path to the file is here (well, for OSX 10.5 anyway):
/System/Library/CoreServices/DefaultDesktop.jpg
Both it and its parent folder are root-owned, so admin authorization will be needed when tinkering. (Be sure to backup the original, etc., etc).
Tho different path if you're running server.
VersionTracker and
MacUpdate list several freeware and shareware options, although not all have been certified for Snow Leopard.
....but I really don't like the cheap-looking purple Star Trek-style space view that comes up on the log-in screen.
I'm with you. Apple's design folks must have been working on that window the same day as they were making Roger's tequila cake.
ryck
Tho different path if you're running server.
Is?
Yes, but we'd hope anyone clever enough to run a server could figure it out:
$ strings /System/Library/CoreServices/drawDefaultDesktop
desktoppicture: could not get any desktop windows
desktoppicture: CGSGetSystemBackgroundWindow failed: %d
desktoppicture: CGSGetWindowType failed: %d
desktoppicture: CGSSetWindowType failed: %d
/System/Library/CoreServices/ServerVersion.plist
/System/Library/CoreServices/DefaultDesktopServer.jpg
/System/Library/CoreServices/DefaultDesktop.jpg
After posting my question, I was away for the holidays and only recently returned to review responses. Just to complete this thread, I'll report that I accessed TinkerTool System as joemikeb suggested and found that it very easily performs the trick of changing the background to the log-in window. I am now a completely happy OS 10.6.2 user. Thanks, folks.
> Yes, but we'd hope anyone clever enough to run a server could figure it out:
I just realized that I read "Tho" as "The" and thought V! hadn't completed his sentence.