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Can I change log-in window graphic?
#6889 12/21/09 02:03 PM
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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?


"For every complex problem, there is a simple, easy to understand, incorrect answer."

Albert Szent-Gyorgyi
Re: Can I change log-in window graphic?
dondenny #6891 12/21/09 04:42 PM
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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 we knew what it was we were doing, it wouldn't be called research, would it?

— Albert Einstein
Re: Can I change log-in window graphic?
dondenny #6894 12/21/09 05:49 PM
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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).

Re: Can I change log-in window graphic?
Hal Itosis #6897 12/21/09 06:11 PM
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Same path for 10.6.


Jon

macOS 11.7.10, iMac Retina 5K 27-inch, late 2014, 3.5 GHz Intel Core i5, 1 TB fusion drive, 16 GB RAM, Epson SureColor P600, Photoshop CC, Lightroom CC, MS Office 365
Re: Can I change log-in window graphic?
jchuzi #6901 12/21/09 08:21 PM
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Tho different path if you're running server.


I work for the Department of Redundancy Department
Re: Can I change log-in window graphic?
dondenny #6915 12/22/09 02:30 AM
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VersionTracker and MacUpdate list several freeware and shareware options, although not all have been certified for Snow Leopard.


alternaut moderator
Re: Can I change log-in window graphic?
Virtual1 #6924 12/22/09 07:25 AM
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Originally Posted By: Virtual1
Tho different path if you're running server.

Is?


The new Great Equalizer is the SEND button.

In Memory of Harv: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire
Re: Can I change log-in window graphic?
dondenny #6934 12/22/09 04:14 PM
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Originally Posted By: dondenny
....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


ryck

"What Were Once Vices Are Now Habits" The Doobie Brothers

iMac (Retina 5K, 27", 2020), 3.8 GHz 8 Core Intel Core i7, 8GB RAM, 2667 MHz DDR4
OS Ventura 13.6.3
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Re: Can I change log-in window graphic?
artie505 #6937 12/22/09 06:36 PM
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Originally Posted By: artie505
Originally Posted By: Virtual1
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

wink

Re: Can I change log-in window graphic?
joemikeb #7156 12/30/09 08:41 PM
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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.


"For every complex problem, there is a simple, easy to understand, incorrect answer."

Albert Szent-Gyorgyi
Re: Can I change log-in window graphic?
Hal Itosis #7680 01/18/10 09:32 AM
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> 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.


The new Great Equalizer is the SEND button.

In Memory of Harv: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire

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