



Reader Ace writes in with a nifty customization that will set your Mac apart from the rest.


Update: Added instructions to back up the default background image first (tx InspectorXGadget) and undo the operation, plus see a safer, preference-based method below.

Customize Your Mac's Logon Screen Reader Ace writes in with a nifty customization that will set your Mac apart from the rest. Read more


Find a desktop wallpaper image (Social Wallpapering's a good bet), save it to your desktop as background.jpg , and in the Terminal enter:



sudo mv /System/Library/CoreServices/DefaultDesktop.jpg /System/Library/CoreServices/DefaultDesktop.jpg.old





You'll have to enter your password to complete the operation. Then, in your Desktop directory in the Terminal, type:




sudo cp background.jpg /System/Library/CoreServices/DefaultDesktop.jpg





Now, next time you log off, your logon screen will have your new custom background. Slick. Thanks, Ace!



To undo the operation, in the Terminal, type:




sudo cp /System/Library/CoreServices/DefaultDesktop.jpg.old /System/Library/CoreServices/DefaultDesktop.jpg

Update: Mac sysadmin Delfuego says that you shouldn't ever manually mess around in the /System/ directory at all; a safer, non-command line alternative might be this application, which can set your logon screen to match your desktop wallpaper. (Thanks, Marc.) Alternately, you can modify your logon background by changing a preference versus overwriting the file. Here's the command:

Customize Your Mac's Logon Screen Reader Ace writes in with a nifty customization that will set your Mac apart from the rest. Read more


sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginwindow DesktopPicture "/Library/Desktop Pictures/Aqua Blue.jpg"

Substitute "/Library/Desktop Pictures/Aqua Blue.jpg" with the path to the picture you want to use. This technique works in both Leopard and Tiger.