Changing your login window is one of the coolest ways to make your Mac stand out. If your running OS X 10.5, it’s fairly simple as well. But we’re not stopping there. Today I am also going to show you how to change the default Apple logo displayed on the login screen. First I’m going to show you how to do this in 10.5. If you’re using 10.4 you can skip down to the 10.4 section

Customizing the Login Screen in OS X 10.5: To change the login background, simply replace the picture file located here: /System/Library/CoreServices/DefaultDesktop.jpg Use a jpg with a resolution equal to or greater then that of your monitor for best results.

If you’re interested in changing the default Apple logo you see at login do as follows: Hit command-shift-G to bring up the “Go to Folder” dialog and paste in the following path exactly: /System/Library/CoreServices/SecurityAgentPlugins/loginwindow.bundle/Contents/Resources In this directory you will find a file called applelogo.tif. Make a backup copy and then delete ‘applelogo.tif’. Rename your custom tif logo file to ‘applelogo.tif’ and move it to this same folder, you will be asked for the administrator password. Make sure the new image is 90×90 and a tif file. Slightly transparent images look best. Read the rest of this entry »