Customizing the Logon Screen

How can we display company-specific or security information on the Log On to Windows screen, which prompts users for their usernames and passwords? Also, can we further customize the screen with other buttons or information?

The Welcome and LogonPrompt values (of type REG_SZ) in the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftWindows NTCurrentVersionWinlogon registry subkey let you customize logon screen information. You can change the Welcome value to customize the text in the screen's title bar, as Figure 2 shows. (Note that Windows 2000 appends your text to the standard Logon to Windows text.) You can change the LogonPrompt value to insert text above the User name field, as Figure 2 shows. To further customize the Log On to Windows screen, you must write your own Graphical Identification and Authentication (GINA) DLL. For more information, see the topic "Winlogon and GINA Reference" on the Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) at http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/security/security/winlogon_and_gina.asp.