I installed Windows 8 early to setup everything up so when it comes out in October I can just buy it and activate it. Then I got tired of not being able to customize anything so I found where Windows stores various images and here they are. Note: After each one you may have to restart explorer.exe (cmd> tskill explorer) Tools: Take Ownership registry edit- media.askvg.com/downloads/2007/10/Add-Take-Ownership-Option.zip User Account Picture: -Go to C: Drive -In the ribbon go to "View" Tab and choose "Options"> In the new windows go to "View"> choose to Show Hidden files -Back in the explorer go to "ProgramData" since it is not hidden anymore -Then Microsoft> then User Account Pictures -The images you want to change are user.bmp, user.png, user-40.png, user-200.png (You may not see the .png or .bmp) Now in Photoshop (or any other image editing software) make 4 images of the image you want using these settings: user.bmp= .bmp, 480x480 user.png= .png, 480x480 user-40.png- .png, 40x40 user-200.png- .png, 200x200 Here is a pic of mine: Lock Screen: This took me a while as it was harder then I thought, but here is a simplified version of what I did. 1. Download and install the takeown script to registry (This will save you a lot of time and trouble) 2. Go to "C:\Windows\Web\Screen" and replace img100.jpg with the image you want (make sure you have the same name) 3)Go to "C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\" and right click the "SystemData" folder and choose "Take Ownership" now you can enter the folder by pressing continue 4) Now go to S-1-5-18>ReadOnly>LockScreen_Z and replace the image with the same image you replaced in step 2, but remember to change your images file name to the one of the image your replacing. For example in step 2 it was called "img100" and this one the same image is now called "LockScreen___1920_1080" for me. 5) Now for the last one is in "C:\Windows\WinSxS\" 6) You will see tons of folders just use the search and search for 'img100" and when you find the correct image open the folder (right click>open file location) and replace img100 with your lockscreen image (once again make sure you keep the same file name so make sure your new lock screen says img100) It seems like a lot to change the lock screen, but I had to change all of them to change that one setting Start Screen: addictivetips.com/windows-tips/how-to-change-windows-8-metro-start-menu-background-colors/ --Thanks to Mr Jinje for link Look at the bottom of this post under, "Programs to do these process for you", if you want a easier way. Change Colors: (If you know who originally found this please let me know) 1) Hold windows key and press R (win+R) 2) Paste "c:\windows\system32\oobe\msoobe.exe" -without quotes 3) Wait a second for it to popup and select your color 4) Alt+tab out or just press ctrl+shift+esc to bring up task manager 5) Kill msoobe.exe (it may be under Background Processes) 6) Restart explorer (cmd (or win+r)> tskill explorer) Programs to do these process for you: I personally prefer to do manual edits, but I know some people do not or have a harder time so here are two programs I found that will help you change account picture and start screen. Then as a bonus it will also remove the activate water marks. forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1837246 Note: It did change the color (a simple registry edit), but it failed to change the start screen for me.
Any chance someone has already mocked up some solid black images in the correct sizes that could be attached here.
Here are some plain black squares I just made. Just unzip and drag and drop/replace the images in the user account pictures folder. mediafire.com/?819gcb4i9kzw2bt
another thing is to install windows essentials login to windows live messenger, and change Profile picture, easier if I say
Cool, I think I have a script lying around that could do all the take ownership and replacing the files, just have to find out where I stashed it.
All the locations are static I believe except for the "C:\Windows\WinSxS\long_random_file_name" under lockscreen Paths: Account Picture: C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\User Account Pictures Lockscreen C:\Windows\Web\Screen C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\SystemData\S-1-5-18\ReadOnly\LockScreen_Z C:\Windows\WinSxS\long_random_file_name
Thanks for the link, will add it to the first post. Also be careful as I notice your "LockScreen___1024_0768.jpg" and "x86_microsoft-windows-themeui-client_31bf3856ad364e35_6.2.9200.16384_none_69ee3fa2269e545e\" are different then mine. Mine are "amd64_microsoft-windows-themeui-client_31bf3856ad364e35_6.2.9200.16384_none_c60cdb25defbc594" and "LockScreen___1920_1080" The lockscreen seems like it changes depending on resolution of the image (or monitor as both are 1920x1080 on mine). Then the other folder seems to depend on x86 or x64 then processor type? Aka I have a x64 and AMD processor so maybe Intel will be "intel_microsoft-windows......"
Gotcha, now I get it. Regardless, the 'system data' folder does not seem to exist in my install.wim, so maybe I change the two hard-coded locations there and on installation it will create the random size/name copy in system data with the replaced files.
Let me know if that work or not for you. Also I updated the fist post with two programs I found to help change some of the settings automatically if anyone has a hard time or do not want to attempt the manual version.
I did a clean install on an asus box the other day & during the install & oobe there were some asus logos. I think win8 pulled them from uefi.... Soooo, there must be a tool of some kind to change these....
Here is a snip to try, save as PS1 and include your user.bmp files in the same directory. It worked in my x86 VM. Code: takeown /F "C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\User Account Pictures\user.bmp" takeown /F "C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\User Account Pictures\user.png" takeown /F "C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\User Account Pictures\user-40.png" takeown /F "C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\User Account Pictures\user-200.png" icacls "C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\User Account Pictures\user.bmp" /grant *S-1-5-32-544:F icacls "C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\User Account Pictures\user.png" /grant *S-1-5-32-544:F icacls "C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\User Account Pictures\user-40.png" /grant *S-1-5-32-544:F icacls "C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\User Account Pictures\user-200.png" /grant *S-1-5-32-544:F ren "C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\User Account Pictures\user.bmp" "user.bmp.bak" ren "C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\User Account Pictures\user.png" "user.png.bak" ren "C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\User Account Pictures\user-40.png" "user-40.png.bak" ren "C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\User Account Pictures\user-200.png" "user-200.png.bak" copy-item user.bmp -destination "C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\User Account Pictures\user.bmp" copy-item user.png -destination "C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\User Account Pictures\user.png" copy-item user-40.png -destination "C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\User Account Pictures\user-40.png" copy-item user-200.png -destination "C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\User Account Pictures\user-200.png"
Changing the user.png(etc.) in the ProgramData... folder will change the default user account picture. If you have several user accounts they will all change too. I was able to change individual user account pictures by using the release preview and copying the *.accountpicture-ms file in C:\Users\<User Name>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\AccountPictures\ to the unactivated RTM install and then simply double clicking the file.
Windows 8 RTM Lock Screen, Account Picture, Metro and Start Screen Background and Color Personalization v2.0 no_short_urls_allowed/bvzczsj i have tried it and seems to work well
well unfortunately my lockscreen is just complete blue and no picture at all lolz. but I dont blame anybody. It was my fault cause I accidentally deleted the lockscreen file in the long folder list. I put a picture based from the post above but still same blue screen. oh well I will try to play around again and if I found out whats wrong then I will get back.
I just discovered that account picture files for users reside in these folders. C:\Users\Public\AccountPictures\