1. Home
  2. Mac OS X
  3. Change login screen background in mac os x lion 10 7 4

Change Login Screen Background In Mac OS X Lion 10.7.4 [Tip]

Mac OS X 10.7.4 has more than just the new version of Safari; it comes with added support for RAW images and fixes quite a number of issues, including one with the Reopen windows when logging back in option. One of the many things you may have experienced after upgrading to 10.7.4 is that the login screen is no longer the customized one that you had. For those of you who tried Mac tweakers like Deeper and Loginox (which are the ones that we tried, to no avail), they failed to change the login background. Did OS X 10.7.4 break Mac tweakers? Not exactly, it’s just changed where it keeps the background files, and is one reason why you are having difficulty changing the login background. Here’s how you can restore it to what it was before the upgrade.

mac login screen

Changing the login screen background requires nothing more than moving a few image files around and renaming them. The tricky part is to know where to look for these files. Go to the following folder and find the file named applelinen.png.

/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/LoginUIKit.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/Log inUICore.framework/Versions/A/Resources

Replace this file with whatever background image you want to set, and rename your file appleLinen. You will need administrative rights to make this change, and should use a 1400×900 image for best results, although it will depend on your display size as well. The image should be in PNG format. Once you’ve made this change, lock your screen and your new background will replace the default one.

It is likely that Lion tweaking tools will catch up to this change and have an update for it soon, but if you can’t wait that long and staring at the default login background is straining your eyes, you can change it in a few seconds.

Update: Both Deeper and Loginox has released a new version that supports OS X 10.7.4

10 Comments

  1. This doesn’t work properly on my MacBook Pro. When I use a 1440 x 900 image, the image is truncated on top and moved up so that the bottom of the screen remains linen with the Sleep, Restart, and Shutdown buttons on the linen portion. When I increase the height of the image to 1440 x 1270, it uses the bottom 900 to completely fill the screen, but the Sleep, Restart, and Shutdown buttons are gone.

    • Try Deeper and Loginox, both have been updated and are now compatible with 10.7.4

  2. I have a problem about the background. I have already chosen 1440*900, but it just shows part of it on the login screen, the other part is still grey, how can I deal with it?

  3. I tried to substitute the png with one of my own, size 1440×900, but it’s not displayed fullscreen, anybody knows how to fix this?

    • This really is a matter of the image size, You need a larger sized image, use the default desktop background image sizes as a benchmark to see which size is best.

    • http://browse.deviantart.com/?qh=&section=&q=bluish+mac+wallpaper#/d35ux5m