Using another app, Loginox, allows you to jazz up the default Login screen on Mac OS X. Instead of getting a whole new lock/Login screen, Loginox lets you change the Login screen’s default background image and logo in a matter of minutes.
Getting Started
Note: Loginox works on Mac OS X 10.5 – 10.8.
- Download the Loginox Mac app from their official website.
- Drag and drop the Loginox file to your Applications folder.
- Open the application, and you’ll see the Loginox application window.
Changing the Login Image
You’ll see your current login image displayed in the square on the left side of the window. Just drag the image that you want to use as your login image to the square on the right side of the window.
Click on the “Set new Login image” button to save the image that you’ve just dragged over.
Since Loginox is making important changes to your account, you’ll be prompted to enter your Mac OS X account password. Once you do so, you should see the new Login image (that you just saved) on the left side of the window.
Changing the Login Logo
Now it’s time to change the Login logo on the Login screen, so click on “Login logo” at the top of the application window. The current Login logo is the Apple icon; you should see it on the left side of the window.
Like the Login image, drag the new Login logo that you want to use to the right side of the application window. If you don’t want to use a logo, you can click on the “Don’t use a logo” button.
Click on the “Set new Login logo” button to set the new image as your Login logo.
Again, since Loginox is making important changes to your account, you’ll be prompted to enter your Mac OS X account password. Once you do, you should see the new Login logo (that you just saved) on the left side of the window.
Loginox in Action
To see Loginox in action, you’ll need to log out of your account. You can do this by going to the Apple menu and then pulling up on the “Log Out (your name here)” menu option. Alternately, you can use the Shift+Command+Q keyboard shortcut.
Once you are completely logged out, you should now see your newly customized Mac Login screen in all its glory. As you can see in the screenshot above, I have a new background image on my Login screen and a new logo – the “Do Not Enter” sign above my image.
Conclusion
As you can see, this is a very easy way to replace the default background image and logo for your Mac login screen. In just a few short steps, you can change up the look of your Login screen as often as you’d like.
