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Customizing the OS X 10.9 Mavericks Login Screen Background Image

  • December 12, 2013
  • 8 replies
  • 17 views
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Hi everyone - has anyone figured out how to change the background image used for the Mavericks login window? There doesn't seem to be an easy way to do it, and, my favorite free tool for doing this, Loginox, doesn't work with Mavericks yet, most likely because they are stumped too.

There's a couple of tips for this that can be found using Google, but what they are actually doing is modifying the Apple logo on the login window instead - and replacing it with a full screen image to mimmic changing the background image. That's not an option for me because this is going to be used on computers with multiple display sizes, and we already replace the Apple logo with our school logo (which is the same procedure as Mountain Lion).

Anyone else find this mystery out? Not the end of the world if I have to deploy without finding a solution, but it's something we've been doing for years. Thanks for the tips in advance…

    8 replies

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    • ewettach
    • Contributor
    • December 12, 2013

    We have done this and is much easier than dealing with the old SArtFile.bin file. You just have to replace a few PNG files.

    http://osxdaily.com/2013/11/04/change-login-screen-wallpaper-os-x-mavericks/

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    • Anonymous
    • December 12, 2013

    The freeware utility https://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/23001/deeper seems to be working with Mavericks 10.9.0.

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    • taugust04
    • Author
    • Valued Contributor
    • December 12, 2013

    @ewettach - thanks for the link. That's one of the tips I saw on Google, but it's not actually replacing the wallpaper file. Instead it's replacing the logo file with a super large sized wallpaper image instead. I don't know how elegant that will be when deployed to Macs with different sized screens. I deal with classrooms that are 1280x1024 all the way to 27" Thunderbolt displays, so that method might not scale well. I also need to use the Apple logo files used in this tip and replace them with our school logo instead.

    @pete_c - also thanks for the link. Downloading and trying now, and will report back with the results.

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    • ewettach
    • Contributor
    • December 12, 2013

    That is a good point. We are a Macbook Air only environment, so we have the same resolution. You could just have different packages of these files for each resolution. We baked the school logo into the png itself.

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    • taugust04
    • Author
    • Valued Contributor
    • December 12, 2013

    @pete_c][/url - I just downloaded Deeper 1.8, and I'm not seeing the ability to customize the background image or the logo. I tried using 1.7.1, on Mavericks, and it wouldn't let me run it. Had to upgrade to 1.8, and that feature for editing the background and the logo in the Login section is missing.

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    • taugust04
    • Author
    • Valued Contributor
    • December 12, 2013

    @ewettach - Yes a package per model is what I'm trying to avoid. We've got too many models of computers where I would want to deal with that. I'd rather just leave the background wallpaper color slate gray at that point. I appreciate the suggestion though!

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    • Wojenski
    • New Contributor
    • February 14, 2014

    Was there any progress made on this one?

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    • stevevalle
    • Contributor
    • April 28, 2014

    I am looking for a solution to this also. Has anyone had any luck with changing the background without removing the Apple logo?

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