How to Change Mac OS X Default Login Screen

Customising your computer is always fun. It’s quite possible that after months of logging in to your Mac through the same screen you might get bored and wished you could change it. There’s an easy and free way to do it.

Note: This tutorial will work for users running Leopard 10.5 as well as Snow Leopard version 10.6 on their Macintosh Computers.

Custom Login Screen on Macbook Pro

Basically, you just need to put an image of your choice into a System folder and rename it. However, Finder will not allow you to do it for security reasons. So follow these steps:

Changing the Login Screen

Copy the new image to /System/Library/CoreServices. Let’s call it oldimage.jpg
Launch Terminal. Don’t know how? Just type “Terminal” in Spotlight(Cmd+Space)
Type in the following commands:

cd /System/Library/CoreServices
sudo mv DefaultDesktop.jpg DefaultDesktop_bkp.jpg
enter your password and press enter, when asked for it. you won’t see any characters while you type it.
sudo mv oldimage.jpg DefaultDesktop.jpg

We also created a backup copy of the default image in case you might want to revert to it in the future.

Can’t find a good picture for your login screen? Check out our previous collections of Minimalist Apple Wallpapers:

10 Minimalistic Apple Wallpapers
10 more Minimalistic Apple Wallpapers

Let us know how you liked this tutorial and don’t forget to send us screenshots of your new login screens. In case you run into any difficulty, feel free to ask.