How to get Windows 7 logon wallpaper to tile to other monitors?

Question

In 2000/XP/Vista it was easy to set a wallpaper for the logon screen, either manually through tools like Logonstudio or simple registry changes by hand on prepared installation images or through custom group policies.

In Windows 7 all this works as usual, but the secondary (or any additional) monitor is just black. The mouse pointer is visible on it but no matter what settings I can't get the logon wallpaper to tile (or stretch or fill or whatever) over onto it.

This makes it hard to OEM/company brand the installation for multi-monitor users. More annoying is the fact that it looks officially supported to brand the logon wallpaper in Windows 7 - as it's made extremely easy... apart from this little catch. XP and Vista has no problem tiling or stretching the logon wallpaper over multiple monitors.

Answer 1

I'm afraid this is not possible, as far as I'm aware the login GINA screens are only written for a single display source, thus preventing you doing what you are intending to do.
There may be some obscure tool out there to do it but I'm certainally not aware of one and have not come across one in over 6 months of looking, albeit on and off. ( I was trying to do the same on some of our Designers PC's)

on the plus side though there are many open source GINA's out there. perhaps there is one that suits our needs. i was reading an interesting article about them earlier: http://www.windowsitpro.com/article/security/pgina-open-source-gina-replacement.aspx

Answer 2

I believe you cannot display any logon wallpaper on the secondary (or third, etc.) monitor. The logon screen is only designed to show on the primary.

Answer 3

This is truly a limitation of Windows 7, introduced in Vista - it used to work in XP.

Even the DisplayFusion developers say :

The Windows 7 logon screen has no dual-monitor capability whatsoever, so we can't even develop a custom solution for it.

Your only option for screen lock (not logon) is a product such as the Clear lock freeware.

Answer 4

I have found a work around on Windows 8. (However still nothing on Windows 7)

Where you set the lock screen wallpaper.

(Settings>>Change PC Settings>>PC and Devices>>Lock Screen)

Enable the slideshow feature. Place desired wallpaper in its own folder and direct the slideshow to that folder only.

The image seems to slightly zoom in and slides image across screen. However will show up on all screens this way. Instead of the empty black screen on addition monitors.

Answer 5

As a counterpoint to this question, something you may not have considered, logon screen images are sometimes not such a good idea.

If you ever perform remote support, or your users log in remotely using Remote Desktop Connection (or a similar alternative) then you'll have plenty of time to regret that logon screen image while you wait for it to paint the screen.

Answer 6

(edit: just saw you mentioned LogonStudio already)

I don't think this is possible...although LogonStudio might work (although I've never been able to get it to work correctly with Win7.

There was mention for a while of including support for multiple monitors but the login GINA screens are only written for a single display source IIRC so it would be difficult to do what you want.

Again, you may look at LogonStudio and perhaps Ultramon.

I know that DisplayFusion allows for different backgrounds and extended taskbar but it won't do what you are asking (I run it on Win7 now).

It may also come down to the video driver software supporting "stretched" monitors (instead of clone or dualview support, something that turns 2 monitors into one big resolution)...but that may look ridiculous if the Login pics are stretched across two different monitors.

Hope that helps a little (perhaps?)...