Have you ever looked at the logon screen in Windows Server 2003 R2 and thought "Wait a minute. Something looks a little bit off here." Well, you'd be right.

 

In every version of Windows NT 5.x there are two banner bitmaps that are used on the logon screen. One used for the logon prompt, and the one used for the status messages between the differing stages of logging on. That is every version, except Server 2003 R2 (and also Windows XP Embedded, but anyway.). It looks like this:

 

 

For some reason Microsoft just never bothered to make two bitmaps. But I did:

 

 

See. Much better.

 

Most of you will probably think that this is totally stupid and doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things. But for those of you that do think it matters, here are what you need.

 

These registry values for Server 2003 R2 Standard Edition (only).

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\CustomBrand][HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\CustomBrand\{F20B21BE-5E3D-11d2-8789-68CB20524153}]@="r2brand.dll, -1001"[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\CustomBrand\{F20B21BF-5E3D-11d2-8789-68CB20524153}]@="r2brand.dll, -1002"[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\CustomBrand\{F20B21C0-5E3D-11d2-8789-68CB20524153}]@="r2brand.dll, -1010"[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\CustomBrand\{F20B21C1-5E3D-11d2-8789-68CB20524153}]@="r2brand.dll, -1011"

And this modified version of "r2brand.dll" with the new added bitmap images.

 

http://www.mediafire.com/download/786f3e33er8vao4/r2brand.dll

 

Note: This is not for the x64 Editions of Windows Server 2003 R2.

 

Replace r2brand.dll - through the Recovery Console or whatever method you have - first, then run the registry file.

 

_______________________

 

For those of you not running Server 2003 R2 Standard Edition, you'll need to delve into the registry a little bit.

 

 

Got to that part of the registry and you should find references to the same resource in r2brand.dll. The bottom two references are the banner for the logon prompt. One is a black and white basic image, and the other is the full colour version. (the one that needs to be changed). The full colour version that we need to change in this case is the 3rd one down in that list of four keys.

 

 

Change the value in that key to the number that corresponds to your version of Server 2003 R2. Example: If you have Enterprise Edition, use 1013. If you have Datacenter Edition, use 1015.

 

Reboot, and that should be that.

 

Sooner or later I'll come up with a registry file that works on all three major releases of Server 2003 R2, and then maybe the x64 Editions.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\CustomBrand][HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\CustomBrand\{F20B21BE-5E3D-11d2-8789-68CB20524153}]@="r2brand.dll, -1003"[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\CustomBrand\{F20B21BF-5E3D-11d2-8789-68CB20524153}]@="r2brand.dll, -1004"[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\CustomBrand\{F20B21C0-5E3D-11d2-8789-68CB20524153}]@="r2brand.dll, -1012"[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\CustomBrand\{F20B21C1-5E3D-11d2-8789-68CB20524153}]@="r2brand.dll, -1013"

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\CustomBrand][HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\CustomBrand\{F20B21BE-5E3D-11d2-8789-68CB20524153}]@="r2brand.dll, -1005"[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\CustomBrand\{F20B21BF-5E3D-11d2-8789-68CB20524153}]@="r2brand.dll, -1006"[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\CustomBrand\{F20B21C0-5E3D-11d2-8789-68CB20524153}]@="r2brand.dll, -1014"[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\CustomBrand\{F20B21C1-5E3D-11d2-8789-68CB20524153}]@="r2brand.dll, -1015"

Enterprise first, Datacenter second.

 

Here are the proper registry values for Enterprise and Datacenter versions. I've also included a compressed archive (rar) of all three .reg files and the modified r2brand.dll file. Which can be found here: http://www.mediafire.com/download/922gj7s3dg5ggcu/Windows+Server+2003+R2+Fixed+Logon+Bitmaps.rar

Edited May 8, 201511 yr by MrMaguire