Filed under: OS, Software, Hacks, Odds and ends
Visage Login - customize Mac OS X's login screen
If the design of Apple's Mac OS X login screen just isn't floatin' yer boat, Visage Login might be worth a look. With two separate versions - one for 10.4 and another for 10.1-10.3 - this is one of the few apps I remember where 10.3 users have some features to brag about over Tiger users. As an app for 10.4 Tiger, Visage Login allows you to alter the login screen's logo and desktop image, while a preference pane for 10.1-10.3 has the ability to run screen savers as your desktop background, personalize system alerts, randomize the login screen background, and more.Visage Login is shareware with a fully-functioning 3 day demo. A single license costs a mere $4.95, while a 50+ machine license for businesses and corporations is $29.95.
[via digg]

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Brian said 10:39AM on 12-04-2006
I think this is a good idea to use a tool like this to put your email and reward offer in the login window in case your machine is stolen. I use the free iQuip to add text ( http://www.freemacware.com/iquip/ ) , but this app looks like you can do a whole lot more than just text with it.
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Dominic Yates said 10:43AM on 12-04-2006
ONYX does this for nothing !! - and changing the background picture is also easy enough - just google it !! - This was on Digg earlier and got slapped down!
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wackybit said 10:28AM on 12-04-2006
You can make your screensaver run as your desktop background by typing the following into Terminal:
/System/Library/frameworks/ScreenSaver.framework/Resources/ScreenSaverEngine.app/Contents/MacOS/ScreenSaverEngine -background &
It is basically the command that Visage uses
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Joe said 10:49AM on 12-04-2006
Re: 10.4 and changing login screen wallpaper randomly
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I've been using a little script and a logout hook to do this for our computer labs.
The script:
#!/bin/bash
RANGE=`ls -l /Users/Shared/backgrounds/ | wc -l`
echo
number=$RANDOM
let "number %= $RANGE"
cp /Users/Shared/backgrounds/$number.jpg /Library/Desktop\ Pictures/Aqua\ Blue.jpg
This generates a random number, then pulls a wallpaper from /Users/Shared/backgrounds named with that appropriate number.
I then have a logout hook that runs this script. Pretty easy!
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Smaran said 12:44PM on 12-04-2006
Okay, I'm getting ticked off now. This is the second find of mine that TUAW has blogged about (the first was AppleKPro) and haven't accredited me. I, koregaonpark, am NOT digg. My name is Smaran, my nick on digg is koregaonpark. Could you please be a little polite and accredit people for finding stuff? Argh.
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Andres said 12:09PM on 12-04-2006
HD > Libary > Desktop Pictures > Aqua Blue.jpg
"Aqua Blue" is the wallpaper used as the Login background - to change it, just rename the wallpaper you want to use as "Aqua Blue" and put it in that folder.
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