I don’t know about anyone else, but the default log in screen for Windows 7 is extremely… bland. After logging in about three or four times, I’m sure a lot of people would agree: as eventful as the default wallpapers can be in Windows 7, and how colourful some of them are, it kinda leaves it open for those that wish they could change the log in screen, especially because from what I’ve noticed, the default log in is blue no matter how we make the backdrop or the toolbar or anything else. I mean, sure we can change our personal picture to whatever we want, and that was one of the first things I did myself, changing it to a Dalek (if anyone is surprised, well, I have one ‘e’ word for you…) but after that, there wasn’t much I could do to customize it. Or so I thought until I came across a nifty little tool to help change the background image of your log in screen.

Tweaks.com is a site I had never heard of until recently, when StumbleUpon took me to their doorstep. On there, as a tweaker, I was amazed at the amount of stuff they provided to learn from and to do things, admittedly, with the default interface. While I’ve now switched to BBLean because of my install of SharpEnviro corrupting on me, and learning to adapt with it, to say the least, if I was still using the default Explorer interface, I’d certainly at least take a look if you’re wanting to know how to change things up a little.

But in their software lies one of the best little tools I’ve seen in forever: an extremely easy way of changing the background of your Windows 7 log in screen. Aptly named, they host a file called Tweaks.com Logon Changer for Windows 7 which does exactly as it says.

It is extremely easy to use. Hitting the Change Logon Screen opens a prompt so you can choose the image (which must be a JPEG because that’s what Windows uses) and then select the image. If it’s over the 245k size limit, it will make offer to make a clone of it to use, and then use the clone for the log in screen. The test button will show you exactly how the Log In Screen will look like in day-to-day use, and if you’re sick of your custom boot screen, you can always reset it to the default.

While it is a special one trick tool that does all this, I feel that it is better then manually trying to do this, though I know there is a manual trick you can use and do to change your log in screen in Windows 7. I personally prefer using this tool which makes my life extremely simple in changing the background to what my mood strikes.

– Tweaks.com Logon Changer for Windows 7 – (243KB)

And now, for the winners of the ALZip and SyncBack Pro licenses! The winner for ALZip is Enrico Tagle and the big winner of SyncBack Pro is Jorge Renteria. Congratulations to all that entered, winners, keep an eye open for those keys coming your way!

The .NET Messenger Service has been unavailable for quite a while today, which resulted in automatic disconnects all over the world.
All systems seem to be problematic at the time of writing.

This is the error (81000377) I got when trying to sign in to MSN Messenger.

Checked the .NET Messenger Service status and indeed there’s problem with the .NET Messenger Service.

There’s no workaround to get connect except to wait for the service to be restored 🙁

I still remember on one incident that there was a middle age arrogant student that thinks he knows all and he was in the same Windows 2000 class with me. He has already worked in an IT company for many years. That time the MCT (Microsoft Certified Trainer) was teaching us about ipconfig and he asked us to try to type the command. At first he had a blank look on his face because he didn’t even know where to type that command. When the lecturer told us that we can do it from run, he immediately claimed that he knew how to do it. He was looking at the keyboard and slowly typing the ipconfig command with his two index fingers. When he hit enter, he only saw a black window popping up and disappearing. Again, the blank look on his face…

To see the results of the command, he should open up a command prompt first by typing CMD at run and then followed by the ipconfig command. I don’t want to laugh at him or what but shouldn’t he be experienced enough to know that? There are many other command line tools such as nbtstat, ipconfig, ping, net, netstat, rasdial, tracert and etc that must be run in command prompt to see the results.

This may be troublesome for power users or programmers who frequently need to access console programs. To solve this problem, we can embed a command prompt into explorer itself.


Comamnd Prompt Explorer Bar is a small tool that extends Windows Explorer. Next time you need to run a program without GUI, just start the command prompt within explorer. Its current directory will be exactly the same as the current path you are browsing. And better yet the console will appear inside your explorer window – like any other explorer bar does – ‘History’, ‘Favorites’, ‘Folders’ etc. Now you can have the best of both worlds combined together – easy and fast navigation of explorer and power of batch processing of the command prompt.

At the left of the console window, there is a toolbar with some nice timesaving features. The most powerful is a button with a ‘Script’ icon on it. It has a drop down menu where you can select a command you like to be executed. It even knows how to substitute ‘{0}’ for the name of the current files selected in explorer. Here is when it can be useful. Let’s say you want to install your assembly into a ‘Native Images Cache’. With Command Bar it is as simply as selecting your assembly in explorer and clicking on ‘ngen {1}’ menu item. It also works just fine for multiple selected files (use {0} instead). Now you can compile your .cs or .vbs files without leaving a comfortable explorer shell. And yes, you can change this menu and scripts the way you like them. It is as simple as editing a text file in a Notepad.

There are two ways to start or hide the command prompt in Windows explorer. You can either go to View > Explorer Bar > and select Command Prompt, or just use the shortcut key CTRL+M.

I think Command Prompt Explorer Bar is one of the best power tool I found this year. It doesn’t even require to run an extra process to take up any memory usage for this feature and the best part is its FREE.

[ Download Command Prompt Explorer Bar | Webpage ]