LogonStudio Vista 1

LogonStudio is another entry in the excellent line of environment-controlling programs from Stardock. Although it's easy to swap in a new background wallpaper onto your screen, the "Log In" screen is another story. This app makes it just as easy to customize that screen, too.

LogonStudio Vista comes with four main options: Load, Download, Create, and Upload. Load lets you use Stardock's theme packages, while Download takes users to Stardock's WinCustomize.com community, where they can download free background images. Create lets you load a standard image format, like JPEG, into the program's database, and Upload takes users to WinCustomize.com to share their designs with others. The layout is familiar and basic, with the options in the narrow left nav and the main window filled with thumbnails. The app comes with four extra backgrounds to get you started.

We found the process to get a basic JPEG image onto our screen to be a bit convoluted, with the program needing the image to be loaded via the Create option, but once there it was easy to use. The option labels are a bit confusing, but other than that this is a fairly reasonable piece of freeware for those who want to doll up their Vista log-in screens.