If you have grown rather tired of the standard Mac OS X login wallpaper image, there are several different methods to accomplish a wallpaper background change that are quite simple. If you are new to the Mac world, you could use a system utility named Loginox, which once installed, will make simple work of it. I personally have not installed this tool. Mainly because it’s very seldom that I change my login wallpaper.
Another method is by utilising the command line of OS X, of which I have detailed the steps below. As I am comfortable with using the command line, I much prefer this method.
Dependencies:
- A desired JPG wallpaper image of your liking is required. One can find some very talented designs of wallpapers at DeviantART, InterfaceLIFT, etc.
Considerations:
- It is considered best practice to create a backup of any file(s) prior to being altered, of which is provided within the guide below. Also, I found that it is best to properly resize the JPG image to match your monitor’s resolution size. This can be accomplished with any graphic editing software, such as Pixelmator, or with Mac’s inherent Preview application.
Applies to:
Procedural Guide:
-
Launch a terminal session within your Mac operating system by:
- selecting Applications
- then, Utilities
- then, Terminal.app
-
Place your desired wallpaper into your home directory. To determine what the path of your home directory is, simply type at the command prompt:
pwd
-
Using your terminal session, create a backup of your current DefaultDesktop logon wallpaper: Note: You will be required to provide your password as the DefaultDesktop.jpg image is considered a system file.
sudo mv /System/Library/CoreServices/DefaultDesktop.jpg /System/Library/CoreServices/DefaultDesktop.jpg.old
-
Once a backup of your current logon wallpaper image has been completed successfully, then, simply place your new logon wallpaper into position:
sudo cp MyNewDefaultDesktop.jpg /System/Library/CoreServices/DefaultDesktop.jpg
-
Restart your computer for the changes to take effect.
-
Note: If you wish to undo your handy work, simply type:
sudo cp /System/Library/CoreServices/DefaultDesktop.jpg.old /System/Library/CoreServices/DefaultDesktop.jpg
For those who are uncomfortable with messing about within the computer’s system files, there is another alternative that is again, quite simple. Once can alter the ‘com.apple.loginwindow‘ preference file to pointe at a different path where the JPG image is located. However, many times a wallpaper image file is accidently moved to the bin, and therefore your preference file will need to once again be altered to reflect the proper path. To alter the ‘com.apple.loginwindow‘ preference file, the following example is provided:
sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginwindow DesktopPicture "$HOME/Pictures/MyDifferentWallpaper.jpg"
