If you are sharing your PC with other people like friends or family members or if you are managing multiple PCs, then you might have faced situations where you want to communicate some sort of message even before a user has been logged in. There may be several reasons for this like to display a legal notice, tell users of their default folder on the network drive, tell users that the PC is being monitored, etc. Even if you are a single user, displaying custom messages like contact info can be quite helpful, especially for laptop users. No matter what the reason is, here is how you can display custom messages when a user tries to log into his/her PC.
Display Custom Message on the Windows Login Screen
To display a custom message on the Windows login screen, you can either use the Windows Registry or the Local Security Policy. I will show you both ways. You can follow the one that you are most comfortable with. Do note that Local Security Policy is not available in Windows Home versions.
1. Displaying a custom message via Windows Registry
To display a custom message on the Windows login screen using the Registry, press “Win + R,” type regedit and press the Enter button.
The above action will open the Windows Registry. Here, navigate to the following key.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software/Microsoft/Windows/Current Version/Policies/System/
On the right pane find the value “legalnoticecaption,” right-click on it and then select “Modify.”
The above action will open the Edit String window. Under the “Value Data” field, enter the message title and click on the “Ok” button to save the changes.
After that, find the “legalnoticetext” key, right-click on it and then select the option “Modify.” In the Edit String window, enter your message text under the Value Data field and then click on the “Ok” button to save the modifications.
Once you are done with the changes, this is how it will look in your Windows Registry.
From this point oward you will see a message when you try to log in to your Windows machine.
2. Using Windows Local Security Policy Editor
If you are using the Pro version of Windows, then you can also use Local Policy Editor to add a custom message to the Windows login screen.
To do that, search for “Administrative tools” in the Start menu and open it.
Once the administrative tools window has been opened, double-click on the shortcut “Local Security Policy.”
Note: you can also access Local Security Policy from Group Policy Editor by opening it and navigating to “Computer Configuration -> Windows Settings -> Security Settings.”
Here in the Local Security Policy window, navigate to “Local Policies” and then to “Security Policies.”
Once you are here, find “Interactive logon: Message title for users trying to log on” and double-click on it. In the settings window enter the message title and click on the “Ok” button to save the changes.
Next, find and double-click on “Interactive logon: Message text for users trying to log on.” In the settings window enter your message body and click on the “Ok” button to save the changes.
Your custom message will now be shown on the Windows login screen every time a user tries to log in.
Do comment below sharing your thoughts and experiences about using the above methods to display the custom message on the Windows login screen.
Vamsi is a tech and WordPress geek who enjoys writing how-to guides and messing with his computer and software in general. When not writing for MTE, he writes for he shares tips, tricks, and lifehacks on his own blog Stugon.