Display a Start Up Message in Windows XP before logging in.
Written by Karl L. Gechlik | AskTheAdmin.com on March 12, 2009 – 12:20 am -Before someone logs into your machine a message can be displayed. This is meant to inform you that you are being monitored or you are bound by some formal code of conduct.
You can use it to display a message in your absence to remind your buddies you are an all knowing Admin. You can do it pretty easily by displaying what Microsoft refers to as a legal notice at system start up.
- GO TO RUN
- REGEDIT
- Navigate to [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\policies\system]
- Change legalnoticecaption”=”Legal Notice“
- legalnoticetext=”AskTheAdmin is watching you.”
obviously you can replace Legal notice or AskTheAdmin is watching you with any text you want. The editors over here are pretty sure you can find some Funny Practical uses for this on your, or a public, PC…
Tags: funny, hack, prank, windows
Posted in General | 13 Comments »
By teicneoir on Feb 27, 2008 | Reply
I wish you can add a picture instead of text. I would like to use the "You are being monitored" sign.
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By AskTheAdmin on Feb 27, 2008 | Reply
Maybe a login background? Or have the image pop up using a gpo?
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By teicneoir on Feb 27, 2008 | Reply
I didn't think about a login background. That's a good idea. Thanks
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By Adam on Apr 15, 2008 | Reply
I think best practice is to do this through the local policy snap-in rather than edit the registry. Run secpol.msc – and go to local policies, security options, and its about halfway down, under interactive logon
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By AskTheAdmin on Apr 15, 2008 | Reply
and of course you could also roll it out via group policy. Thanks Adam!
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By Louie on Jul 19, 2008 | Reply
LOL! I'm going to try this on my friend's pc. He keeps messing it up and asking me to fix it. :P
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By DJenvyz on Jul 19, 2008 | Reply
heehe I'm with you except its my girlfriend. Im going to put a disclaimer… Blowjobs for tech support. lolz
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By El Di Pablo on Jul 20, 2008 | Reply
This works good as a prank by the way. I did this to one of the Help Desk guys, using remote registry. -EDP http://www.bauer-power.net “>http://www.bauer-power.net
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By El Di Pablo on Jul 20, 2008 | Reply
This works good as a prank by the way. I did this to one of the Help Desk guys, using remote registry. -EDP http://www.bauer-power.net “>http://www.bauer-power.net
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By Shane on Jul 22, 2008 | Reply
You can also use group policy as long as you aren't using a 'home' version Windows OS. Start -> Run. Type 'gpedit.msc' Computer Configuration -> Windows Settings -> Security Settings -> Local Policies -> Security Options. You should see two fields here: Interactive Logon: Message text for users attempting to logon Interactive Logon: Message title for users attempting to logon
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By Fishwalking on Mar 13, 2009 | Reply
Use caution if you use RDP to connect to a box that has a pop-up like this. You won’t be able to access the system and it can be very frustrating to track down the cause.
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Karl L. Gechlik | AskTheAdmin.com Reply:
March 13th, 2009 at 10:01 am
I have this on all my workstations (Not this message but something a bit more legal) XP Pro SP3 and I have no issues with connecting using Remote Desktop.
What happens to you Fishwalking?
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Fishwalking Reply:
March 13th, 2009 at 10:38 am
Tried to do something similar with XP sp2 through Local policy and couldn’t RD into it. Disabled and could, haven’t tried in a while, I’ll try it again and see what happens
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