Hello again!

I'm getting horrible at this whole blogging thing, but I've actually gotten into the habit of going out more often. It's good for me, but it doesn't give me much time to update this blog. I'm not gone for good though, and I actually have something pretty cool for you guys now. You know how I've been hacking things like the authui.dll to change my logon screen and whatnot for Windows 7? Well I've found a way to take screenshots from the login or lock screens. It requires a few files but it's pretty easy, and it's REALLY convenient if you want to show off your styles/hacks/whatever.

Okay first you need to sign into an account that has or can elevate to administrator privileges. Now you need to download Pstools and a screenshot utility. For convenience, I use the CLI (command line) screenshot utility, boxcutter. Extract the files from both archives somewhere easy to navigate, as you'll be accessing them from command line. I created a folder in my C drive called "Tools", so the location would be easy to navigate to, since it's simply C:\Tools. Run cmd as administrator, and change directory to the files you've downloaded. The command to change directories is "cd" without quotations, so for me the command would be "cd C:\Tools", again without quotations. The next command you enter is "psexec -dsx cmd.exe" without quotations. Now you either log out, or lock your screen, whichever you prefer. Hit keys Alt+Tab, and a command prompt should open. Now change directories back to the folder with boxcutter. After that, enter the command "boxcutter -f" without quotations. Boxcutter will take a full-screen screen shot for you, and save the picture to the clipboard. From there you can log in and paste the image into an image editor like Photoshop or GIMP or Paint.

Check it out, here's my login screen: