Screen background at starting computer
Hi there,
This is a feature request that keeps coming up and I’m hoping it finally reaches the right team.
We’d love to have a native way to change the macOS login screen background — that’s the screen you see before logging in, right after boot, where users enter their password. I’m not talking about the desktop wallpaper after login, but the actual pre-login screen background.
This would be extremely useful in environments like IT departments, schools, labs, or managed service setups, where differentiating machines at startup (visually) helps with organization and quick identification.
In older versions of macOS, there were some hacky ways to do this via root access, terminal commands, SIP disabling, and replacing system files — but these workarounds are fragile, OS-version-dependent, and not sustainable with the current evolution of macOS security.
Could you please consider adding a system-supported “Change Login Screen Background” feature, maybe tucked under system settings, or even available via a configuration profile or defaults command? Requiring admin rights is totally fine — we just need an official, stable way to do it.
Thank you for considering this (again). It really doesn’t seem like a technically heavy lift for your team, and it would make a big difference for many sysadmins and power users out there.
Best regards,
MacBook Pro 14″, macOS 12.1
