Changing XP Start Menu Picture

[cousined]

A new question:

I have windows XP with the non-classic start menu. The picture box on top of the menu is empty (white) and I would like to put a picture in there. Read on, it is not that easy:devious:.

The easy way it to go to the user account and click "change picture". HOWEVER, I don't have this option. Further, my user account is not a local user account, it is a network user account. Finally, I never had the usual "welcome screen" to log in. I have to use the standard windows XP login (with user name, network name and password).

Alternatively, the picture can be change by clicking on it, but it does not work in my case. (would have been too easy)

I searched extensively on the web for a solution but with no results.

Questions:
1- Can I define a picture even though I cannot use the Welcome screen?
2- If so, is it with the registry, and under what key in that case?
3- If not, how can I do that?

Many thanks for your assistance,

D.

 

[LordOfLA]

I don't think network users can change their picture. Let me try now since I'm at work on a AD domain.

Edit: I don't have a space for a picture on my startmenu and I don't have an option to change it. While I'm not sure if it is the same for a peer-to-peer LAN I don't think it's possible with the information I have on this workstation.

 

[cousined]

Complement of information:

1- It seems that the picture is not truly part of the user description. Indeed, using third-party software to edit the user profiles (such as accountview), we see the local users but no pictures are related to the users.

2- I created a local user, and when I loggued with it, there is nevertheless no pictures in the start menu.

3- I also tried the obvious thing: to create a picture file .bmp in the directory "C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Microsoft\User Account Pictures" but it does not appear in the start menu when I log again.

Hence, from 1, 2 and 3, we might infere that the picture is placed in the start menu by indirect processes launched by the Welcome login screen. Are those indirect processes something like a registry entry at login? a copy of the picture file into (I don't know) System32 under a reserved name? A combination of both? or something else entirely?

If this is this kind of processes that are going on, it should be easy to write a quick script that will run them at login so that I would reproduce the effect of the Welcome login screen without have a Welcome login screen!

Thanks for your help or sharing your intuitions. Because I don't have access to a computer with the Welcome screen, I depend entirely on you for diging the information.

denis.

 

[omg its nlm]

I always wondered about this.

OT - Vista you can change it.