Black logon box and text fields on Windows Server 2003

James Clements — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 11:16:53 +0000

I had a problem the other day when I went to logon to a server using RDP and the text fields where you enter your username and password were black! I typed in my credentials anyway and found that I could still logon to the server. After this there seemed to be no other issues.

Here is what I was presented with when I tried to logon:

Around the time it happened I remember the OS volume running extremely low on space and figured it may be a corrupt user profile. So I renamed the profile and then tried to logon to the server again using Remote Desktop. I was again presented with the same logon screen with black text fields. After a quick search on the Microsoft knowledge base I came across an article that seemed to offer a workaround:

KB906510

I had a quick check of the HKEY_USERS\.Default\Control Panel\Colors registry key and surely enough lots of the colours were set to "0 0 0":

[HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Colors]
"ActiveBorder"="212 208 200"
"ActiveTitle"="10 36 106"
"AppWorkSpace"="128 128 128"
"Background"="102 111 116"
"ButtonAlternateFace"="181 181 181"
"ButtonDkShadow"="64 64 64"
"ButtonFace"="212 208 200"
"ButtonHilight"="255 255 255"
"ButtonLight"="212 208 200"
"ButtonShadow"="128 128 128"
"ButtonText"="0 0 0"
"GradientActiveTitle"="166 202 240"
"GradientInactiveTitle"="192 192 192"
"GrayText"="128 128 128"
"Hilight"="10 36 106"
"HilightText"="255 255 255"
"HotTrackingColor"="0 0 128"
"InactiveBorder"="0 0 0"
"InactiveTitle"="0 0 0"
"InactiveTitleText"="0 0 0"
"InfoText"="0 0 0"
"InfoWindow"="0 0 0"
"Menu"="0 0 0"
"MenuText"="0 0 0"
"Scrollbar"="0 0 0"
"TitleText"="0 0 0"
"Window"="0 0 0"
"WindowFrame"="0 0 0"
"WindowText"="0 0 0"
"MenuHilight"="0 0 0"
"MenuBar"="0 0 0"

I exported the same registry key from another server (that wasn't affected) and imported it into the registry of the server that was displaying the black logon screen. After logging off and back onto the server (no reboot necessary) the colours had returned to what they were previously:

The registry key values I exported came from a Server running Server 2003 Enterprise Edition but I have compared them to those of Server 2003 Standard Edition and they are the same. You can download the correct registry values from here:

Download registry values for KB906510

Regkey to disable XP dial-up connection logon

James Clements — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 11:34:47 +0000

Here is a registry key I run from a startup script to disable the option that allows users to invoke a "Log on using dial-up connection". Having had experience of working in a school I know how kids will use any excuse to distract them from logging onto a computer and starting the lesson!

Here is the logon screen before the registry key has been added:

Here is what happens if a user selects the "Log on using dial-up connection" checkbox before logging on:

Setting the following registry key will disable the checkbox, disabling all users from using the dial-up connection feature:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon

you will need to manually create a new string value (REG_SZ) called RasDisable. Set the value's data to 1.

Here is the final result:

And finally here is what I wrote to add the regkey to all computers using a KiXtart startup script through Group Policy:

;===============================================
;===============================================
;
; DISABLE LOGON USING DIAL-UP CONNECTION
;
;===============================================
;===============================================

IF READVALUE("HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon", "RasDisable") <>"1"
WRITEVALUE("HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon", "RasDisable", "1", "REG_SZ")
ENDIF

NOTE: I've noticed that the quote marks are not displayed properly on this page. Here is the KiXtart script in its intended form:

Download Here

JJClements.co.uk » msgina

Black logon box and text fields on Windows Server 2003

Regkey to disable XP dial-up connection logon