How to Enable a Warning Message During Windows Logon Welcome (315232)

For a Microsoft Windows 2000 version of this article, see 101063.

IMPORTANT: This article contains information about modifying the registry. Before you modify the registry, make sure to back it up and make sure that you understand how to restore the registry if a problem occurs. For information about how to back up, restore, and edit the registry, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

256986 Description of the Microsoft Windows Registry

SUMMARY

This article describes how to add a warning message to be displayed when a user logs on to the computer.

Some users might interpret the "Welcome" logon dialog box as an invitation to breach system security. Although you cannot change the "Welcome" caption in the box, you can display a warning message box.

MORE INFORMATION

WARNING: If you use Registry Editor incorrectly, you may cause serious problems that may require you to reinstall your operating system. Microsoft cannot guarantee that you can solve problems that result from using Registry Editor incorrectly. Use Registry Editor at your own risk.

To enable display of a warning message, make the following changes in the registry:

Start Registry Editor (Regedit).
Locate the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE subtree, and then go to the following key:
SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon

Add or modify the following values:

   Name                 Data Type   Value
   -----------------------------------------------
   LegalNoticeCaption   REG_SZ      Dialog Caption
   LegalNoticeText      REG_SZ      Dialog Message

For example, the "LegalNoticeCaption" can be "Important Notice:" and the "LegalNoticeText" can be "No unauthorized access is allowed".

The user sees this dialog box after the user presses CTRL+ALT+DEL and before the user sees the logon dialog box. The user can click OK in the message box and log on normally. Quit Registry Editor.