Win2k3 Blacked out Logon Screen Fix

I recently had a Windows 2003 Server installation that ran out of disk space on the operating system partition due to known problem with Symantec Endpoint Protection 11 virus definitions (KB2007111509244948). After fixing the Symantec problem, my servers logon screen remained strangely messed up. The logon screen was completely blacked out with only the blinking cursor in the active field visible. I could still log in and the server functioned otherwise fine, but even using RDC (remote desktop connection) the logon screen was completely blacked out.

After some searching on the Internet I found another person who had the same issue and claimed that it had to do with settings in the registry. So I exported the following registry keys from a working system and imported them on my problem system and voila! No more black logon screen.

I had the same exact problem after Win2k3 server crashed due to not enough hard disk space. I edited the registry as below and changed the colors by modifiying RGB values. All my values were 0 0 0 (black).
This fixed it fine.

[HKEY_USERS.DEFAULTControl PanelColors]
“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”=”212 208 200”
“InactiveTitle”=”128 128 128”
“InactiveTitleText”=”212 208 200”
“InfoText”=”0 0 0”
“InfoWindow”=”255 255 225”
“Menu”=”212 208 200”
“MenuText”=”0 0 0”
“Scrollbar”=”212 208 200”
“TitleText”=”255 255 255”
“Window”=”255 255 255”
“WindowFrame”=”0 0 0”
“WindowText”=”0 0 0”


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2 responses to “Win2k3 Blacked out Logon Screen Fix”

  1. Brandon Avatar
    Brandon

    I had this same exact issue. Thank you for the resolution, worked perfectly.

  2. Rich Avatar
    Rich

    This worked perfectly. I had to enter them manually, but all Good Now!!

    Thank you!!