Windows 7/8/10 allows you to add a message that is displayed on the logon screen when users log in. To setup a message for users logging in on your computer, use the Local Security Policy editor.

The message is simply informational and doesn’t provide any kind of actual security. Depending on what you write, it can deter someone, but the message is removed once they click OK. Also, you can only edit the security policy settings on the Pro and higher versions of Windows. It won’t work on Home or Starter editions.

Table of Contents

    Edit Logon Message in Windows

    Enter the following into the Search programs and files box on the Start menu and press Enter or click the link.

    secpol.msc

    Searching for the Local Security Policy editor

    Expand the Local Policies node in the tree in the left pane and select the Security Options node.

    Selecting Security Options

    Double-click the Interactive logon: Message text for users attempting to log on setting in the right pane.

    Double-clicking the message text setting

    On the Local Policy Setting tab, enter your message in the text box and click OK.

    Entering a logon message

    We have seen instructions online that say all you need to display a message on the logon screen is to enter text for the setting mentioned above. However, we found that the message only displays when we applied a title to the message. To do this, double-click on the Interactive logon: Message title for users attempting to log on setting.

    Double-clicking the message title setting

    On the Local Policy Setting tab, enter a title for your message in the text box and click OK.

    Entering a title for the logon message

    To close the Local Security Policy editor, select Exit from the File menu.

    Closing the Local Security Policy editor

    Your title and message now displays on the screen before the available users are displayed. Click OK to select the user and log on.

    Message on logon screen

    To disable the message, simply go back into the Local Security Policy editor and delete the message and the title. Enjoy!