How to fix a black Windows logon screen

Last week one of my servers had an strange issue. After pressing CTRL-ALT-DELETE to log on, the log on window turned almost completely black (as you can see in the screenshot).

Google gave me the answer, but I still have no idea how this could have happened.

To set the colors back to default, you have to import values to your registry. You can
a) Download the registry setting and just open the file. It will automatically import the settings.
https://www.itexperience.net/files/colouredlogonscreen.reg

or you can

b) Create the registry file by yourself. To do so, follow these steps:
1) Click Start, click Run, type Notepad and press ENTER
2) Copy and paste the following text to your Notepad file

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[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"="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"

3) Save the file as Colors.reg. In the Save dialog box choose "All files" as file type. This will make sure that you save the file as a *.reg.
4) Open the file you just created. You will be prompted whether or not you want to import the settings. Choose Yes.

Good luck! 🙂