Customizing Windows IoT Enterprise LTSC boot and login branding for hotel Kiosks

Hello,

For a fully branded kiosk experience on Windows IoT Enterprise LTSC, you need to combine several of the built‑in lockdown features that Microsoft provides specifically for dedicated device scenarios. To remove all traces of the default Windows startup branding and replace them with your hotel’s own visuals, you should configure Custom Logon and Assigned Access together with Shell Launcher v2.

Custom Logon is the feature that suppresses the standard Windows UI elements such as the startup logo, background, and taskbar. It allows you to hide the default boot animation and replace it with your own branding. Shell Launcher v2 lets you replace explorer.exe with your proprietary kiosk shell application, so operators never see the desktop or taskbar. Assigned Access ensures that only your kiosk app runs in the session, locking the device to a single experience.

For the login screen, you can use the Branding and Custom Logon policies to change the background image and suppress system UI elements. Combined with Shell Launcher, this ensures that after boot, the user is taken directly into your medical or hospitality UI without exposure to Windows branding. If you need to replace the spinning dots animation during boot, that is controlled by the boot graphics resource in the OS image, and Microsoft supports customizing it through OEM branding packages when building IoT Enterprise images.

In practice, the configuration sequence is: enable Custom Logon to hide Windows branding, configure Shell Launcher v2 to launch your kiosk shell binary, apply Assigned Access to restrict the session to that shell, and use OEM branding packages for boot animation replacement. Together, these features give you a seamless, fully branded kiosk experience where the operator only ever sees your hotel’s UI.

I hope you've found something useful here. If it helps you get more insight into the issue, it's appreciated to accept the answer. Should you have more questions, feel free to leave a message. Have a nice day!

Domic Vo.