When RDP'ing into a brand name computer (Dell, HP etc) it can take an age for the default background to load before the login screen is available. To remove it, 1. Open Regedit 2. Go to HKUD\Control Panel\Desktop 3. Find the wallpaper value, probably pointing to something like C:\WINDOWS\system32\whatever.BMP 5. Delete the contents and click 'OK' 6. Close Regedit