First one, open up the following file and around line 94:

wp-admin/index.php

Comment out:

<?php wp_welcome_panel(); ?>

That should stop it coming up.

You can also customise it here:

/wp-admin/includes/dashboard.php

Around line 1271:

function wp_welcome_panel() {
	global $wp_version;

	if ( ! current_user_can( 'edit_theme_options' ) )
		return;

	$classes = 'welcome-panel';

	$option = get_user_meta( get_current_user_id(), 'show_welcome_panel', true );
	// 0 = hide, 1 = toggled to show or single site creator, 2 = multisite site owner
	$hide = 0 == $option || ( 2 == $option && wp_get_current_user()->user_email != get_option( 'admin_email' ) );
	if ( $hide )
		$classes .= ' hidden';

	list( $display_version ) = explode( '-', $wp_version );
	?>
	<div id="welcome-panel" class="<?php echo esc_attr( $classes ); ?>">
	<?php wp_nonce_field( 'welcome-panel-nonce', 'welcomepanelnonce', false ); ?>
	<a class="welcome-panel-close" href="<?php echo esc_url( admin_url( '?welcome=0' ) ); ?>"><?php _e('Dismiss'); ?></a>
	<div class="wp-badge"><?php printf( __( 'Version %s' ), $display_version ); ?></div>

	<div class="welcome-panel-content">
	<h3><?php _e( 'Welcome to your new WordPress site! ' ); ?></h3>
	<p class="about-description"><?php _e( 'If you need help getting started, check out our documentation on <a href="http://codex.wordpress.org/First_Steps_With_WordPress">First Steps with WordPress</a>. If you’d rather dive right in, here are a few things most people do first when they set up a new WordPress site. If you need help, use the Help tabs in the upper right corner to get information on how to use your current screen and where to go for more assistance.' ); ?></p>
	<div class="welcome-panel-column-container">
	<div class="welcome-panel-column">
		<h4><span class="icon16 icon-settings"></span> <?php _e( 'Basic Settings' ); ?></h4>
		<p><?php _e( 'Here are a few easy things you can do to get your feet wet. Make sure to click Save on each Settings screen.' ); ?></p>
		<ul>
		<li><?php echo sprintf(	__( '<a href="%s">Choose your privacy setting</a>' ), esc_url( admin_url('options-privacy.php') ) ); ?></li>
		<li><?php echo sprintf( __( '<a href="%s">Select your tagline and time zone</a>' ), esc_url( admin_url('options-general.php') ) ); ?></li>
		<li><?php echo sprintf( __( '<a href="%s">Turn comments on or off</a>' ), esc_url( admin_url('options-discussion.php') ) ); ?></li>
		<li><?php echo sprintf( __( '<a href="%s">Fill in your profile</a>' ), esc_url( admin_url('profile.php') ) ); ?></li>
		</ul>
	</div>
	<div class="welcome-panel-column">
		<h4><span class="icon16 icon-page"></span> <?php _e( 'Add Real Content' ); ?></h4>
		<p><?php _e( 'Check out the sample page & post editors to see how it all works, then delete the default content and write your own!' ); ?></p>
		<ul>
		<li><?php echo sprintf( __( 'View the <a href="%1$s">sample page</a> and <a href="%2$s">post</a>' ), esc_url( get_permalink( 2 ) ), esc_url( get_permalink( 1 ) ) ); ?></li>
		<li><?php echo sprintf( __( 'Delete the <a href="%1$s">sample page</a> and <a href="%2$s">post</a>' ), esc_url( admin_url('edit.php?post_type=page') ), esc_url( admin_url('edit.php') ) ); ?></li>
		<li><?php echo sprintf( __( '<a href="%s">Create an About Me page</a>' ), esc_url( admin_url('edit.php?post_type=page') ) ); ?></li>
		<li><?php echo sprintf( __( '<a href="%s">Write your first post</a>' ), esc_url( admin_url('post-new.php') ) ); ?></li>
		</ul>
	</div>
	<div class="welcome-panel-column welcome-panel-last">
		<h4><span class="icon16 icon-appearance"></span> <?php _e( 'Customize Your Site' ); ?></h4>
		<?php
		$ct = current_theme_info();
		if ( empty ( $ct->stylesheet_dir ) ) :
			echo '<p>';
			printf( __( '<a href="%s">Install a theme</a> to get started customizing your site.' ), esc_url( admin_url( 'themes.php' ) ) );
			echo '</p>';
		else:
			$customize_links = array();
			if ( 'twentyeleven' == $ct->stylesheet )
				$customize_links[] = sprintf( __( '<a href="%s">Choose light or dark</a>' ), esc_url( admin_url( 'themes.php?page=theme_options' ) ) );

			if ( current_theme_supports( 'custom-background' ) )
				$customize_links[] = sprintf( __( '<a href="%s">Set a background color</a>' ), esc_url( admin_url( 'themes.php?page=custom-background' ) ) );

			if ( current_theme_supports( 'custom-header' ) )
				$customize_links[] = sprintf( __( '<a href="%s">Select a new header image</a>' ), esc_url( admin_url( 'themes.php?page=custom-header' ) ) );

			if ( current_theme_supports( 'widgets' ) )
				$customize_links[] = sprintf( __( '<a href="%s">Add some widgets</a>' ), esc_url( admin_url( 'widgets.php' ) ) );

			if ( ! empty( $customize_links ) ) {
				echo '<p>';
				printf( __( 'Use the current theme — %1$s — or <a href="%2$s">choose a new one</a>. If you stick with %3$s, here are a few ways to make your site look unique.' ), $ct->title, esc_url( admin_url( 'themes.php' ) ), $ct->title );
				echo '</p>';
			?>
			<ul>
				<?php foreach ( $customize_links as $customize_link ) : ?>
				<li><?php echo $customize_link ?></li>
				<?php endforeach; ?>
			</ul>
			<?php
			} else {
				echo '<p>';
				printf( __( 'Use the current theme — %1$s — or <a href="%2$s">choose a new one</a>.' ), $ct->title, esc_url( admin_url( 'themes.php' ) ) );
				echo '</p>';
			}
		endif; ?>
	</div>
	</div>
	<p class="welcome-panel-dismiss"><?php printf( __( 'Already know what you’re doing? <a href="%s">Dismiss this message</a>.' ), esc_url( admin_url( '?welcome=0' ) ) ); ?></p>
	</div>
	</div>
	<?php
}

The issue with these methods is that you are editing core code, so those changes will be needed everytime you update your WP install. The advantage is no extra code cancelling out other code so this is most efficient.

And the easiest is this plugin right here:

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/hide-welcome-panel-for-multisite/

Hope this helps.

Take care.

The custom admin text is kind of tricky to remove all of that wordpress content because some of it is <a href" and if I try to include html in the text change box it blanks out the screen so I went in to dashboard.php and edit directly from there...

And white label CMS only works at the editor level not at the admin level.

The permissions idea will help with the images, great.

as a regular Member I was wondering the same thing until I decided that I would keep it and just change the text to what I want via the Custom Admin text Plugin

I also changed the image manually and permission-ed it 444 Read Only so that during a WordPress Update it could not be overwritten.

I also just now dismissed it from the dismiss section on the test blog and it is gone.

Actually cannot figure out how to bring it back now ..... lol

But I found an answer that I think will completely meet you needs to your specification & satisfaction, check out:
White Label CMS

To YOUR Success!

Joe :-)

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