Tutorial: The [Safe] way to change your boot screen

[Merturk_NB]

Many people want to change their Windows XP box away from that horrid XP logo at the boot up. All I have been able to find are kernel patchers or other third party programs to do this ... until now!

To start, let me say:
BE CAREFUL AND BACKUP BEFORE YOU MAKE CHANGES

Now, the first thing to do is open up the drive Windows XP is installed on. Look for the file boot.ini
If you don't see this file, you have to change your folder options.
Go to "Tools>Folder Options"
Next, Go to the View tab, and uncheck the following boxes:

1. Show hidden files and folders
2. Hide extensions of know file types
3. Hide protected system files and folders

Once you do this, click Apply and Ok.
Now you should see the boot.ini file.
Right click on the file, and select Open With ... > Notepad
The first thing to do is backup, so choose File>Save As .. and select a place to backup this file to. DO NOT KEEP THE SAME FILE NAME

After you have done this, close notepad, and right click again on the boot.ini file. Go to Properties and at the bottom you will see the Attributes section. Uncheck the Read Only box.

Now, you can reopen the file in notepad.

Here is the contents of my boot.ini:

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect /noexecute=optin /bootlogo /noguiboot

notice the two bolded switches. Add these to your Windows XP operating system just like I have done here.
DO NOT USE THE CONTENTS OF MY BOOT.INI FILE FOR YOUR MACHINE

The hard part is over.

Now, go to Start>Run ... and type mspaint
In paint, create an image with these dimensions 640x480
and save it as a 16-color .bmp file in your "My Pictures" folder.
Open up "My Pictures" and make a copy of that image. Rename it to boot.bmp
Right click and copy that image to the clipboard.
In your window, type %systemroot% in the address bar, and paste that image in that folder. (should be your Windows folder)

Now, when you reboot, the image you have made will appear during the system boot.

For all you Naabal Brotherhood peeps, I have a boot.bmp just for you :-D

http://hwcommunity.com/image.php?ima...9-bootable.JPG

just save it as a 16-color .bmp file

[Void]

That's pretty good! Now i'll see the NB crest every time i'll boot

[Homdax]

I think im gonna make that my avatar some thin like it...Nice going.
I never really trust those softwares out there. Why use something You do not know what it does, when You can do it yourself?

[Caesar]

Works as advertised, but it seems to prevent pagedefrag from running at boot.

[Merturk_NB]

Caesar

I've looked into that problem.

When you have something run at boot, it's running, but you just can't see it. It perplexed me when I tried an avast boot time scan or a diskeeper boot time defrag.

just leave it alone and it will automatically finish and reboot. (in diskeeper's case)

[Mogolov]

Intriguing, thats something i didnt know before. Will surely try this out at home, I knew it could be done, just a question of how.

[Laz]

What about the progress bar? Is there any way to make it visable too? Perhaps a custom Progress Bar to go along with that custom boot screen? (Nudge, Nudge) i was thinking about making gears turning, or perhaps like a side veiw of a belt system like in the engine of a car for a progress bar. Gemme ur thoughts!!

[Merturk_NB]

that is way above my skills

[whats_true]

Hey, mine says this in the boot.ini screen

[boot loader]
timeout=3
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Windows XP Media Center Edition" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
C:\CMDCONS\BOOTSECT.DAT="Microsoft Windows Recovery Console" /cmdcons

And it's file name says boot.ini.backup

Is it alright to do the same thing?

[fudge_dragon]

Hmm. I just tried this and although my image is 640x480 and definately 16 bit, my boot screen winds up... well... Pink! The image is actualy anything but (Its a necron logo). Anyone got any ideas whats up

[Homdax]

See if this helps: http://forums.relicnews.com/showthread.php?t=110350

It is quite possible that Merturks method is safer though.

Image 640x480x16 colors. That is 16 colors, NOT 16 Million.

[torahteen]

Yes, quick note. He said 16 Colors. Do NOT mistake this for 16 bit! 16 colors = 4 Bit.

[northrup]

Regarding animated progress bars:
I think that's a catch that Microsoft may have put in: "if you don't wave the Windows flag, you don't get progress bars. Or more than 16 colors. JOKE'S ON YOU!" There may be an additional switch in boot.ini but I doubt it; there's not one documented anywhere for all I know. You could see if you can find the normal Windows bootscreen, back it up, and edit that to your liking. It'll probably be in the Windows directory (or, if not, then in System or System32). Maybe the "winnt.bmp" and "winnt256.bmp" in the Windows directory? This may also get logos that have more than 16 colors.

@whats_true
Is there both a boot.ini and a boot.ini.backup? If so, are they the same? If there is a boot.ini and a boot.ini.backup, you should be safe as long as you only edit boot.ini. Already having the backup saves you most of the trouble