change boot screen windows xp manually

Before you begin Don't confuse the boot logo with the desktop background or the system login screen. What we're referring to here is the Microsoft Windows XP Professional flag that you see before you log into your system. For the purposes of this article, we'll be replacing a key component of Windows XP. Make sure you have a full backup of your system before attempting to make these changes. If you make a mistake, you may have to completely reinstall Windows XP. Not for the faint of heart Back in the Windows 9x days, it was easy to modify the boot logo. All you had to do was replace one simple file and you were set and ready to go. Microsoft made the task much more difficult under Windows XP. Windows XP's boot logo is embedded within the NTOSKRNL.EXE file. This is the main kernel for the entire operating system. That means that you can't just swap out one image file for another. Instead you have to hack the NTOSKRNL.EXE file, find the XP boot logo, replace it with your new logo, and save the NTOSKRNL.EXE file. It may sound simple, but it's not. And, as I said before, NTOSKRNL.EXE is a key component of Windows XP. If you damage the file and make a mistake, you won't be able to boot your workstation. There are ways to do this manually that you can find on the Internet. Doing research for this article, I discovered that manually hacking the NTOSKRNL.EXE file can be an exercise in frustration. Fortunately, there's an easier way. Using a freeware utility called Boot Editor, you can change Windows XP boot files relatively quickly. Getting ready Before you dive into the process, you'll need a few things in advance. First, you'll need a copy of Boot Editor itself. You can find out about the program by going to the Boot Editor Home Page. Unfortunately, at the time this article was prepared, you can't download Boot Editor from this site. Instead, you can obtain Boot Editor here. The file you want, booteditor.zip, is under 700 K B in size, so it will download quickly.

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How to Change Read Only Files or Folders How to Run JavaScript on Apache How to Change DOCM Files to DOC How to Open a CST File Windows XP enables users to change the desktop background, screen saver, color scheme and other settings via the Control Panel, but businesses can employ scripts and modify system files to personalize the operating platform even further. To switch the splash screen from the default image to your organization's logo, create a 16-color, 640-by-480 bitmap version of the logo and change the boot configuration to load your personalized screen. 1 Open in an image editor, such as Paint, the image to use as the new splash screen. Tips Make sure to convert the image to 16 colors, or 4-bit, before saving the file as BMP. The process to convert the image varies depending on your image editor. References National Instruments: How Do I Change The Boot Screen on my XP Embedded Touch Panel. She received an A.A. in English literature from Valencia College and is completing a B.S. in computer science at the University of Central Florida. Ranbe also has more than six years of professional information-technology experience, specializing in computer architecture, operating systems, networking, server administration, virtualization and Web design. Related How to Change SATA Mode in Ubuntu Downloading XP Repair Disk How to Delete a Write-Protected File How to Find a DSL Modem's IP Address How to Transfer MHT Files to JPG How to Burn DVDs on an iMac Most Popular How to Get a Subdirectory in Windows How to Mount an MDF on a Mac How to Download Photos From a Samsung Galaxy Note 3 to My MacBook Pro Can Files from Quickbooks for PC Be Imported to Quicken on a Mac. Although it's nice to see a quick reminder of Microsoft and your operating system, you may want to change the boot logo to display something different, such as your company's logo. Doing so is difficult, but it's not impossible.

Figure B Create a new boot screen. You'll then see the default Windows XP boot screen appear, as shown in Figure C. You can view other bitmaps in the NTOSKRNL.EXE file by selecting the screens from the Bitmap drop-down list box. Figure C Boot Editor loads the default boot logo from NTOSKRNL.EXE The first thing you should do is save the palette for the boot logo to a temporary file. Click Save As PAL. Provide a file name in the Save As screen. You'll have to apply this palette to the BMP file you want to use as your new boot logo. XP is very picky about the boot palette, so if you don't apply it to the logo before importing it, the logo may not look the way you want when you restart the computer. How you do so will vary depending on the paint program you're using, so I can't tell you specifically how to do it here. I used Paint Shop Pro and got good results. After you've modified your boot logo, right click the current XP boot logo in Boot Editor and select Load A New Image. When the Open window appears, find your new logo and click Open. You'll then see the screen shown in Figure D. Figure D Load your new image into Boot Editor. As you can see, the Professional label and the blue load graphic still exist on your new image. That's because these items are actually stored in different layers of the image. You can remove the Professional label by right-clicking it and selecting Delete This (Temp) Bitmap. You can also drag the blue load graphic up and down vertically on the image. You can't locate it anywhere else on the logo, however. You'll then see the screen shown in Figure E. Figure E You can now create your new boot file. Here you want to make sure the Clear All checkbox in the Overlays box is selected. Additionally, make sure that Delete Unused Bitmaps is selected. Click OK. Boot Editor will then create a new NTOSKRNL.EXE file with your new bitmaps applied.

Second, you'll need a copy of the logo you want to use in place of the Windows XP logo. The boot logo restrictions are very tight. The file you use must be in BMP format. Additionally, it must be at 640 x 480 resolution. The color depth must be 16 color. You can use any graphics program you want to create the file, but you must meet those restrictions. With a little bit of additional hacking, you can increase this color depth, but that's beyond the scope of this article. Third, you'll need a copy of the NTOSKRNL.EXE file. You don't want to modify the original in case you make a mistake. You'll find the NTOSKRNL.EXE file in the C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32 directory. Create a copy of it called NTOSKRNL2.EXE. Just use the Copy and Paste function in Explorer. Do NOT rename the file. This is the file you'll be modifying. To play it extra safe, you may want to create a copy of the NTOSKRNL.EXE file on a floppy diskette. Hacking the file Now that you've made your preparations, you're ready to go. Create a subdirectory on your C: drive named BootEditor and extract the files in the booteditor.zip file into it. Unlike most Windows programs, BootEditor doesn't include an installation wizard. All you have to do is extract the files. You'll also need copies of msvbvm60.dll and comctl32.ocx. Download the files to the BootEditor folder and extract their contents. Next, double-click Booteditor.exe. Boot Editor will ask you if you want to read the Readme doc. Primarily the Readme file contains information about version history, but you should read through it anyway. After you do so, you'll see the screen shown in Figure A. Figure A Boot Editor allows you to change XP boot logos. You'll then see the screen shown in Figure B. Here, you'll enter the name of your new boot screen in the Name Of New Screen field. Leave a check on the Put A Copy Of Ntoskrnl.exe checkbox. This will cause Boot Editor to create a copy of NTOSKRNL.EXE in its temporary folder for modification.

This will launch Notepad with a copy of your boot.ini file. Be very careful when making changes to this file. If you make a mistake, you may cause your XP workstation unable to boot. Close System Properties and reboot your workstation. It should now start without a boot logo.Tech could help some patients see a way forward. Tech could help some patients see a way forward. Informa PLC's registered office is 5 Howick Place, London SW1P 1WG. Registered in England and Wales. Number 8860726. Every time a service pack or hotfix replaces one of these files, you must perform the following procedure again. This procedure is provided as is and works as shown; please don't email me to ask for specific assistance.You can't use the registry or a configuration file (e.g.,.ini file) to modify this background. However, you can modify the bitmap resource, which stores the background image, in the ntoskrnl.exe (the Windows kernel) file that's active during the boot process. You'll need to copy the ntoskrnl.exe file and replace the bitmap resource with the bitmap you want to use. If you want to modify an XP boot screen but you're not up to the challenge of manually modifying ntoskrnl.exe, you might want to try BootXP. When you modify an XP boot screen, you'll need to download a 16-color Windows palette and 16-color viewable palette from the Windows 2000 FAQ Web site. Otherwise, the bitmap image that you create for your boot screen will appear as just a black image. When XP displays the bitmap image, it loads the colors from a standard palette, which complicates the process of replacing the bitmap image for the XP boot screen. The general steps for replacing the boot screen image in both XP and Win2K are as follows:After you load the viewable palette, the boot screen bitmap will appear on screen. The screen will go black again. If you're modifying a Win2K boot screen, continue to the next step. For example, you would changeIf the boot process fails, select the unmodified boot option.

You'll also see a dialog box appear noting that Boot Editor has copied the new boot kernel to your Windows\System32\ folder called NewBoot.exe. As part of the process, it also modifies your Boot.ini file to add a copy of the new boot screen to your workstation. Click OK to clear the screen. You can now view the new boot screen. Shut down your workstation and restart it. When the workstation restarts, you'll see XP's Boot menu. Making the new boot screen permanent Once you've got your boot screen the way you want it, you can make it permanent. To do so, you must modify boot.ini. Right-click My Computer and select Properties. When the System Properties screen appears, select the Advanced tab. Click the Settings button in the Startup And Recovery box. When the Startup And Recovery screen appears, click Edit. This will launch Notepad with a copy of your boot.ini file. Be very careful when making changes to this file. If you make a mistake, you may cause your XP workstation unable to boot. Click OK to close the Startup And Recovery screen. Click Settings again to reload the screen. Click the Default Operating System dropdown list box and select the new boot screen choice you just entered. Remove the check from Time To Display list Of Operating Systems. Close System Properties and reboot your workstation. It should now start with the new boot logo. To reenable the original boot logo, follow the above procedure but this time select the original line. Completely eliminating the boot logo If you want, you can complete eliminate the XP boot logo altogether. Doing so will make XP boot up a little faster, but it will also cause you to miss boot up messages such as disk checks. To turn off the boot logo, right click My Computer and select Properties. When the System Properties screen appears, select the Advanced tab. Click the Settings button in the Startup And Recovery box. When the Startup And Recovery screen appears, click Edit.

So, by emptying theIn my tests, I’ve also found that after emptying theHack Your BIOS for Faster Startups When you turn on your PC, it goes through a set of startup proceduresSo, if you speed up thoseHow you run this utility varies from PCBoot Up Floppy Seek Disable this option. When it’s enabled, your systemBoot Delay Some systems let you delay booting after you turn on your PC so thatRegistry clean-up tool to delete unneeded Registry entries and speedIt also createsDownload it from. After you clean out your Registry, you might want to try compactingThe Registry Compactor, available fromIt’s shareware and free to. Speed Up Shutdown Times It’s not only startup times thatIf shutting down XP takes what seemsTo shut down XPWhenever you turn off XP from now on, the paging filePC without having to spend money for extra RAM is to stop unnecessaryAnd while youFor example, on many systems, the Wireless Zero Configuration ServiceEliminating Programs That Run at. Startup But with a little bit ofCleaning out the StartupMenu\Programs\Startup, where is your Windows logon name. Delete the shortcutsNext, clean out your Scheduled Tasks folder. GoUsing the System. Configuration Utility TakingConfiguration Utility, shown in Figure 1-4. To runRun box and press Enter. (If that doesn’t work,Utility To stop a program from running at startup, go to the StartupStartup tab. Some, such as America Online, are clearly labeled. ButAs you can see from the picture. I’ve chosen to let this useful tool run on startup. To get more information about a listing, expand theWhen stopping programsYou want to make sure thatIf it runs fine, stop anotherSystem Configuration Utility to disable a program from startingSo, run eachUsing the Registry to halt programsYou might also need to hack the. Registry to disable them.

To do so, run the Registry Editor The right pane will contain a list of some of the programs thatThe Data field tells you the path andDisabling Services That RunWhile you needBut the System Configuration UtilityBut when you disable aA better way of disabling services at startup is via theRun it by typingThe Services. Computer Management Console includes a description of all services soIt also lets you pause the service so that youThis view will show you aIn the PropertiesIf you want the serviceTo test the effects of turning off the service, turn off any servicesScheduler Updates Windows updates. (You can check manually by going to.) Pro only) Windows Messenger.) For more details, see Chapter 7. But there’s one thing these hacksLet’s say, for example, you have a laptop thatInternet connection, and other times you travel with it, so it is notWhen you use it when you travel, you useYou don’t need toIdeally, you would have one set of programs that runAdvanced StartUp Manager—a piece of sharewareThemes service that lets you apply themes to your PC. If youRegistry, or the Win.ini file. Where you wantTo add a program, just highlightWhen you have built a profile with all the programs you. Configuration as, and then choosing a name for the profile. Create asOpen Backup, and choose the profile you want to load. AfterBe aware thatXP, choose the profile you want to run next time you start XP, andFor software to customize shutdowns, try ShutDown NOW!Switch Off ( ), a simpleIt lets you scheduleNOW!, but it’s free. Miscellaneous Startup and Shutdown Hacks You can control the way you start up and shut down your PC inShutdown and Reboot Shortcuts XP involves a several-step process: click the Start menu, choose Shut. Down, and then select Shut Down or Restart. If you want, however, youYou can also use the shortcut toThe Create Shortcut Wizard appears. In theBut you canYou can add any combination of several switches to do extra duty,Shutdown window.

Just be sure you always have an alternative boot option and that you don't change the original ntoskrnl.exe while experimenting. For example, bitmap 8 for XP is the three progress bars that scroll across the screen during the boot process (you can change this bitmap by following the steps I outlined above and substituting bitmap 1 for bitmap 8). I've noticed that when I edit a bitmap in Paint Shop Pro and save the image under a different name, the new picture is a different size. As a result, when I insert the image into ntoskrnl.exe and attempt to boot the system, the boot process fails and displays an error message indicating that the system can't find ntoskrnl.exe. You must save the bitmap image over the existing file that you used Resource Hacker to export. Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically. Lines and paragraphs break automatically. There are 2 ways to do this trick that I know about one is doing it manually and the other is using a program called bootxp. I am going to tell you the manual way to do it, but if you want to know the other way just let me know, so I can do an update to the guide. Now once you have downloaded your ntoskrnl.exe file save it a general location so that you will have easy access to it, like my folder. Once into safe mode go to the folder where your files are located. Probably not much. Press a buttonYou can create boot menus and choose fromIn this chapter,Customize Multiboot Startup Options If you’ve installed another operating system (inAfter the 30You might not be able toTo make it visible, launchWindows Explorer, choose Properties, uncheck the Read-Only box, andFollowing is aWindows 2000. Professional: Following are details about how to edit the entries in each section: Use a value ofSo, in our example, if you change the menu settings so that theXP uses theIn our example,So, if you havePartitions start with the numberOperating System.” TheTable 1-1 lists others you can use. Table 1-1.

Switches for boot.ini In network safeXP boots into the command prompt. It also offers otherIn our example, if we want the menu to appear for 45 seconds, theFor example,For the version of the operating system that loads in Safe Mode butConfiguration Utility You’ll be able to addXP’s default splash logo on the startup screen; useDon’t like the wayTake my splash screen,Many people, myself included, would prefer to see a more interestingYou can change your splashTo choose from already created splash screens,Screens. You’ll find more than 1,000 of them,You can see it pictured inIt will be downloaded as aWarning It’s possible that something will go wrong with yourRestore and following the instructions. If something goes wrong, youUnzip the contents of the.zip file into theService Pack 1 installed, you might have to use a different file,Right-click My. Your version ofIf you have Service Pack 1,The ntoskrnl.exe So, to change your boot screen,But wait: there’s more. Warning Never download and use a boot screen that is packaged inside aAlways use.zip files andFor details about how to detect and killThat’s not quite the case, though. First you have toHowever, ifTip Windows File Protection protects many other files, not justNow copy the newMode this time. Now your new splash screen will appear every time youThere are times when I wantMonroe, or Al Pacino from the movie Scarface,I’ve made a startup menu that lets me choose whichTo create a startup menu, first download all the screens you want toCopy the existing primary XPAlso edit theFor example, if theIf you have a laptop, forBuild a Startup Screen from Any Graphic Perform a Boot Defragment There’s a simple way to speed up XP startup: makeTo make sure that boot defragment is enabled on your system, run the. Registry Editor The next time youWarning I’ve found many web sites recommending a way ofThe tip recommends going to yourBy using this index. XP can launch files and applications faster.

A maximum of 127 characters can be used. The messagePC, Num Lock, Scroll Lock, and Caps Lock don’tYou can automatically turn each of them onRun the Registry Editor By default, it isSet it to any of the followingWhen you restart, the new setting will take effect. Stop Error Messages from Displaying on Startup If you constantly see an Run the Registry Editor and go toExit the Registry and rebootTo disable it, either delete theXP gives each process, service, or application 20 seconds to closeIf the process,To do so, run the Registry Editor and goEdit the value by enteringThe default is 20000, or 20Control User Logins by Hacking the Registry To control logon options, run the Registry Editor NT\CurrentVersion Winlogon subkey, which contains a varietyIf the value isTo edit the value, click the decimal buttonManager from older Windows versions. Type in the name of the program. XP’s default splash logo on the startupMany people, myself included, would prefer to see a more interestingTo choose from already created splash screens, go to and click on Boot. Screens. You’ll find over a thousand of them,Wild, I use a picture of huskies for my splash screen. YouNice way toIt will be downloaded as aWarning It’s possible that something will go wrong with yourIf something goes wrong, you can revert to that restore point. Unzip the contents of the.zip file into theService Pack 1 installed, you may have to use a different file, namedIf you’re notThe ntoskrnl.exe So, to change your bootscreen,But wait: there’s more. You might think that all you have to do is copy the newThat’s not quite the case, though. You first have toHowever, ifProtection won’t kick in and you can safely copy theNow copy the newMode this time. Your new splash screen will now appear every time youThere are times when I wantMonroe, or Al Pacino from the movie Scarface,I’ve made a startup menu that lets me choose whichTo create a startup menu, first download all the screens you want toCopy the existing primary.

XP entry and appendAlso edit theFor example, if theIf you have a laptop, forBuild a Startup Screen from Any Graphic Preview the graphic, and ifYou can also use the program to download. See Tip 3 at the bottom of this page for another way you can open the System Configuration Utility. Important: Do not make any changes in the System Configuration Utility other than those that we've outlined here. Doing so could cause serious system issues given that this utility controls a number of startup activities other than those involved with disabling the splash screen. Click on the BOOT.INI tab located at the top of the System Configuration Utility window. This option is at the bottom of the System Configuration Utility window, in the Boot Options section. Note: Make sure you pay attention to which checkbox you're enabling - there are several choices in the Boot Options section. Note: What you're doing at this step is actually editing the boot.ini file. To see how to do this manually, see Tip 4 ? below. You will then be prompted to either Restart, which will restart the PC immediately, or Exit Without Restart, which will close the window and allow you to restart the PC manually like at a later time. After the restart, the PC will boot into Windows XP without showing the splash screen. This will result in a slightly faster boot time. Note: Windows XP will continue to boot in this manner until the System Configuration Utility is configured to again boot normally. Tip 1 below explains how to reverse the steps from above to make the splash screen reappear. After Windows XP starts back up following the System Configuration Utility change, you'll be prompted with a notification that says that you've changed the way Windows starts. You can exit that message - it's just a follow-up notification telling you that a change has been made. If you'd prefer to use a Command Prompt to open the System Configuration Utility, you can do so with the start msconfig command.

If you don't know how to do that, see our guide on How to Open Command Prompt. To open the boot.in file, open the System applet from the Control Panel and then go into the Advanced tab to find the Startup and Recovery section. Use the Settings button there, and then the Edit button on the next screen, to open the boot.ini file. Tip: All of the above steps could be replaced by opening boot.ini with a text editor. The file is located on the root of the C drive. To reverse this step, either remove what you just added to the INI file or follow Tip 1 above. This key is usually used to enter the Windows Startup menu or the Advanced Boot Options. After reaching the Startup Settings menu, users can press the F4 to boot into Safe Mode: If you don’t have this option listed, it means that the necessary system recovery tools aren’t installed on your hard disk. On Windows 8, you can press the Windows and R keys to open Run You may need to restart your computer to apply these changes. Before restarting, save any open files and close all programs.Choose an operating system to start, or press TAB to select a tool:Tools:If you’d like to have a recovery USB instead, follow our instructions on how to make a recovery USB. It’s available for Windows 8, Windows 7 and Windows Vista. It’s also available for Windows XP and Windows Server. Download recovery disk for Windows Vista. For settings and more information about cookies, view our Cookie Policy. By clicking “I accept” on this banner or using our site, you consent to the use of cookies. AVG Styler is included in the current version of our tuneup product. Click on an image to see an enlarged preview. A well maintained XP installation can still boot pretty quick from a standard hard drive, even on lower spec machines, but users are always looking for ways to eek out those extra seconds to make it desktop usable even quicker. Highly used systems on the other hand, over time start to slow down and booting starts to take longer and longer.

As we know, claims by people that your PC could start 3 or 4 times quicker if you use their software is generally fanciful unless Windows has a severe problem in the first place. As XP is a tweakers paradise there are many tricks and techniques you can try yourself to help improve the time it takes to boot, possibly up to 50% or 60% in the right circumstances. And of course, this costs nothing but a bit of patience and your time. Here’s a handful of useful tips and tricks to hopefully help get your Windows XP machine booting faster: Disabling Unnecessary Startup Programs One of the most common ways of boosting startup performance is turning off many of the programs that start with Windows and usually appear in the system tray. A lot of software seems to try and install something that gets loaded during boot and a most of it is completely unnecessary for the software or hardware to function properly. Go to the Startup tab and look at the items that have a tick beside them. Anything that you think you could do without, untick and then click OK. If you miss the program when you reboot and would like it back, simply go back to msconfig and tick the item again. A great cleaning tool that allows you to easily edit your startup items and much more besides, is CCleaner. Stopping Windows Services you don’t need. When Windows XP boots there are a number of background programs that also start called Services. A number of these services are loaded for tasks and features on your computer you may have no intention of ever using. As a result, turning these unneeded services off means they won’t try and start with Windows, reducing boot time and and memory used by the system. Services listed as “Automatic” are the ones that start with Windows, those listed as “Manual” are loaded only when required. Click on a service to get a brief description of its function.

Look at the image above, the “Wireless Zero Configuration” service is running even though the system has no Wifi, so this service can be disabled. If you ever need to reset which services run and which don’t by default, have at look at out article on how to reset them. To disable a service, double click on it to open the properties window, click the “Startup Type” drop down, select Disabled, then Apply the change. On reboot the service won’t start. A great resource to get more information about Windows Services and what might be safe to disable is BlackViper’s Windows Service Configuration Guide. A useful compromise is if you’re not totally sure about whether the service will affect you, set it to Manual instead of disabled, this way the service will still load but only if called upon. Turning off the Recent Documents History By default Windows keeps track of all the documents, text files and pictures you open and shows you a list of the most recent in places such as the “My Recent Documents” option in the Start Menu. These lists are calculated during boot which adds a small amount of time to the boot process. If you can live without it, there’s no harm in disabling recent documents. As this is controlled by an entry in the registry, we have made a couple of registry files which you just download, double click on and import. There’s 1 to disable recent documents, the other to enable again. Then double click on it and change the value to 1. Rebooting the computer will cause the change to come into effect. Disabling the Windows Logo Boot Screen If you’re looking to squeeze every last second out of boot speed optimizing, disabling the boot logo will potentially save another few. The boot logo is the animated screen at the top of this article you see when booting. The only real downside to this is you won’t get to see secondary screens like the Windows Checkdisk screen if the system is trying to run a hard drive scan etc. Then press OK.