Windows XP Boot Logo Tutorial Options

[hamesh]

Tools Needed:

1). Jasc Paint Shop Pro (http://www.jasc.com)
and/or Adobe Photoshop (http://www.adobe.com)

2). Windows notepad

3). Boot Editor (http://userxp.belchfire.net)

Other Recommended Tools:

1). Boot XP (http://www.bootxp.net)

2). Winzip (http://www.winzip.com)

Authors Note:

This tutorial is going to explain the
easiest possible way to change the boot logo & the safest, I�m not going to
waste your time by trying to make it seem difficult by using the resource hacker
because that is not needed at all. Follow me step by step and you will agree
that this is the easiest way possible to change your boot logo cleanly and
professionally.

Keep in mind some images cannot be
turned into a boot logo because of too many colors, so make sure you do not use
an image that has too many colors in it. In the �Tools Needed� section it would
be wise to keep these programs open throughout the explanation of the tutorial
as you will be going back and forth quite a bit.

Steps:

1). Open Boot Editor & follow the setup
instructions on the website you downloaded it from, click �File� located on the
upper left on the top toolbar & then from the drop down menu click �New� now
choose a name of the folder & your options you wish to use (make sure �Under
Base Folder� & �Put a copy of ntoskrnl.exe file there� are checked). Added note
it always asks this and if the folder is already created it generates an error
so I suggest you name a new folder every time you make a new logo or delete the
old folder.

2). Now still in Boot Editor you should
be looking at the Windows XP Logo, right click it and choose �Open For Editing�
(you can also edit the progress bar by choosing a different image from the drop
down list located to the right of �Bitmap�, just above the left of the image) &
notice the rectangular square located near the bottom (where the progress bar
flows through). You will need to add that to your images so do as I have done
and save yourself a headache, cut around the image then paste it as its own
image & then just use the magic wand tool to select the outer black that was
part of the background & then do the inner black. My method was to use Adobe
Photoshop & I used the zoom & marquee tool to make sure no black was left inside
nor out (in paint shop pro it is called the Selection tool), either editor is
fine it�s just a matter of what you feel comfortable with. Now add that to your
image (After I finished I saved this as a psd file as well in Adobe so I never
need to repeat this again, you may wish to do that as well).

3). Open Paint Shop Pro & size your
image down or up to 640x480, click the �Colors� option located on the toolbar
across the very top of the program & now from the drop down menu select
�Decrease Color Depth�, finally click on �16 colors (4bit)� (I use this because
I do not know how to drop the color depth to 16 colors in Adobe) then save it to
your preferred location (doesn�t matter as we will be editing it later again.
Now go back to the boot editor & right click once again but this time choose
�Load A New Bitmap�� & load your previously saved image. Now notice your
progress bar outlining probably won�t line up with the progress bar (in Boot
Editor you can move the progress bar up and down so the outlining can go
anywhere from top to bottom but the left of the outlining must line up with the
left of the progress bar, this means you will have to edit the photo and line up
the outlining of the progress bar on your image so go back to the program you
edited it In & if you followed my directions to close nothing you will have no
problems. Now if you used Adobe to add the outlining after saving the image to
bitmap you will notice most of the time it only allows you to save it as 8 bit &
if that happens you will have to open the image in Paint Shop Pro again & lower
the color depth. Once you have it lined up & in the proper color depth go to the
next step.

4). Now in Paint Shop Pro your finalized
image should still be open but if you closed it and disregarded by suggestion to
keep everything open then you will need to open Paint Shop Pro & load the
finalized image with the lined up progress outlining, now on the upper toolbar
click �Colors� then �Save Palette�. I will explain a brief thing about the
palette so be sure to pay attention to this step as this is highly important
otherwise your logo will look like crap. Go to the folder where you saved the
palette & right click it, choose open with & then choose notepad (if notepad is
not an option then click �choose Program� & find notepad). Now that you have
done that you will see Jasc-Pal then under it 0100 and under that 16, those are
in every palette and can be ignored but not deleted so bypass those and look
below it. You will see 16 rows of numbers divided into 3 sections, those are
your RGB amounts & the only 2 you need to worry about are the first 2. The first
one will be the color of the small rectangle that will show in the top left hand
side & the background color of the progress bar if you have a white background
change the first set of 3 numbers to 255 255 255 or a black background 0 0 0, I
think you get the point on the first one & if not then change it to the opposite
color of your background and you will see what it is later, next one under it
must always be black so make sure you choose 0 0 0 for the second set. Once you
are done editing it in notepad save it & proceed to the next step.

5). Now in boot editor choose Load .pal
& load the .pal you edited, now click make & in the next screen put a check in
the first 3 check marks and on the combo scroll box make sure �Main - #1� is the
image it reads, click the check mark under that that also reads �Main - #1� &
the following four options under it for the progress bar is solely up to you.
Under those progress bar choices are 2 more boxes, place a check in both of
them. Click �Show info� button on the lower right and enter anything you want
(this is just the name of your project and the version if you want to add that).
Now just click �OK�

6). Now if you downloaded Boot XP or are
using any other program to load new Boot Logos just zip your ntoskernl.exe &
info file if you so wish, it should be in the first folder we mentioned in step
1. If you do not know have any of these programs I really suggest you download
one as they will not touch your original boot logo but will load the logos you
choose safely & the best part is they can be loaded from a zip file so all you
have to do is make your logos their own folder & add the zip files in one neat
place. On the website with Boot Editor is also a very cool and free boot loading
tool you can use but I�m not sure if it loads from a zip file.

[WinSrev]

In bootxp all my bootscreens come out a werid colours, its all distorted.

[hamesh]

Haven't used BootXP in a while, but bootscreens have 16 colours only. But if you use a standard jpg or gif and BootXP converts it to a bitmap, it likely uses the default Windows 16 colour palette, causing the resulting image to look distorted.

Try our exclusive Bootscreen Bitmap Creator to convert your favourite images to fully optimized bitmaps using custom palettes. Should look much better.

[WinSrev]

Its even worse now, the convertor is fine, it shows the correct colours but this is what its like when it loads up:
Is there any other software apart from bootxp?

[hamesh]

Then it's BootXP. It likely doesn't have support for custom 16 colour palettes. Try LogonUIBootRandomizer instead. It's free. Best to uninstall BootXP first though - not a good thing to have two bootscreen programs installed.

[WinSrev]

Sorry if i didnt explain enough but i'm trying to create a boot screen but that software you recommend doesnt do that.

[hamesh]

Boot Editor on the same page - that creates bootscreens.

[WoLoLO]

Omfg this tutorial is the pwntneage!

[Pazuzu]

Ok...

I have tried using the Boot Editor to change the palette. The palette switches over, but when i go to save the palette, it crashes with: "Error 52" Invalid file name or number.

What is up? Also...when i go to Test after I make it, it is just the standard boot screen.

The image is the correct size and correct color depth.

[hamesh]

Could it be something really silly like the patch or filename being too long? Try renaming the file to 8.3 characters and drop it right in your C:\ folder. Sometimes that works.

[Pazuzu]

Ok...tried what you suggested...didn't work. Could it possibly be because im using XP SP3? I found a boot screen on here, but the boots are for either SP1 or SP2, and im trying to make it for SP3 and of course i am running into this problem. The boot screen I found was called Cheetah...or something along those lines.

[hamesh]

Yes, very likely. Boot Editor hasn't been updated in a while so likely doesn't support SP3. There are a couple of others but you'd have to Google for them. I'll check around and post any findings.

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