Windows XP has a great new look, but after a while, the new look
can get old.With the help of some cool tools and tricks, you can
change many parts of Windows XP.
This chapter will guide you through customizing two parts of your computer,
the boot screen and the Welcome/logon screen. You will learn how to
replace the boring boot screen with premade screens and even how to make
some of your own.
Then, this chapter will move on to customizing the second part of your
computer startup, the Welcome/logon screen. This screen can be customized
in several ways, such as selecting to use the new Welcome screen or
the old Windows 2000 style logon screen. Also, there are a handful of different
hacks that will help you customize each screen and make it look even
better.Would you like to replace the Welcome screen with a screen you
made yourself? You will also learn how to replace the Welcome screen and
how to make one of your own
Every time I turn on my computer, I am forced to stare at the boring
Windows XP boot screen. Although, I must admit, I found the moving
blue bars very amusing at first, after a few months, I became bored and
wanted something different. Although changing the boot screen is not a
feature that the Windows XP team at Microsoft has built into Windows,
doing so is still possible.
Changing the boot screen
The image that is displayed during the boot is hidden away in a system file
called ntoskrnl.exe. This system file is loaded during the system boot
and is what displays the boot image and animation.
When users first started to make their own boot screens, they would use resource hacking tools
to hack into the file and replace the old Windows XP bitmap image file with one that they
made. Then, they would swap the old system file with the hacked version of the system file so
that the new boot screen would be displayed.
The majority of users do not start off by making their own boot screen. Instead, they download
one that someone else made from the Web. Unfortunately, the only way to distribute a boot
screen is to share the system file that the author has hacked from his or her system. This
method of distributing boot screens works for some people, but it may cause serious problems
for the majority of users.
The problems of changing the boot screen
If you download a hacked system file with a new boot screen and replace the old file on your
computer, after you restart, you may find that your computer will not start and will give you a
nice error message. “C:\Windows\System32\ntoskrnl.exe is missing or corrupt.” Missing or
corrupt? Uh-oh. This is the most common problem that users experience when trying to
change their boot screen using the file swap technique.
Users that get this message, or any similar error message, are receiving it because they replaced
their system file with a file that is not compatible with their version of Windows XP.
Windows XP was released in many different languages for different parts of the world.
Each language version of XP has a slightly different version of code. Additionally,
Microsoft continuously releases software update patches to update the code of the system
files such as the monthly security updates and almost yearly service packs. All of these
factors result in several different versions of the boot screen system file floating around on
the Web.
You could find a boot screen file that was made from a hacked system file from the German
version of Windows XP. Or more commonly, you could find a boot screen that was made from
a hacked file from the original version of Windows XP.When you try to install that boot
screen on a computer that, for example, has Service Pack 2 installed on the English version of
XP, you will have problems.
Windows XP will only work with a specific version of the system file that contains the boot
screen. This arrangement complicates the change of the boot screen with the common file swap
technique. It will do so because users will have difficulty telling on what version of Windows
XP a particular boot screen that is distributed on the Web will work.
Users have to be aware of more than just the version problem. Because you are downloading a
hacked version of a critical system file that is executed during the boot sequence, you could
possibly download a version that someone modified and in which he or she put some variation
of malicious code that could harm your computer. Read the next section to find out how to
change your boot screen safely.
