Hi all i have been looking at changing the windows boot screen now for a couple of weeks. I have heard good and bad points about this, but i am very curious on how to do it. I have read alot of articles on how to do it but never seems to work! Here is how they say to do it 1. Backup (copy) the file %windir%\system32\ntoskrnl.exe (most likely C:\windows\system32\ntoskrnl.exe - the boot screen) 2. Download the .zip to your computer (important: make sure to get the right version, XP or XP SP1) 3. Extract ntoskrnl.exe to a directory other than %windir%\system32 (most likely C:\windows\system32) 4. Reboot your computer into Safe Mode (hit F8 before the boot screen) or into true DOS (from a boot disk) 5. Overwrite the file %windir%\system32\ntoskrnl.exe (which should have been backed up) with the extracted exe 6. Reboot your computer as you normally would THIS DOES NOT WORK!!!! I know that there are third party programs that will do this for you but would like to do this manually. If anyone has any info on how to do this please post your comments. Thanyou
Nowadays in actuality, you need to make sure it's an SP2 boot screen if that's the version you're using. The fault in that setup lies with booting with the wrong kernel, you can hose your installation and face a repair. Third party installers work the best and the safest, but you can also do what they do manually. StyleXP uses modded boot screens but adds a startup menu exactly like I've posted below. However, you can also use BootSkin from Stardock which does not use modded kernel files and does not change your boot.ini file. Bootskin files are just a simple boot screen image and an ini file that tells the program what the screen looks like and where to put the progress bar. That's it...and it's the safest method to use screens. I've also seen Bootskin themes that are much more clearer to look at then modded kernel files. Almost as if it's not bound to the 16bit color format! StyleXP will cost you $20 to use, BootSkin is free. - You'll have to edit the boot.ini file and add another line that points to the new boot file. This will give you the option of booting to the modified boot files and your original incase the modded ones don't boot. Right click My Computer, go to Properties. Click on Advancd tab, go to Settings in the Startup and Recovery section. Click on the Edit button. The boot.ini file will open in Notepad. If you want to, you can save this original file to your desktop in case you need it. In the example below, you need to duplicate the last line of the string under operating systems, and add the /KERNEL=NewBoot.exe line. Whatever you decide to name your new kernel file will be what the additional line needs to say, NewBoot.exe is just used here as the example. In the "timeout" section, set that to at least 10 seconds if not 5 otherwise anything less may not give you enough response time to choose your original kernel should something go wrong. You can even change the text inside the "quotes" to anything you want it to say...I've shown that in the second boot line. The first boot line refers to your original boot kernel and will be the first selection in the boot order menu. After saving this file and closing it, the window in which you clicked on the Edit button will have a pull down menu where you can change this to have your modded boot screens at the top of the list. [boot loader] timeout=3 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" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="My Boot Screens for XP" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect /KERNEL=NewBoot.exe After adding this line, go to File - Save. Not Save As. Reboot and you'll see a menu to choose your boot screens. Hope that helps! and remember, the only major headache with doing this manually, is that when you choose to use another boot screen, you will have to modify the boot.ini file to the name of the kernel file. (note: The /noexecute=optin is an SP2 kernel boot line. You won't see that in XP, or XPSP1)
Thankyou for taking the time to write than mate! I shall try that method see what happens. I am running Windows XP Pro Service pack 2 so should be ok Again thanyou for this guide will let you know on the out come
Right tried this and works great! I have now edited my boot.ini file so my new boot screen loads up without selecting it!! Here is my boot.ini file [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 /KERNEL=backup.exe Seems to work great THANKYOU FOR THIS GUIDE!!
Yes, you can modify just the single boot loader line...but that's not recommended. If you point that line to a corrupted boot kernel, you won't be able to boot the system...even in Safe Mode.
