Alex Becherer

August 2006

( Monthly archive )

bad ui design

Thursday, 31. August 2006, 11:35:42

changing the boot image without 3rd party software

Wednesday, 30. August 2006, 17:15:14

you could of course get Bootskin from Stardock. but that´s ... well ... boring. let´s do it on our own and it´s still very easy. this is for Windows XP only and you won´t have a progress bar, but probably a nicer boot image than everything you can download from Wincustomize.com.

let´s go. we need a boot.BMP, sized 640x480 with 16 colors. let´s use Photoshop. if you use The GIMP or something else, it´s pretty much the same procedure.

1. find an image you like and make it 640x480 pixels.

2. then we have to set the color depth. Image --> Mode --> Indexed Color. we use a Local (Selective) palette and of course 16 colors. i also force the use of Black & White. i am not really sure if this is required, but i onced ended up with a fine BMP, but a screwed boot image, so i leave it that way.
also see image.

3. now we save the image as boot.bmp. ATTENTION: Photoshop will ask for the color depth in the BMP options dialog. for some reason 8 Bit is checked, that would be 256 colors. so we need to check 4 Bit.
also see image.

let´s place boot.BMP in the Windows folder. usually that´s C:\Windows\

now we have to modify the boot.INI. that file is already there at c:\boot.ini. open it with your text editor.
then save it to some other folder. let´s say to the desktop. also create a copy of the original boot.INI, there should be no problems, but just let´s be sure.

so now we have three files:
- c:\boot.ini (the original file)
- c:\backupboot.ini (the copy of the original file)
and the third one on the desktop that´s also called boot.ini. cofused? well, English is not my native language, so you´ll have to deal with that. at least i repeat everything twice.

let´s open the third file (the one on the desktop) and look at the [operating systems] section. seek your os, usually there´s only one unless you have two or more instances of windows installed. at the end of this line add /noguiboot /bootlogo
also see image.

save the file and copy it to C:\ . overwrite the existing boot.ini.
now reboot and enjoy your new boot image.

ahhh ... that´s better ....

Rewind for Styler Toolbar released

Tuesday, 29. August 2006, 14:24:47

first of all, you should not use Explorer. if you want to manage files, then get xplorer². get at least the free lite version ... NOW!!!
but even when you are using a real file manager Explorer pops up every now and then, for example to display the start menu entries of a freshly installed application. at least there is Styler Japan, so it can look a little nicer. here´s mine:

get the toolbar
Styler Japan website

there´s also a config for 3D Color Changer in the ZIP.
i am using the Windows Classic shellstyle. i just modded the colors a little (the background and foreground settings in the first UIFILE) and replaced the chevrons with fully magic pink images.

EDIT (july 30 2006): i just found out what the bandwidth setting means. skin is updated

2 skin releases

Thursday, 24. August 2006, 09:55:12

rainmeter, xion

i did a new skin for Xion yesterday. it has nice animated speakers based on the left/right speaker volume. please be sure to install the included font before running it, also note the display will only look good when ClearType font smoothing is off. it a port of this Rainmeter skin.

get the skin
Xion website

there´s also a new Rainmeter skin. and it´s a real waste of desktop space. maybe some of you can use it to see how to do animation in a Rainmeter skin. or you might want to put it above your Sodom & Gomorrah icon.