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 ....
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 ....
WIDGETIZE