Change Your Bootscreen !!!

Change Your Bootscreen
[Vista tips]
*** NOTICE: Failure to follow these directions explicitly may brick your PC. This should only be performed on stable rigs, and backup your data first. I accept no responsibility, but I have tested it on Vista Basic, HP, ULT, and Business, bricking only Vista Basic. If you are *sad* enough to have Basic, I recommend not trying it. Not for n00bs, @ your own risk! This is only for U.S., English installations of Vista. ***

* First and foremost, you will need this or this. So, go grab a free trial of whichever one appeals to you most, unless you already have a Win32 resource editing tool. The two posted are easiest to use, with the most noob-friendly GUI's. Now, you need to make a new working directory. Name it "Z:\bootscreen\", or designate whatever letter you want to. Substitute paths as needed, but for this example I am calling it "Z:\bootscreen\". This directory will eventually hold the winload.exe.mui file that you are going to modify. Also, I assume that your Vista installation is on "C"... again, substitute your paths as needed. First, use your Win32 editing tool (which you may have just grabbed from the hyperlinks) to open C:\Windows\System32\Boot\winload.exe, and then select "resource 1" in the "RCData" resource section (there is only one RCData resource on most rigs, sans certain enterprise configurations). Save the contents of this file to your new directory as "Z:\bootscreen\winload.wim" (last reminder, sub "Z" for your choice as needed). This .wim file is your boot screen bitmaps, which you can modify using any bitmap editor... I use ImageX, but it is not exactly n00b friendly. Now, you need to create a mount directory in the working directory (Z:\bootscreen\mount\). After this path is created, you need to mount the .wim file and enable write access by running the following via CMD:

imagex /mountrw Z:\bootscreen\winload.wim 1 Z:\bootscreen\mount

Note that "imagex" is your bitmap editor... sub as needed if you choose not use imagex. If done right, you will find two bitmap files in your Z:\bootscreen\mount\ folder:
osload800x600.bmp & osload1024x768.bmp. You can now replace these files with any bitmap pic you want, but they must be .bmp and have the same aforementioned names and resolutions. After you have edited the bitmaps to your liking, execute via CMD:

imagex /unmount Z:\bootscreen\mount /commit
Again, note the spacing, the path, and the use of both "\" and "/". At this point, Z:\bootscreen\winload.wim has the images you are going to use for your bootscreen. You need to copy C:\windows\system32\boot\en-US\winload.exe.mui to Z:\bootscreen\winload.exe.mui. If you are denied access, see the previous section of this guide for how to take ownership of the file, C:\windows\system32\boot\en-US\winload.exe.mui. Open Z:\bootscreen\winload.exe.mui with your Win32 resource tool, which is what you downloaded when you started this (unless you already have one your prefer to use). In here, create a new resource named "RCDATA" with the name "1", and the language "1033"; "1033" is English, I don't know about any other language support, so don't ask but please post if you know. Use Z:\bootscreen\winload.wim for the resource's data when prompted to select your import, or do it manually. Save, and exit. Now, this is your last chance to "abort".... copy Z:\bootscreen\winload.exe.mui over C:\Windows\system32\boot\en-US\winload.exe.mui to commit the change, reboot and cross your fingers. Now, let's say you want to change the text in the boot screen. First, you need to have working knowledge of XML editing... if you don't, I am sorry to say that it would be too tedious to teach it here... go learn it (the basics are easy). Open Z:\bootscreen\winload.exe.mui with the Win32 editor, and find the resource "OSLOADER.XSL"... it should be in the "23" resource section. Save the contents as "Z:\bootscreen\osloader.xsl". To modify the text, go to the osload-status template and put your text as the value attribute in the update element. To change where the text is, use the oslaod-graphics template and change the height and width values of the "textarea" attribute. It should be in front of the "textarea", and the attribute of "name" should be "status".