BootSkin ALPHA available for trying out
Friday, November 7, 2003 by Frogboy | Discussion: WinCustomize News
Want to change your boot screen without patching your actual OS kernel?
Stardock has a free program in development to do just that and the first alpha is now available:
http://scripting.stardock.com/private/bs_current.exe
BootSkin replaces the boot screen by creating a device driver that does the job. This has several advantages:
1) It will work on Windows 2000, it'll work on Windows XP, and it'll work on Longhorn 4051 it seems to work. Heck, it probably works on NT 4.
2) This has been implemented in the way that Microsoft would probably do it (or arguably how they should have done it). No patching, no hacking, totally safe.
3) No need to "back up" your kernel. If you somehow blow up your system, you can just boot up in safe mode and uninstall it.
Limitations:
Right now it's no better no worse than the regular boot screen. That means 16 color VGA (640x480).
What's next:
High resolution, true color and animation. But these won't be for a bit. We want to make sure this works well on everyone's system. Creating your own boot screens is incredibly easy. Just look at the included ones in the directory it's installed to (\program files\stardock\wincustomize\bootskin) and go from there. You don't even have to do progress bars if you don't want to. We'll have a bunch of examples as soon as we put some other projects together but hopefully you'll be able to figure out how to do these on your own. Remember though - 16 color (that's 4 bit) only right now since it's VGA. Same as regularly boot screens.
But this is just to get things started and make sure there aren't any problems. It's been tested extensively internally but usual caveat: This is an alpha, use at your own risk, assume it will blow up your computer, kill your pets, set the house on fire, etc. No problems reported so far.
 |
|
Page 1 of 2 | |
|
|---|
Reply #2 Friday, November 7, 2003 3:10 AM
wouldnt want my root deleted, heheReply #3 Friday, November 7, 2003 4:08 AM
My congradulations to all Guys and Gals at Stardock
Reply #4 Friday, November 7, 2003 7:29 AM
https://www.wincustomize.com/msgboard.asp?BID=WC&id=207078#207270 a problem is brought up in here.
Reply #5 Friday, November 7, 2003 8:42 AM
Reply #6 Friday, November 7, 2003 8:46 AM
By the way, the BeOS skin is smaller than 640x480, so I could see my original hacked bootscreen behind it along the edges. It seems to overlay it across whatever the kernel is displaying.
Reply #7 Friday, November 7, 2003 9:12 AM
n Hey I really hope this new boot screen app works well for you...Seems alot of ppl really wanted it...Ill try it out. But its the one thing I dont really care too much about changing..But maybe it will give the boot screen crowd a new toy... 
Reply #8 Friday, November 7, 2003 11:23 AM
Heh, just figured this place needed some action.
I think I might try this out a little later. Sounds like not much to test so far.
Reply #9 Friday, November 7, 2003 1:30 PM
Reply #10 Friday, November 7, 2003 2:59 PM
Reply #13 Friday, November 7, 2003 6:11 PM
Reply #14 Friday, November 7, 2003 9:36 PM
What's with the links? neither of the above links to the program appears to be connecting at present - thought I should let you know - I'm looking forward to trying it out...
Reply #15 Friday, November 7, 2003 9:51 PM
Kudos Stardock.
Reply #16 Friday, November 7, 2003 11:29 PM
HELP!!
It screwed my win2000! I cannot boot anymore, when the logo it's supposed to appear, the screen displays strange colors (fast) then turns black, and doesn't boot anymore. Safe mode doesn't work either.
I accessed my computer's directories with the winXP recovery console, but which files do I need to delete to uninstall the damn bootscreen?
thanks
Reply #17 Saturday, November 8, 2003 12:23 AM
Toshiba Satellite 5105 s501, winxp home, 1.8GHZ, 512 mB, 40 GB, nVidia Geforce4 440 Go with modified 52.16 det's.
Reply #18 Saturday, November 8, 2003 2:20 AM
(Satellite 1415)
Reply #19 Saturday, November 8, 2003 9:35 AM
it all looks great so far, but why can't i add another boot screan from file?...
thanx
alice
[email protected]
Reply #20 Saturday, November 8, 2003 4:54 PM
Please login to comment and/or vote for this skin.
Welcome Guest! Please take the time to register with us.
There are many great features available to you once you register, including:
- Richer content, access to many features that are disabled for guests like commenting on the forums and downloading skins.
- Access to a great community, with a massive database of many, many areas of interest.
- Access to contests & subscription offers like exclusive emails.
- It's simple, and FREE!
|
|
Page 1 of 2 | |
|
|---|
Reply #1 Friday, November 7, 2003 2:22 AM