Y'all've probably noticed the Windows XP Professional person logo appear on your workstation every fourth dimension you start it. Although information technology'due south nice to meet a quick reminder of Microsoft and your operating system, you lot may want to modify the kick logo to display something different, such as your visitor'due south logo. Doing so is difficult, but it's non impossible.

Before you begin
Don't confuse the kicking logo with the desktop background or the organisation login screen. What we're referring to here is the Microsoft Windows XP Professional flag that you meet before you log into your arrangement.

For the purposes of this article, we'll be replacing a key component of Windows XP. Make certain you have a total fill-in of your arrangement before attempting to make these changes. If y'all brand a mistake, you may accept to completely reinstall Windows XP.

Not for the faint of middle
Back in the Windows 9x days, information technology was easy to change the boot logo. All yous had to practice was replace i simple file and y'all were set and ready to get. Microsoft made the task much more hard under Windows XP.

Windows XP's boot logo is embedded inside the NTOSKRNL.EXE file. This is the principal kernel for the unabridged operating organization. That means that yous tin't just bandy out one epitome file for another. Instead you have to hack the NTOSKRNL.EXE file, find the XP kicking logo, replace it with your new logo, and save the NTOSKRNL.EXE file.

It may audio unproblematic, but it's not. And, every bit I said earlier, NTOSKRNL.EXE is a cardinal component of Windows XP. If you damage the file and make a mistake, you won't exist able to boot your workstation. There are means to practice this manually that you can detect on the Internet. Doing research for this commodity, I discovered that manually hacking the NTOSKRNL.EXE file can be an practice in frustration.

Fortunately, there's an easier style. Using a freeware utility called Kicking Editor, y'all can change Windows XP kicking files relatively quickly.

Getting ready
Before you dive into the process, you'll need a few things in advance. First, y'all'll need a copy of Kicking Editor itself. You tin can find out about the program by going to the Boot Editor Home Folio. Unfortunately, at the time this article was prepared, y'all tin can't download Kicking Editor from this site. Instead, y'all can obtain Boot Editor here. The file you want, booteditor.zip, is under 700 Chiliad B in size, so it volition download chop-chop.

2nd, y'all'll need a copy of the logo you want to use in identify of the Windows XP logo. The boot logo restrictions are very tight. The file you use must be in BMP format. Additionally, it must be at 640 10 480 resolution. The colour depth must exist 16 color. You tin apply any graphics program you want to create the file, but you must see those restrictions. With a picayune bit of additional hacking, y'all can increase this color depth, but that's beyond the scope of this article.

Third, yous'll demand a copy of the NTOSKRNL.EXE file. You don't want to alter the original in case yous make a mistake. Y'all'll find the NTOSKRNL.EXE file in the C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32 directory. Create a copy of it called NTOSKRNL2.EXE. Simply employ the Copy and Paste function in Explorer. Do NOT rename the file. This is the file you lot'll be modifying. To play it extra condom, you lot may desire to create a copy of the NTOSKRNL.EXE file on a floppy diskette.

Hacking the file
Now that you've fabricated your preparations, you're ready to get. Create a subdirectory on your C: drive named BootEditor and excerpt the files in the booteditor.nada file into it. Different most Windows programs, BootEditor doesn't include an installation wizard. All you have to do is extract the files. You'll likewise need copies of msvbvm60.dll and comctl32.ocx. Download the files to the BootEditor folder and extract their contents.

Next, double-click Booteditor.exe. Boot Editor will ask you if you want to read the Readme dr.. Primarily the Readme file contains information almost version history, but yous should read through it anyway. Afterward you do and so, you'll see the screen shown in Effigy A.

Figure A
Boot Editor allows you to change XP boot logos.

Click File | New Boot Screen. Y'all'll so see the screen shown in Figure B. Here, you'll enter the proper name of your new boot screen in the Proper name Of New Screen field. Leave a check on the Put A Copy Of Ntoskrnl.exe checkbox. This volition cause Kicking Editor to create a copy of NTOSKRNL.EXE in its temporary folder for modification.

Effigy B
Create a new boot screen.

Y'all'll then see the default Windows XP kicking screen appear, equally shown in Figure C. You tin view other bitmaps in the NTOSKRNL.EXE file by selecting the screens from the Bitmap driblet-down list box.

Figure C
Kick Editor loads the default kicking logo from NTOSKRNL.EXE

The first thing you lot should do is relieve the palette for the boot logo to a temporary file. Click Save Every bit PAL. Provide a file proper name in the Salvage As screen.

You'll have to apply this palette to the BMP file yous want to utilise as your new kicking logo. XP is very picky about the boot palette, and so if you don't apply it to the logo earlier importing information technology, the logo may non look the manner yous want when you restart the computer. How yous practise and so will vary depending on the paint plan you're using, so I can't tell y'all specifically how to practise information technology here. I used Paint Shop Pro and got good results.

Afterward you've modified your boot logo, correct click the current XP kick logo in Boot Editor and select Load A New Image. When the Open window appears, find your new logo and click Open. Yous'll and then meet the screen shown in Figure D.

Figure D
Load your new image into Kick Editor.

As you tin see, the Professional label and the blue load graphic even so exist on your new image. That's because these items are actually stored in different layers of the paradigm. You lot tin remove the Professional label by correct-clicking it and selecting Delete This (Temp) Bitmap. You can also elevate the blue load graphic up and downward vertically on the image. You can't locate information technology anywhere else on the logo, still.

When the image appears the way you want it to, click File | Brand Kicking Exe. You'll so see the screen shown in Effigy E.

Effigy Eastward
You lot can now create your new boot file.

Hither yous want to brand sure the Articulate All checkbox in the Overlays box is selected. Additionally, make sure that Delete Unused Bitmaps is selected. Click OK. Boot Editor will then create a new NTOSKRNL.EXE file with your new bitmaps applied.

You lot'll also see a dialog box appear noting that Boot Editor has copied the new kicking kernel to your Windows\System32\ folder called NewBoot.exe. As part of the process, information technology also modifies your Kicking.ini file to add a copy of the new boot screen to your workstation. Click OK to clear the screen.

Yous can now view the new boot screen. Close down your workstation and restart information technology. When the workstation restarts, y'all'll see XP'south Kicking carte du jour. Select Bone For Testing Kick Screen and press [Enter]. (If you let the default setting of Microsoft Windows XP Professional, then you'll see the original kicking screen, not your new one.)Afterward you select the test boot screen, your logo should appear the mode you lot saved it.

Making the new boot screen permanent
Once you lot've got your boot screen the way you lot want information technology, yous can get in permanent. To practise so, you must modify boot.ini. Right-click My Reckoner and select Properties. When the Organisation Properties screen appears, select the Advanced tab. Click the Settings button in the Startup And Recovery box.

When the Startup And Recovery screen appears, click Edit. This will launch Notepad with a copy of your boot.ini file. Exist very careful when making changes to this file. If yous make a mistake, you may cause your XP workstation unable to kicking.

Await for the line of the kick.ini file that says something similar to:
multi(0)deejay(0)rdisk(0)partitioning(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(ane)\WINDOWS="OS for testing new boot screen" /fastdetect /KERNEL=NewBoot.exe

Get to the line that references the exam boot screen. Edit the line and replace "OS for testing new kicking screen" with something more than descriptive such equally "XP's New Boot Screen." Close Notepad to save the changes.

Click OK to close the Startup And Recovery screen. Click Settings again to reload the screen. Click the Default Operating System dropdown list box and select the new boot screen choice y'all just entered. Remove the check from Time To Display list Of Operating Systems. Close System Properties and reboot your workstation. Information technology should at present start with the new boot logo. To reenable the original boot logo, follow the above procedure only this time select the original line.

Completely eliminating the boot logo
If you want, you can consummate eliminate the XP kick logo birthday. Doing so volition make XP boot up a lilliputian faster, but information technology will also crusade you to miss boot up messages such as deejay checks.

To turn off the boot logo, correct click My Calculator and select Backdrop. When the System Properties screen appears, select the Advanced tab. Click the Settings button in the Startup And Recovery box.

When the Startup And Recovery screen appears, click Edit. This will launch Notepad with a copy of your kicking.ini file. Exist very conscientious when making changes to this file. If you make a mistake, y'all may cause your XP workstation unable to boot.

Look for the line of the kick.ini file that says something similar to:
multi(0)deejay(0)rdisk(0)partition(one)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect

Add /noguiboot to the end of the line so it looks like this:
multi(0)deejay(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional person" /fastdetect /noguiboot

Salvage the file, and click OK to close the Startup And Recovery screen. Shut System Properties and reboot your workstation. Information technology should now get-go without a kick logo. To reenable the boot logo, follow the above procedure but this fourth dimension remove the /noguiboot switch from the end of the line.