Windows Vista is a new operating system that was released in October of 2006. It is a major update to the Windows XP operating system and includes many new features and improvements. One of the most important changes made in Windows Vista is the addition of a custom boot logo. This logo will help identify your computer when it starts up and will help you find your way around the computer. To create a custom boot logo for Windows Vista, you first need to create a new file called “bootlogo.ico”. This file contains the basic information needed to create a custom boot logo for Windows Vista. The first thing you need to do is decide what type of boot logo you want to create. There are three types of boot logos: standard, advanced, and customized. Standard Boot Logos The standardbootlogo.ico file contains the basic information needed to create a standardbootlogo.png image that will be used on all computers running Windows Vista. This image can be used as the default boot logo on computers that have been purchased or leased from Microsoft or other software providers. The default value for this file is “1”. Advanced Boot Logos The advancedbootlogo.ico file contains more detailed information about how to create an advancedbootlogo.png image that will be used on systems with more powerful hardware or systems that have been specifically designed for using an advancedbootlogo image instead of the default one. The advancedbootlogo value can be set to “2” if you want your computer to use an advanced boot logon instead of the standard one when it starts up. If your computer does not have any special hardware or if you want to use an advanced boot logon but do not want to set the value for “2”, then you can use this file instead: \x00\x01\x02\x03\x
If you are a desktop customization kinda guy, one of the first things you’ll want to figure out is how to create a customized boot logo. There’s a little utility that you can use to create the boot logo formats.
DO NOT DOWNLOAD THIS UTILITY IF YOU HAVE VISTA SP1
First you’ll need to download the Vista Boot Logo Generator 1.1 utility, which we’ll use to create the correct logo image type. Once it’s installed, you need to make sure that you run the application as administrator:
We should choose an appropriate logo file. Since I’m a big fan of linux, and not as big a fan of Windows Vista, I chose an image of Tux making windows suck that I found over here.
Choose two versions of the image, one needs to be 800×600 at 24 bit color, and the other 1024×768 at the same color depth. Both files must be in Bitmap(BMP) format. Save the file somewhere like your desktop, because we can’t yet copy directly to the correct directory, until we take ownership of the file.
To take ownership of the file, you’ll have to open an administrator command prompt. (type cmd into the start menu search box, and hit Ctrl+Shift+Enter), and then run this command:
Now run this command, substituting geek for your username:
Now copy the file that you created into the C:\windows\system32\en-US\ directory. Make sure you choose the overwrite option.
Now you’ll need to use the msconfig utility. Just type msconfig into the start menu search box, and then click the Boot tab:
Check the “No GUI boot” option, and we’re all ready to reboot and test it out. Sweet!
