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Change Windows XP Boot Screen
If you want a ready made splash screen for your boot screen in windows xp then go to www.themexp.org and click on "Boot Screens". You'll see thousands of them. Once you find a good startup screen of your choice, download that screen and save it on your hard drive.disk.
Unzip the contents of the downloaded file. You will observe "read me" file with one or two files. Bootscreen is named as ntoskrnl.exe. If you have XP Service Pack 1 installed, you may have to use a different file, named ntoskrnlSP1.exe. You can check the version of you service pack by right-clicking on My Computer, and choosing General tab in Properties. Your version of the operating system will be displayed. Service Pack 1 will be displayed in that tab if you have it.
XP bootscreen is contained in the ntoskrnl.exe file is an executable file . While your computer boots , XP executes this file, which is present in C:WindowsSystem32 directory, which displays the bootscreen graphic. So, if you want to modify your bootscreen, replace your existing ntoskrnl.exe file with the one you just downloaded.
To check that the downloaded bootscreen file is properly working you have to do this activity in safe mode. If you are in Safe Mode Windows File Protection will not be a headache for you.
After completion of this task, reboot you computer. You will see the changes in effect the after. One word of caution, you should create system restore point before you copy the downloaded file. If any thing goes wrong , you can always restore your OS. To create a system restore point go to start menu-> all programs -> Accessories -> System tools -> System restore.
