
				  Boot Screen

				 by Jason Hood

				   Freeware.


    ===========
    Description
    ===========

    This is a small collection of animated boot screens for Windows XP and
    Vista.  They are based on Stardock's BootSkin 1.05a (aka 1.06
    [4/26/04]), so if those screens do not work on your system, neither will
    these.


    =====
    Usage
    =====

    If you don't already have BootSkin, the service used by these screens
    must first be installed; run "bootscrn -i" to do it.  If you do have
    BootSkin installed, running that command will preserve the current boot
    screen.  However, do NOT run it more than once, as that will confuse it
    and it won't uninstall properly.

    Uninstall can be performed by running "bootscrn -u".  If BootSkin is
    installed, it will simply restore the previously used screen.  Otherwise
    it will remove the service and its associated file.  It's then up to you
    to delete the files and whatever else you created.

    The boot screen can be changed by using "bootscrn FILE", where FILE is
    one of the files mentioned below, or any "vidstub.sys" file created by
    BootSkin (in the "%SystemRoot%\system32\drivers" directory).  No val-
    idation is done on the file, and using a wrong file WILL stop your
    system from booting (delete or replace "vidstub.sys" from safe mode).

    Vista users: you must run as administrator; it may not work with
    BootSkin files (the checksum needs to be right); it still seems to load
    in safe mode, so you'll have to use Last Known Good if it does go wrong;
    and the original screen may still sometimes be seen.


    =======
    Screens
    =======

    The following screens are present in this collection, in creation order.

    Loading: created by "The Wizard_69" for BootSkin.  This was the first
    screen I created, just to see if it was viable.  The original screen had
    a small dot moving along the bottom, but now it uses the line of dots
    comprising the vertical line of the "L".

    Flag: now that I know I can modify the driver, it was time to be a bit
    more ambitious.  Searching my drive for animated gifs, I came across
    WINDOWS\SYSTEM\OOBE\IMAGES\FLAGANI.GIF from Windows 98SE - perfect!
    There's the occasional bit of "snow", so this might be the practical
    limit for animation (120 x 100).

    Counter: progress bars are all well and good, but I'm a digital man and
    like to know exactly how much progress has been made.  So here is the
    normal (XP) boot screen, but instead of the bar, it has an LED-style
    display, counting upwards.

    Mine: since I should be working on Mine Mayhem, here's a reminder when-
    ever I boot...  Originally my system would take a count of 85 to boot,
    so I created a 12x7 field (84 tiles, plus the winning smiley face), but
    it turned out the first frame wasn't shown, so I made it 9x9, instead.
    After playing with Vista and the load-ordering of Boot Screen, my XP
    system now takes about 143 to boot and Vista about 159.  If this is
    typical of other users' systems, I may create a 14x10 field.


    =======
    Credits
    =======

    All due credit to Stardock for creating the "vidstub.sys" driver.
    Whether they'll allow me to continue hacking it is another matter...
    It's a pity they didn't do something like this themselves, though.


    =======
    Contact
    =======

    Mail: jadoxa@yahoo.com.au
    Web:  http://bootscrn.adoxa.cjb.net/


    ==============================
    Jason Hood, 1 September, 2007.
