...or things you probably don't need to know anyway



Useless info #1: how to make your own WindowsTM startup & shutdown screens.

 Since Windows 95, we've had to put up with the Microsoft Windows logo. Various utilities are available out there for importing your own bitmap into your startup and shutdown screens. Now you can do it using your favorite image editor.

The file logo.sys is actually a 320 x 400 256-color BMP file with extra information, such as how many colors to "animate" (that bar at the bottom of the windows startup screen). To make your own startup screen, follow these steps:

  1. Make or open a picture and crop or resize so it looks "normal" at 320 x 200 resolution.
  2. Convert it to 256 colors (this is the Image>Mode>Indexed Color function in Adobe).
  3. Stretch it to 320 x 400. You must end up with an image that is 320 x 400 in 256 colors or windows will ignore it.
  4. Save the file as "C:\logo.bmp". Now delete the old logo.sys and rename your logo.bmp to logo.sys.
    • To rename in windows, you have to make sure you open a folder and select View>Folder Options, click the View tab, and uncheck the Hide extensions of known file types property. You will then have to enter the entire filename, including the extension, like ".sys", when renaming a file.
    • In a DOS window, type cd\ and then ren logo.bmp logo.sys after the previous steps are done.
At the MS-DOS prompt this is: C:\>ren logo.bmp logo.sys

If all went well, you should have customized your startup screen. Follow the same procedure by replacing the files logow.sys and logos.sys in your WINDOWS subdirectory to change the shutdown and closing screens.



Useless info #2: How to change the background of the Windows 98/2000/Millenium Edition Explorer windows

As you can see, the background behind the information frame has been changed.

To do this in Windows 98, simply replace the file C:\Windows\Web\wvleft.bmp with your own BMP.

To do this in Windows 2000/ME, the file to be changed is C:\Windows\Web\wvleft.gif. Replace the file with any GIF. It allows animations, too!


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