Play Around with Windows Vista Boot Screens

With Windows Vista, Microsoft has delivered an evolution in terms of user experience. Still, as the operating system suffers a decent amount of customization, improvements on the Redmond company's original design are inevitable. And one of the aspects of Vista that could manage with a tad extra eye candy is the boot screen. Now on the adjacent image you can see a portion of the default Vista boot screen, which otherwise is pitch black. Well, nothing to get excited about there, but you have a few options to kick it up a notch.

First off, you can always dig up the Windows Vista hidden boot screen. All you have to do is make your way to the System Configuration Utility and enable the "No GUI Boot" option. Just follow this link in order to get additional details about how to unveil the hidden boot screen in your copy of Vista. The tweak is harmless but, at the same time, it is also limited to only one image consistent with the Aero theme.

For a little more flexibility you could use the Vista Boot Logo Generator, put together by Daniel Smith, a software developer from Kirriemuir. The Vista Boot Logo Generator is offered as freeware and will enable Vista users to set up high resolution digital images as the operating system's boot screen. In terms of personalization, the tool offers more options as the users can now actually select the photos that will continue to act as the Vista boot screen.

The image needs to be saved as a 24-bit Windows bitmap under two resolutions: 800x600 and 1024x768. Both versions of the new boot screen have to be loaded into the Vista Boot Logo Generator, and Save Boot Screen File As "winload.exe.mui" replacing the file with the same name in C:WindowsSystem32en-us. The Vista Boot Logo Generator also requires the "No GUI Boot" option to be enabled under the System Configuration Utility.