Are
you sick and tired of the Windows' startup and shutdown
screens? Do you want to express your creative artistic
abilities in constructive image mutilation? If so, read
on to find out how. If the process is a weeee bit over
your head, read Van Wolverton's MS_DOS 5.0 book, or use
the soon-to-be-written program soon-to-be-supplied(coming
soon) to automate the process. If image-editors are not
your thing, of there's a little snow on the roof, check
out the pictures we have prefabricated for you below.
As
for the concept, it breaks down like this: the Windows'
startup and shutdown screens are not but index-colour
bitmaps (pictures) whose extentions for some inexplicable
reason, Microsoft (probably to deter creative minds) changed
to .sys. Anyway, the files' functionality is as follows:
c:\logo.sys is the main startup
screen, c:\windows\logow.sys
is the "Please wait
while Windows is shutting down" screen, and c:\windows\logos.sys
is "It is now safe to turn
off your computer" screen.
1.
Find logo.sys,
logow.sys and logos.sys
on your computer. They most likely are in your C:\Windows\
directory. They might be hidden, so you may have to set
your folder options to "Display all files".
2.
Make copies of them to a floppy for backup purposes.
3.
Rename the files on your computer to files with .bmp
extention. (You have to do this in DOS, because Windows
won't let you rename these files). In order to do that,
start DOS prompt and type
copy
c:\windows\logow.sys c:\windows\logow.bmp
copy
c:\windows\logos.sys c:\windows\logos.bmp
copy c:\logo.sys c:\logo.bmp.
To activate every command, press Enter
after you finish typing it. To exit DOS type Exit.
4.
Open up the files in your favourite bitmap editor (Paint
or Photoshop will work nice) and mutilate them to your
satisfaction.
Note: The files will only
work if they are in 256-colour 8-bit per channel index
palette. If you did not change the colour mode, you should
be fine. Otherwise before saving your new pictures, convert
them to index mode.
5.
When the files are unrecognizable, rename them back to
their original extentions. To do that you need to go back
to DOS prompt and type
copy
c:\windows\logow.bmp c:\windows\logow.sys
copy
c:\windows\logos.bmp c:\windows\logos.sys
copy
c:\logo.bmp c:\logo.sys.
Note: DOS will tell you that
these files already exist and will ask you if you want
to overwrite them. Say yes.
When you are done with all three files, exit DOS.
6.
Now reboot your computer and watch your artwork come to
life.
