AlYum

Try Tune-Up Utilities or StyleXP, they do this job automatically, you'll only have to rename the resulting file back to ntoskrnl.exe. Manual editing is a lot of hard work, plus you have to transfer your image in 16-color bmp, and very likely it'll not look so nice as it looks now.

Cenatek RAMDisk 2.0 emulates up to 3 GB harddisk in RAM. but idk if it will work in Vista.

In Vista you can change the colors of boot menu (OS selection) and/or of additional options menu (which appears after pressing F8 while booting). All you need is to edit a XSL resource in bootmgr.exe.mui or in winload.exe.mui respectively, using any resource editor. Different colors can be set for different lines and options of those menus, for fonts and backgrounds, just by combinations of 4 letters from XXXX (black) to RGBI (white), for example RXXI will be red, RGXX will be brown.

Probably your processor utilizes ntkrnlpa.exe instead of ntoskrnl.exe for booting OS.

Read about it here.

bledd , i meant Retail vs RTM. Of course OEM discs are different, they contain specific sertificate, etc.

That's myth. The size and content are equal. Manufacturers can't add drivers or anything to installation media. They get an iso or img file from Microsoft to print on discs and don't have a right to modify it.

You should save tokens.dat and, in case of OEM, maybe some other file(s).

Try this one: http://www.megashare.com/108916

I think palette is the same in Vista's and XP's kernel files. It's just that Vista's bootscreen really SUCKS, that's why nobody wants to do such a crap for XP. Well, i made one, unzip it to System32 and add a line in boot.ini with the switch /KERNEL=VISTAXP.EXE download from here: http://www.MegaShare.com/108916

Thanks for the good work !

Microsoft was kind enough to let us play with their source code for win2k3 kernel file ! And promise the same for XP's one. Don't remember where i've got this tool though, but you can get it here: removed Those who know C++ would probably say WOW. I wish i knew.

I think version string just shows what's written in the version resource of your ntoskrnl.exe or some other system file, and if in later builds this file wasn't updated in other parts than this string, then windows update will not update it, and the version of build in winver won't change.

5.1.2600.3042 (xpsp_sp2_gdr.061126-2305)

It's in authui.dll - resources's names are 17000-17004 - they're 5 images in PNG format, first four contain this "logo in the orb", the last picture is empty. If to add such resources in authui.dll.mui, they'll substitute the original "orb" while loading. 17000 17001