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Now that I've successfully modified the Windows 2000 splash screen, I want to try the same thing on Windows XP. Remember how XP RTM and SP1 had the "Professional" designation on the splash screen? I do, and I want that in SP3. So, first thing I did was to set up a fresh copy of XP Professional RTM and I looked to compare its NTOSKRNL.EXE with that of a fully updated XP Professional SP3 install. Problem was: The bitmap resources in NTOSKRNL.EXE seem to be mostly blank, and mostly the same between the two. Are the actual bitmaps used for the splash screen stored elsewhere? What am I missing? Click to see the full size image
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Have you ever looked at the logon screen in Windows Server 2003 R2 and thought "Wait a minute. Something looks a little bit off here." Well, you'd be right. In every version of Windows NT 5.x there are two banner bitmaps that are used on the logon screen. One used for the logon prompt, and the one used for the status messages between the differing stages of logging on. That is every version, except Server 2003 R2 (and also Windows XP Embedded, but anyway.). It looks like this: For some reason Microsoft just never bothered to make two bitmaps. But I did: See. Much better. Most of you will probably think that this is totally stupid and doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things. But for those of you that do think it matters, here are what you need. These registry values for Server 2003 R2 Standard Edition (only). Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\CustomBrand][HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\CustomBrand\{F20B21BE-5E3D-11d2-8789-68CB20524153}]@="r2brand.dll, -1001"[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\CustomBrand\{F20B21BF-5E3D-11d2-8789-68CB20524153}]@="r2brand.dll, -1002"[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\CustomBrand\{F20B21C0-5E3D-11d2-8789-68CB20524153}]@="r2brand.dll, -1010"[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\CustomBrand\{F20B21C1-5E3D-11d2-8789-68CB20524153}]@="r2brand.dll, -1011"And this modified version of "r2brand.dll" with the new added bitmap images. http://www.mediafire.com/download/786f3e33er8vao4/r2brand.dll Note: This is not for the x64 Editions of Windows Server 2003 R2. Replace r2brand.dll - through the Recovery Console or whatever method you have - first, then run the registry file. _______________________ For those of you not running Server 2003 R2 Standard Edition, you'll need to delve into the registry a little bit. Got to that part of the registry and you should find references to the same resource in r2brand.dll. The bottom two references are the banner for the logon prompt. One is a black and white basic image, and the other is the full colour version. (the one that needs to be changed). The full colour version that we need to change in this case is the 3rd one down in that list of four keys. Change the value in that key to the number that corresponds to your version of Server 2003 R2. Example: If you have Enterprise Edition, use 1013. If you have Datacenter Edition, use 1015. Reboot, and that should be that. Sooner or later I'll come up with a registry file that works on all three major releases of Server 2003 R2, and then maybe the x64 Editions. -
Back in 2010 I wanted to do this. I searched high and low on the interweb, trying to find someone else that had done it before. Unfortunately it seemed to be one of those things that confused a lot of people. People on forums and what not seemingly didn't realise that there was a difference between the Classic Theme, and the Luna theme without the actual visual style applied (what you get when you disable the Themes service). Well, there is. What I'm about to cover is the method that I've discovered of changing the theme on the Windows XP classic style logon screen to use the Windows 2000 style Windows Classic Theme. Why on earth would you want to do such a thing? If you prefer to use the Windows 2000 style Windows Classic Theme and the Windows 2000 style classic logon screen on Windows XP, you'll notice that there is a change in appearance between reaching the logon screen, and then reaching the desktop after logging in. There is really only one reason to change the theme on the logon screen in my case: because I want everything to match. There ya go. I'm really not sure if it would make anything faster. Though it certainly does look nicer over a remote connection, such as RDP. I have discovered two different ways of doing this. Both require accessing the SYSTEM account in different ways. There really is no way around it. If it can be done in the registry, I don't know where to look. One of the methods requires messing with sethc.exe in the System32 folder (the sticky keys executable), and the other involves pulling a trick with Command Prompt. I'll be showing the latter. _________________________ The first thing you want to do is, log on to an administrator account. If a domain administrator account is what you have, that should work just the same. Then open Command Prompt and enter: at 10:41 /interactive “cmd.exe” Where "10:41" is a time just after the current time. If it's 19:17 (7:17PM), enter 19:18 or 19:19 for example. I think the time does need to be entered in the 24-hour format, though I'm not sure. That command will schedule a new task, for Command Prompt to open. And because the system is taking care of that task, Command Prompt will open under the SYSTEM account. Once the system opens Command Prompt for you, you'll need to open the Task Manager and "kill" explorer.exe. The taskbar and desktop icons should disappear. Warning: Do not confuse the two open Command Prompt windows. Make sure to close the one used to schedule the task, and you should be left with the one opened by the system. Then you go to your system Command Prompt window and enter: explorer.exe You should see some activity. Running explorer.exe should log on to the SYSTEM account. Once it does, you can check the start menu and you should see the SYSTEM username. Now it's just a simple matter of changing the theme. It should be the default Luna blue with the bliss background (even though the background is not present on the logon screen, I think if you change it, it will be set there). You don't have to change it to the Classic Theme. Literally what ever style you want should work. This method may even work on Windows 2000 to change its logon screen theme appearance. Warning #2: Remember, this is the SYSTEM account. It's the most powerful account in any Windows NT install. It has control over everything. I would advise just to set the theme the way you want and leave. Changing the start menu style and things like that don't make any difference to the way the logon screen will look anyway. And I would advise against running any software or accessing any network resources. So once you've got the SYSTEM account looking the way you want, simply open the start menu and click "Log off". Once you do, it should log off of the SYSTEM account and go back to the logon screen. Sort of "logonception". And once you get to the logon screen, you should be greated with your custom theme style! Oh, happy days. "And that's that."