Daemonforce Posted October 17, 2005 Posted October 17, 2005 I'm sure everyone here remembers Windows XP and what the bootloader used to look like on their flavor of Windows XP. I'm sure everyone also recalls what SP2 integration does to it too... Lets bring the old bootloader back! I've been poking around in the i386 directory all day and I've noticed that a few people like to change their bootloaders by editing one or all of the kernels listed in their system directory. Well, why can't the same be done to the installation disc? I notice there are two issues to this...The NT kernel in the i386 folder seems related to the preinstallation environment while the kernels in driver.cab are related to the bootloader AFTER setup completes. It appears that if we play it right, we can make a smartloader: A loader that can show what exactly is booting on the workstation. While a pointless effort, it just seems like something fun to do and something to stop a lot of headaches from people that have no idea what is going on with their boot.ini. I have tried uncompressing the files, extracting them, ripping old kernel information from retired sources and injecting the old data into the new set: CABs and all. While I'm amazed the setup and post-install don't go hal on me, it still doesn't change the loader from the mysterious SP2 blank-layered bootloader. Is there any way to accomplish what I'm trying to do?
suryad Posted October 17, 2005 Posted October 17, 2005 So if I understand you correctly, this bootloader is going to display on the screen the internal workings while the system is booting? Am I correct in understanding that? If I am then it is something that Linux has had for a while where you can see what is loading up and what isnt. Nice.
gdogg Posted October 17, 2005 Posted October 17, 2005 cool ideawhat i want is a way to make a bootloader that can load from an alternative filesystem
Daemonforce Posted October 18, 2005 Author Posted October 18, 2005 (edited) nice ideado you have a plan for it?That's just it. No I don't. I can't get the bootloader to change and I'm not sure why. I edit the SP1 files on a machine with SP1 and as soon as I overwrite the SP2 data and integrate, my effort becomes null. I have no idea why I can't change the bootloader.So if I understand you correctly, this bootloader is going to display on the screen the internal workings while the system is booting? Am I correct in understanding that? If I am then it is something that Linux has had for a while where you can see what is loading up and what isnt. Nice.That's a bit boring...Because...Ya know...I know the order of what loads and from where. I feel like a geek. o_O..............I'm just trying to restore the old bootscreen will display the specific OS information like it used to. I have attempted to force the Win2005 bootloader on Windows 2000 and Windows NT, but it seems to only work with XP and 2003 for some reason. Anyway that's different...I'm just trying to edit bootscreens so that they look like they were supposed to. I don't like some generic WINDOWS XP bootscreen, and I'm sure a lot of other people feel the same way. Edited October 18, 2005 by Daemonforce
gdogg Posted October 18, 2005 Posted October 18, 2005 post install would probally be a must.try replacing ntldr and NTDETECT.COM after windows is installed
Daemonforce Posted October 18, 2005 Author Posted October 18, 2005 (edited) It doesn't work. I'm not sure what it is, but there's definitely something in SP2 that is keeping me from messing with the bootscreen.=/Replacing the ntoskrnl in safe mode makes Windows think Ntfs.sys is corrupt.****...This has me so confused that I can't even post a legitimate sentence. Edited October 18, 2005 by Daemonforce
Daemonforce Posted October 19, 2005 Author Posted October 19, 2005 thats too bad,Yeah....I've been trying to edit the bootscreen resources but nothing changes. I've only been editing ntoskrnl, so maybe I should try something else? =/ I'm testing these in VMWare. I have one of Intel's older Prescotts, so maybe the CPU detection is thrown off a bit in a Vritual Machine.
suryad Posted October 19, 2005 Posted October 19, 2005 Hmm...I have read changin boot screens is trouble enuf!!! Sorry to hear about your problems but it is a good thing you were using VMware because one time like a jackass I tried to mod the bootscreen and I lost all my data......which was not too bad cause I had backups.
Daemonforce Posted October 19, 2005 Author Posted October 19, 2005 Hmm...I have read changin boot screens is trouble enuf!!! Sorry to hear about your problems but it is a good thing you were using VMware because one time like a jackass I tried to mod the bootscreen and I lost all my data......which was not too bad cause I had backups.I never make seperate partitions....Just seperate devices. Since nothing boots off my 300GB SATA drive, I don't have to worry about losing my OS unless I decide to be stupid and install .NET Server. Losing your OS is bad.......Losing your OS when your stuff is encrypted/compressed is worse. I'm trying to edit the resources in the boot screen and I'm going through the process of actually editing them. OMFG! It's like my Windows 95 days when I was still using a Corel game engine to make second-class apps! I'm going to force the new data into ISOs and try booting them.
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