Replacing system programs

[doodr]

I know it is possible with some work to replace the kernel and explorer that windows xp uses, is it possible to change the userinit.exe, welcome screen, any?

edit: to save the forum from another post::

Anyone know of a program that will let me repartition a drive without reformatting it, partition magic will do this correct?

Edited April 11, 2006 by doodr

[Doc Symbiosis]

Corcerning your second question: Normally partition magic does fine ( would say in 99% of all cases ), but I also had cases, when it crashed the filesystem. Anyway, I think that parition magic is the most dependable program for this.

If you want to be absolutely sure, that your data is not corrupted, you've got to save the partition to modify to an external HDD or something similar.

[doodr]

"If you want to be absolutely sure, that your data is not corrupted, you've got to save the partition to modify to an external HDD or something similar."

is this correct, there is chance of re-partitioning causing my file's and filesystem to become corrupt?

what would cause this? fragmentation, and attempting to alter parts of the disc/partition that are allocated for files and not just free space?

[Mordac85]

is this correct, there is chance of re-partitioning causing my file's and filesystem to become corrupt?

what would cause this? fragmentation, and attempting to alter parts of the disc/partition that are allocated for files and not just free space?

Yes and no, changing the parition size means you are altering the partition table. Since that is the main table of contents for the data on your drive there is ALWAYS a chance of corrupting it. It's not that the data is actually corrupted, but you are altering the index the filesystem uses to find the data.

Partition Magic also comes with utilities to backup your partition table and you MAY be able to restore it if you screw it up. I haven't had the time to actually test that theory, but the concept is sound.

[doodr]

ok, thankyou for clearing that up for me, ill make sure i backup profusely while altering partition's.

anyone have any ideas for a replacement of the userinit or welcome screen/logon dialog?

[cluberti]

You get rid of userinit.exe, most startup processes you'll need for network connections to function will cease to work, for starters. Why would you want to change or delete that process, btw?

[doodr]

theres a number of changes i'd like to do, all if possible.

its hard to describe exactly what i want to do but i will try, as some of these are able to be done without changing much more then registry keys.

afaik, there is very little easy way to change things like the wallpapers(for the login dialog), the login dialog style, size, colors etc, display settings of the welcome screen, screen saver, timing, usericons, running programs before logging in, autologin based on timing, and afew other things that i've currently forgotten.

easiest way to alter most of these were to set them for my current desktop session, then use tweakui to copy the settings to the login screen.

[doodr]

Anyone know of a way to have programs run before the welcome screen, or with it? somewhat like the windows utilities Windows + U ?

[jftuga]

BootIt™ Next Generation (BootIt NG) (BING) is a partition and multi-boot manager with a powerful and simple-to-use set of tools for partitioning, imaging, and multi-booting your computer.

http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/

You can run the trial version for a number of days. I have used this program to non-destructively repartition my NTFS partitions.

If you want to run a program when the screen is at the 'Press Ctrl-Alt-Del to Logon', then you want to use a program from the Windows 2003 resource kit...

Autoexnt.exe: AutoExNT Service (should also work on XP)

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details...&DisplayLang=en

-John

[doodr]

If you want to run a program when the screen is at the 'Press Ctrl-Alt-Del to Logon', then you want to use a program from the Windows 2003 resource kit...

Autoexnt.exe: AutoExNT Service (should also work on XP)

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details...&DisplayLang=en

Thanks! only i can't get it to work, downloaded the package from microsoft and then followed these instructions to install the autoexnt.exe as a service. When i try the " To install the service, open a command console and type the following command:

instexnt install ", is gives the typical windows error instexnt.exe isnt a known blah blah ...

when i change it to autoexnt.exe (i assume it was a typo anyway) it does something, i dunno what

then when trying the next step to test the bat file, it displays "the service name is invalid"

any ideas?

[Camarade_Tux]

Get LauncherService from here : http://emutastic.emulation64.com/netosoft/projects.htm

It's pretty well documented and you shouldn't be lost.

However, I'm not sure you will be able to display any UI.

NSSM, SrvAny (from M$) and FireDaemon are other possibilities.

(just saw this page : http://mldonkey.sourceforge.net/HowToRunAsWinService a long time ago I corrected many things in it and wow it got weird and confused, it's a shame)

[doodr]

Awesome thank you, i'll check out all these. already nabbed the LauncherService from the link, downloaded, read the readme part on how to setup the settings file for the service you want to create while i edited it, ran it, worked perfectly! until i actually tried to use the service, started with gaim, wouldnt actually open gaim, owell, used the uninstall, uninstalled fine. i'll try another program later, one that i'll actually be using. also i'll go through the rest of your suggestions sometime later and post back with results. i might end up just going through commands till i find the ones needed to make a service, or find a bat or vbs file for on it somewhere online.

thanks for your help everyone!

[Camarade_Tux]

until i actually tried to use the service, started with gaim, wouldnt actually open gaim

Do you want to run gaim with a service ?

I'm not sure it is possible and I don't see the point. In fact, services are made to be hidden.

i might end up just going through commands till i find the ones needed to make a service, or find a bat or vbs file for on it somewhere online.

To run a standard app as a service, you need a wrapper because there are a few differences between normal windows apps and services.

1- services have to handle some more messages sent by windows

2- when it starts normal apps, windows calls the main or winmain function (maybe that I should turn on the light). With services, windows calls servicemain (not sure about that name).

[doodr]

Hello, No i wasn't wanting to run gaim as a service, it was a test, as stated.

used > http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=251192 to finally just hand make my services from scratch, and made a bat file that runs somewhat like "launcherservice" but using sc commands.

[HyperHacker]

I tried running a program at the logon screen by replacing the screen saver, but there was one problem. When the program started, the logon prompt would disappear! Pressing Ctrl+Alt+Delete or closing the program would bring it back. The system doesn't seem to be fully initialized at this point either; a lot of programs won't run, throw errors about classes not existing, etc.

Of course things might be a bit different running the app as a service instead of a screen saver.