Unattend: How to make a custom boot logo

[gosh]

Hello my name is Gosh,

Awhile back someone asked if you could slipstream custom boot files, logins, etc.  The answer to that thread was \'no\'.

Well, there are ways to do it.  One way i found to use a custom boot screen is listed below - it only works for XP.

First, in your unattend file you need to do an oempreinstall.  To do this add these 2 lines under [unattended] :

    OemPreinstall=Yes
    OemSkipEula=Yes

Then you need to make an $OEM$ folder.  If your installing from cd the folder needs to be in the root; if your installing from hard drive it needs to be under the i386 folder.

Under the $OEM$ folder you need to make a folder called $$, then in that folder make another folder called System32.

In the System32 folder put the customer boot logo you want (ie, put the customized ntoskrnl.exe here).  You\'ll need to rename ntoskrnl.exe to something else.  In my example i named it OEMKRNL.exe (i made up the name).

So you should have so:

(root):$OEM$$$SYSTEM32OEMKRNL.exe (or whatever you renamed it to).

Next, in the $OEM$ folder you need to make a text file called cmdlines.txt.  In this file put this:

[Commands]
\"boot.bat\"

Also in the $OEM$ folder, make a batch file called boot.bat.  In this file put this:

bootcfg /RAW /A /Kernel=OEMKrnl.exe /ID 1
bootcfg /Timeout 0

So to recap, on the root of your cd you have an $OEM$ folder.  In this folder you have a folder called $$, a text file called cmdlines.txt, and a batch file called boot.bat.  In the $$ folder you have another folder called System32.  In this folder you have your ntoskrnl.exe renamed.

To test type :i386winnt32.exe /unattend:

Once you install using this unattend file you will have a custom boot screen.  Your boot.ini will also have a timeout of 0.  This only works on xp since bootcfg is new to XP.

Enjoy

-Gosh

[Space Between]

That is not slipstreaming though. however you info is helpfull. I have tried to repack the .cab....and it worked as far as that. However when it installed and i got to the very first boot screen before logging on for the first time...it just hanged there forever. Never got to the logon screen. It did work..but would load to logon...so i guess it didn\'t work at the same time.

you can, from what someone once suggested on the irc, was to run a filesize check on the first .cab...and if you can get the newly built .cab with your kernel in it...it should in theory work just fine. I was not too sure if he was correct that day he mentioned that...but looking back it *should* work.  However i tried that, and it wasnt a easy task. I never actually got the filesize\'s to match (off by 2 byte\'s)...so i never spent time to try it.

On a side note, you should be able to load those files without the .cab. I think you will have to edit the setup.sif and what not to get it to work...but it should...of course in theory.

You can do it your way, but you will have to delete a kernel because the orginal is there. Or, you could boot it into safe mode the very first time you boot, and run a .bat to replace that kernel. Either way it\'s not really slipstreaming. Rebuilding your .cab file with your own kernel is slipstreaming...in ways. I consider it to be because you are basically, manually slipstreaming it after you ran that string to slipstream the whole thing for you automatically.

Good info though.

[gosh]

Yes, you are right.  My method is not slipstreaming.  What i meant to say is someone asked how to slipstream files such as the boot logo.  There are ways to do this, however i showed a way to do it other than slipstreaming.

To customize xp, you can change the following:

ntoskrnl.exe - boot logo
logonui.exe - welcome screen
.theme - xp visual theme
wallpaper

In this post i showed you how to very simply change the default boot logo without messing with system file protection.  In another post i showed how to specify the default theme.  In another post i showed how to change the default wallpaper.  The only thing left is logonui.exe.

Logonui.exe is the graphics of the welcome screen.  Whatever you type at the welcome screen gets sent to winlogon.exe, which really does all the logging in.  Logonui.exe was made so people could make there own welcome screen if they wanted.  I haven\'t looked into specifying the welcome screen since i don\'t use the welcome screen.  If there\'s interest ill see how to change it in an unattended install, otherwise i\'ll probably not look into it.

-gosh

[Space Between]

if you figure out...or know how to slip stream a modified kernel into the the setup let us know.

if one can do this one can modify just about everything they want without really having to do alot of typing ;-)

[gosh]

As far as the Welcome screen, i found an easy way to do it.

Like i was saying, the welcome screen graphics are in logonui.exe which parses what you type to winlogon.exe, which does the actually logging in.

The settings for winlogon are here:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftWindows NTCurrentVersionWinlogon

To change the default winlogon gui, change the key labeled UIHost.  I haven\'t tested this, but im sure you can use this registry key to change the default welcome screen in an unattended install.

As far as slipstreaming hexed files like ntoskrnl.exe, well there\'s ways to do it but i wouldn\'t recommend it.  For one, you\'ll probably need to disable System file protection.  The problem you\'ll run into is how to enable system file protection after the install.  It\'s really a bad idea to disable simple file sharing.  You\'ll probably end up doing unsupported hacks, which could cause other problems with the install process.  Even if you find a way to disable simple file sharing, microsoft could always reenable it in a future service pack.

I\'ve shown how to very easily customize the wallpaper, theme, boot logo, welcome screen in an unattended install, with very little work.  Rather than spending weeks researching how to disable simple file sharing, etc, why not use my method?

-Gosh