I've been trying to change the boot screen on windows XP Pro SP2. According to all the guides, all you need do is patch ntoskrnl, so I did this, and nothikng changed. Another suggested patching uxtheme.dll, so then did this as well, and still no change. Bootskin and Tuneup Utilities both work, so I took the kernel (the oddly named one) from TU, and restarted the process from scratch - used its ntoskrnl, then patched uxtheme, and still there was no change. Can anyone tell me what I'm doing wrong? I've spent a long time searching for guides and carefull checking my PSP work.

Wrayal

Replacing NTOSKRNL.EXE won't work unless you're in safe mode, because of Windows File Protection. It just replaces your hacked, unsigned version with an original stored in system32\dllcache. Try it in safe mode.

Yep, I did that - replaced it in safe mode. After rebooting and finding it didn't work, I even then went back and rechecked ntoskrnl one I'd rebooted, and it was still my version. I've checkedd my boot.ini - it's definitely unmodified (i.e. it must be using my ntoskrnl). I'm sorry, I know this sounds like I must have made an exceptionally silly error, but I have checked these things!

It still could be the problem with multiprocessor systems using a different ntoskrnl, I guess.
Try renaming your modified kernel.exe and changing your boot.ini to use that kernel.exe

Actually, I'm running under vmware with only one core, so I suppose it shouldn't matter, but I tried it anyway, and still to no avail I'm sure I must be doing something terribly stupid....

same problem here, if i figure it out i will post how i hope you will also do the same

trying to modify ur boot screen is pretty tricky and can corrupt ur system if ur not carefull. theres a few files u have to replace to do it rite

i'm havin the same prob. read every tut, tried everything. maybe its a sudent edition thing?

http://www.stardock.com/products/bootskin/ its free and faster than safe mode

looking to make one for unattended installation. and dont much care for stardock.

OK here is the best and safest way I have found.

#1 You can only replace the #1 .bmp with a 16bit 640x480 file.

#2 Don't use direct replacement, it is too risky.

#3 Modify your ntoskrnl.exe with your custom bitmap and save it as oemkrnl.exe.

#4 Using $OEM$ folders, txtsetup methods, runonce or however you know you can do it get it copied to your system32 dir.

#5 save the following as a .cmd file and run it via cmdlines, runonce or whatever.

i think i found an answer: i was using nlite v1.4RC. the newest version of nlite has a bug fix for SFC.

"This one is on time. It has the latest in SFC fixup technologies ™. Hopefully this new SFC fix will be the last, that bug is so annoying as of lately because it was one of the few big ones left."

thats why no matter what we were doing, our krnls were reverting back to the original....i think.