I think that I have a pretty easy way of including a custom bootscreen on your unattended XP disk.

1. Use BootEditor to edit your custom screen.

2. Click the "make" button and wait for it to finish.

3. Click the "test" button.

4. When the box comes up saying: "Seems you haven't set a testing OS inside boot.ini file. You want to set one now?" then click no.

5. In the next box that pops up click Yes.

6. Go to "%systemdrive%\Windows\System 32" folder and find the newboot.exe

7. Move newboot.exe to "$OEM$\$$\System 32" folder of your installation source.

8. Open NotePad and paste the following:

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows XP" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect /KERNEL=NewBoot.exe

9. Save it as boot.ini and place somewhere on your source. For example I place mine in "$OEM$\$1\Install" along with any software that will be installed.

10. I then include the following in my script that runs after XP installs after the desktop loads:

attrib -s -h "%systemdrive%\boot.ini"
echo/y|xcopy "%systemdrive%\Install\boot.ini" "%systemdrive%\"
attrib +h +s "%systemdrive%\boot.ini"

Of course you must change the paths to match where you place your files.

I want to replace the boot screen on my XPCD. I seem to be having trouble with it tho. I make the bootscreen, I take the NewBoot.exe file and rename it to ntoskrnl.exe and then I makecab it then I take the ntoskrnle.exe and throw it into SP2.CAB. So far I seem to be having trouble with it. Can you make a CLEAR step by step of that cause the documentation on that isnt very clear to me

In my method you do not tamper with the ntoskrnl.exe file. Do not rename newboot.exe to ntoskrnl.exe. Simply keep it named newboot.exe or some other name besides ntoskrnl.exe. I'm sorry but I do not know how else to put it other than what I said in my first post. Just follow those instructions exactly. Forget anything else you may have read about hacking the ntoskrnl.exe file. It will work perfectly.

I dont need the uxtheme.dll patch?

And your version of creating a custom bootscreen doesnt work for me. I did everything you said and when I restarted the machine after the script ran windows wouldnt boot anymore, it would just keep looping. Im assuming the boot.ini file you said doesnt work. Any ideas?

Have you disabled windows file protection? Remeber not to mess with the ntoskrnl file. Did you leave the file named newboot.exe? Is the newboot.exe in your system 32 folder? Give me more info and I'll see how I can help.

How do I disable windows fire protection?

I didnt mess with the ntoskrnl file i left it alone and kept the file name newboot.exe.

I created the iso with the steps you have provided about. I burned it to a CD, installed windows and it ran fine. I rebooted AFTER the batch file finished and then it couldnt boot into windows anymore. It doesnt even get to the booting screen, it just loops from the bios screen over and over without loading windows.

I usually disable file protection with nLite. Try this:

1. Make your boot screen with BootEditor.

2. Click the make button and wait for it to finish.

3. Click the test button.

4. When the box comes up saying: "Seems you haven't set a testing OS inside boot.ini file. You want to set one now?" then click YES.

5. Click Yes when the next box comes up.

6. Then reboot your computer and choose the correct option to boot with the test bootscreen.

Let me know if that works.

Hi, when i must execute exactly the script in my RunOnceEx.cmd?

As far as I know, you can execute it at anytime in your RunOnceEx.cmd. I have a batch file that runs after my desktop loads and it installs all of my applications and tweaks. The part of the script to change the boot.ini is the last one before the computer restarts. I hope this helps. It is one of the simplest ways I've found to do it.

-----------------------------------------------
[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows XP" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect /KERNEL=NewBoot.exe
------------------------------------------------
sometimes people install windows on 2nd partition or other hard drive and others rename the windows folder
the red words won't work in that case
I have heard that there is a command line tool that modifies this file but i am not sure

Thanks for the information sergio. So it should work if people just change the red words to match how their system is set up.

Can someone HELP me?

I am trying to make my Boot Screen look like the one Click to view attachment, but when Windows is booting up it is showing up as these Click to view attachment Click to view attachment with distorted colors. Which file I need to edit in the Windows XP Pro CD and what do I need to do to correct this problem?

10. I then include the following in my script that runs after XP installs after the desktop loads:

attrib -s -h "%systemdrive%\boot.ini"
echo/y|xcopy "%systemdrive%\Install\boot.ini" "%systemdrive%\"
attrib +h +s "%systemdrive%\boot.ini

what u mean with that? where i should add this?