[hoak]

These were editable in the registry in Server 2003 in the registry under the key:

[HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Colors

But editing colors here doesn't effect the load and shutdown screen in Server 2008... Does anyone know the registry location for these color settings or if the load screen background is stored somewhere as an image?

This post has been edited by hoak: 06 May 2008 - 10:20 PM

[Dislocated Time]

My experience is that if you edit the boot.ini of your installation of windows and add the switch /NOGUI you get a black screen, but if something happens that provokes some windows error state, you will also not be able to see what chkdisk does or any other process does in the background that you usually see because the GUI is switched off. Therefore what I do is edit the bitmap in the ntoskrnl.exe with resource hacker, resedit or any of the other resource hackers available on the internet.

[hoak]

Thank you Dislocated Time, I was aware of the /NOGUI switch from XP/Server 2003 but Server 2008 and Vista no longer use boot.ini, and use BDEdit to edit a binary start configuration file. Similarly I don't think the load and shutdown screen resources are in kernel files any longer (though I haven't checked this yet)... I also gave the 'Classic Login' option via GPEdit a try as the option is still there from XP and Server 2003 but it's just a legacy setting that no longer does anything... There is a /NOGUI option in Vista/Server 2008's Configuration Editor but it doesn't effect the load or shutdown screens...

[cluberti]

I believe these screens are now a part of the winlogon.exe binary, and one would have to edit this binary to change the ctrl+alt+del and "Windows is shutting down" screens.

[hoak]

Thanks cluberti, but winlogon.exe was the next thing I thought of -- and when I opened it with Resource Hacker, I could find nothing that might constitute art assets or even color settings for the Server 2008 load ans shutdown screens...

Must be somewhere else, but where?

[Dislocated Time]

no LANMANNT.BMP anymore hmm...

I don't have server 2008... and I don't know whether that functions like Vista or not... so this is only a guess...
do you have a file called winload.exe.mui? If so, load that into resource hacker.

[hoak]

Thanks again Dislocated Time, and yes Server 2008 has those files but again no resources that pertain to load and shut-down screens. While this is a very superficial aesthetic consideration, it does point to some of the really off incongruities in UI design that Microsoft have applied to Server 2008 (and Vista) that are rather warty, and in some cases absurdly awkward to use for a contemporary operating system.

[hoak]

Anyone found where this is controlled? For Server 2003 you can edit these color settings in the registry at these keys:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Colors]
"ActiveBorder"="192 192 192"
"ActiveTitle"="0 0 0"
"AppWorkSpace"="192 192 192"
"Background"="0 0 0"
"ButtonAlternateFace"="181 181 181"
"ButtonDkShadow"="0 0 0"
"ButtonFace"="192 192 192"
"ButtonHilight"="255 255 255"
"ButtonLight"="192 192 192"
"ButtonShadow"="128 128 128"
"ButtonText"="0 0 0"
"GradientActiveTitle"="0 0 0"
"GradientInactiveTitle"="192 192 192"
"GrayText"="128 128 128"
"Hilight"="0 0 0"
"HilightText"="255 255 255"
"HotTrackingColor"="0 0 0"
"InactiveBorder"="192 192 192"
"InactiveTitle"="192 192 192"
"InactiveTitleText"="0 0 0"
"InfoText"="0 0 0"
"InfoWindow"="255 255 225"
"Menu"="192 192 192"
"MenuText"="0 0 0"
"Scrollbar"="192 192 192"
"TitleText"="192 192 192"
"Window"="192 192 192"
"WindowFrame"="0 0 0"
"WindowText"="0 0 0"

The sample here are not Server 2003's default boot & shutdown colors but a black background which makes for seamless boot process colors -- ie. black from BIOS POST to startup (I have my Desktop set to black as well).

This also puts a bit less wear and tear on your fly-back transformer if you have a CRT, as it avoids the surges in gain that happen from full field color changes (a lot of people also power up their CRT and PC at the same time when the CRT PSU is sagging which makes this even worse)...

I couldn't find these settings or their equivelent in the Server 2008 registry, and adding to Server 2008's registry has no effect on startup and shutdown screen colors as it does in Server 2003...

Over to anyone in the know...

[hoak]

I'm still pokeing around trying to find how where and how Server 2008 sets its boot screen color and where its art assets are, and haveing wretched luck -- anyone else have a clue or know where those who know can be found?