JULY TUTOR ■
CUSTOM INTERFACE
custom
interface
Ever wished you could change the images that Windows displays every time it starts up and shuts
down? Well, you can. Or you might want to return to default a desktop interface you inherited from
an AC/DC fan. You can do that too. In this tutor we show you how you can change these opening and
closing screens to suit your needs and your tastes.
eaders often write to ask about
R the screens that Windows dis-
plays when the computer starts
up or shuts down. Some want
to wipe them out or change them to fit a
particular theme. Others want to re s t o re
the default images or get rid of an of-
fensive bitmap. Here, we’ll show you all
need to know about these scre e n s .
WHERE DO THEY COME FRO M ?
If Windows finds a file named Logo.sys
in the root directory of the boot drive
(usually C:), and that file re p resents a
bitmap in the correct format, Wi n d o w s
will display that file at start-up. Despite
the .sys extension, this file is a simple
Windows bitmap file, so you can load it
into the Paint accessory. It’s a 320x400
pixel, 256-colour image, stretched hori-
zontally to 640x400 when Windows dis-
plays it. The format also allows palette
animation (see the sidebar).
If the Logo.sys file is not present, Wi n-
dows will extract the default start-up
bitmap from Io.sys. Unlike Logo.sys, Io.sys
is a true system file, so don’t try loading
90 July 2000
Figure 1: Despite the .sys extension, Logow.sys is a
simple bitmap file that can be loaded into the Paint
accessory.
www.DITnet.co.ae
it into Paint! Note that if the boot drive
is compressed using DriveSpace, Wi n-
dows will look for Logo.sys in the ro o t
d i rectory of the host for the boot drive.
The two shutdown bitmaps are store d
in the Windows folder as files named Lo-
gow.sys and Logos.sys. Logow.sys is the
bitmap that tells you to wait while Wi n-
dows shuts down and Logos.sys is the
bitmap that says it’s safe to turn off your
c o m p u t e r. If your system is configure d
to power off automatically at shutdown,
you may not see the second bitmap. These
files are in basically the same format as
Logo.sys, except they don’t have the ca-
pacity for palette animation. Figure 1
shows Logow.sys in Paint.
H OW CAN YOU CHANGE THEM?
You can easily create a new shutdown
bitmap using Windows Paint. Start by
making a backup copy of Logow.sys, per-
haps to Logow.old. Now launch Paint
and open Logow.sys. Select Stretch/Skew
f rom the Image menu and stretch the im-
age horizontally to 200 percent of its
width. From this point, modify the ex-
■ www.pcmag-mideast.com
 ■ JULY TUTOR
CUSTOM INTERFACE

5. In Notepad, find the heading

[Options].
6. Below this heading, if you find
the line LOGO=1, change that line
to LOGO=0.
PALETTE
7. If there’s no LOGO=1 line, in-
sert the line LOGO=0 just after ANIMATION
the [Options] heading.
9. Save the file and close Notepad. E a ch pixel in a 256 colour
10. Back at the M S - D O S p ro m p t , bitmap is re p resented by a 1-
Figure 2: When Windows displays this animated start-up enter the command ATTRIB -R - b yte index in the bitmap’s
bitmap, created using LogoMania, the red and white spiral S -H MSDOS.SYS. palette. When Windows ani-
appears to rotate counterclockwise. Removing the start-up bitmap m ates a logo bitmap, it
will not cause Windows to load doesn’t change the bytes; it
isting image or clear it and start afre s h . any faster. The start-up bitmap simply changes the colours st o re d
When you’re done, select Stre t c h / S k e w displays during the loading process, ob- in the palette. Windows cy-
f rom the Image menu again and stre t c h scuring activities like the processing of cles the colours st o red in a
the image horizontally to 50 percent of Autoexec.bat and Config.sys. If you need continuous series of palette
its width. Save the file. Repeat the process to see the details of the loading pro c e s s , entries, starting with the
for Logos.sys, if you wish. simply press Esc while the start-up bitmap very last entry and working
To change the start-up bitmap, you is displayed. d own. It moves the colour fo r
modify or create the Logo.sys file in the e a ch palette entry in the ani-
same way. A bitmap created using Paint, R E STORING THE DEFA U LT BITM A PS m ation into the next low e r
h o w e v e r, will lack the colour cycling an- If an unwanted bitmap displays at start- entry and moves the colour
imation found in the default logo bitmap. up, restoring the default is easy. Simply for the low e st one into the
If you want to create your own animat- locate the file Logo.sys in the root di- l a st entry.
ed logo bitmap, try using PC Magazine’s rectory of the boot drive and delete or Suppose the last thre e
free LogoMania utility (www.pcmag.com/ rename it. Windows will now use the de- palette entries are inv o lv e d
utilities). With LogoMania, you can cre- fault start-up bitmap. in the animation, and sup-
ate the animated and non-animated por- If no bitmap appears at start-up, turn pose they contain yellow,
tions of your bitmap separately and then on the start-up bitmap by following the g reen and blue, re s p e c t i v e ly.
m e rge them (Figure 2). If your aim is to instructions in the previous section, but Suppose further that the
c hange yo ur st art- up and s hutdo wn i n r e v er se . T h at i s , i f y o u ’r e u s in g bitmap has a series of yel-
bitmaps to match a particular theme, vis- Tw e a kU I, place a check next to Display l ow, green and blue vertical
it a Web site such as www.jokewallpa- splash screen while booting. If you’re stripes. For each cy cle of ani-
p e r. c o m . working in MS-DOS by hand, change m ation, the yellow pixe l s
LOGO=0 to LOGO=1 in the Msdos.sys turn green, green pixels turn
H OW CAN YOU GET RID OF THEM? file. b lue and blue pixels turn yel-
If you don’t want to see the shutdown To re s t o re the default shutdown im- l ow. This gives the appear-
bitmaps, all you need to do is re n a m e ages, start by deleting Logow.sys and Lo- ance that the stripes are
them Logow.old and Logos.old. At shut- gos.sys from the Windows folder, if pre- m oving to the left (Figure A).
down, Windows will display a simple text sent. Now look for files that might re p- If the bitmap contained con-
message instead of the bitmap. The start- resent backups of the default files, for centric blue, green and yel-
up bitmap is a different story; if you delete example, Logow.old or Logos.bak. These l ow circles, they would ap-
Logo.sys, Windows simply pulls the de- files are normally 129,078 or 129,080 bytes pear to be expanding out
fault start-up bitmap from Io.sys. To turn in size. If you find files of the correct size f rom the centre. All of the
o f f the start-up bitmap, you can use with likely filenames, try renaming them a n i m ations in Windows 95
T w e a kU I, a utility you can download to the correct names. logo bitmaps are pro d u c e d
f rom Microsoft’s Web site at www.micro- If you can’t find any backups, you’ll using this technique.
s o f t . c o m / w i n d o w s 9 5 / d o w n l o a d s / have to extract the Logow.sys and Lo-
c o n t e n t s /W U To y s / W 9 5 P w r To y s S e t / gos.sys files from the Windows 95 or Win-
Default.asp. Launch Tw e a kU If rom Con- dows 98 C D - R O M. Insert the C D - R O M;
trol Panel, select the Boot tab, remove the if it autostarts, cancel the Setup pro g r a m .
check next to Display Splash Screen While Launch the Find Files or Folders utility
Booting and click O K. f rom the Start menu. Search the C D - R O M
If you’d rather do the job by hand, fol- for files named *.cab containing the text
Figure A: Palette animation pr o-
low these steps: Logow.sys and note the name and loca- duces the illusion of motion by
1. Launch an MS-DOS p ro m p t . tion of the found file. Open an M S - D O S cycling colour values stored in the
2. Navigate to the root directory of the p rompt and navigate to the folder con- palette. The four rows shown here
boot drive. taining that file. Then enter the command represent the initial state (row 1)
and the subsequent states (rows
3. Enter the command ATTRIB -R -S -H EXTRACT /L C:\Windows name.CAB 2,3 and 4) that result from the addi-
MSDOS.SYS. LOGO?.SYS, replacing name.CAB with tion of each animation step.
4. Enter the command NOTEPAD MS- the found filename. That should re s t o re
DOS.SYS. both of the shutdown bitmaps.

www.DITnet.co.ae ■ www.pcmag-mideast.com July 2000 91