Wapsi Square Forum

I debated putting this in the My Little Wapsi thread but I'm more proud of the technical achievement than the subject matter. My first functioning Windows XP boot screen hack (yes, I still run XP on my PC with a 19" make-the-computer-desk-sag-in-the-middle CRT monitor by choice):



Being a compliant boot screen, the picture contains only 16 colors and required quite a bit of tweaking by hand. Also all the how-tos explaining how to co this without automated tools were written several years ago before SP3 was released, meaning I had to find the adresses of the hex values that needed changing in a different kernal file than they usually state.

I can live without spending money on an upgrade for a while longer now that my computer is 20% cooler.

Now, THAT is nifty. And by coincidence, I also have a desktop (complete with CRT monitor) that runs XP - except I almost never use it since acquiring my laptop, Smash.

Hmm...I may be imagining things, but I swear the Windows logo contains the same colours as Princess Celestia's mane. Confirm/deny?

MerchManDan wrote:Hmm...I may be imagining things, but I swear the Windows logo contains the same colours as Princess Celestia's mane. Confirm/deny?

Unintentional, but now that I look at it yes it's pretty close. If anyone wants the files, palette info, ect PM me.

Ha-Haa! That's pretty cool.
I have a friend that is very, very computer savvy, and he prefers XP to anything newer.

Don't feel bad about XP. I'm still running Win 2K on some of my boxen!

Great hack, BTW. Well done!

I miss XP. Also, I've never been computer saavy enough to hack anything so I'm more than duly impressed.

Julie wrote:I miss XP. Also, I've never been computer saavy enough to hack anything so I'm more than duly impressed.

I don't want to have to move to 7 (or 8 *barf*) but the cutoff date for XP support is next year. ReactOS has made major advancements during the last year but I doubt it will be sufficiently usable before then.

And just like my rescripts that I always find errors in after uploading to Photobucket, I saw the error I made with the Windows logo, having lost details due to the color conversion. It is now has the correct gradient detail. I was also wrong before, the picture only uses 15 colors, the boot screen ignores the second palette entry.

I...can feel the change. With every new full moon....slowly...turning Brony....

NOTDilbert wrote:I...can feel the change. With every new full moon....slowly...turning Brony....

Sorry. I just really like that image.

Cute hack,but ponies?

Yegods, everywhere I turn the 80' s pukes on me.

Wasn't it bad enough the first time?

Yes, I am aware of the remakes...

Why won' t it die?

On the subject of XP:

I remember when my brother beta tested xp. He refused to finish upgrading my machine and I also found out he signed me up for several spamerific sites while he was fixing it as well. Then he went somewhere and left his machine logged in.

I made his startup South Park' s theme video, and shutdown Kyle' s mom is a b@$&#! video on max volume, then I BIOS locked him out of changing it.

Before he figured out what happened, I also changed out all his themes and sounds to a combination of South Park and He-man.

My Mother screamed at him everytime he had to do anything on it.

Why no, I don' t get mad...

DinkyInky wrote:Cute hack,but ponies?

Yegods, everywhere I turn the 80' s pukes on me.

Wasn't it bad enough the first time?

Yes, I am aware of the remakes...

Why won' t it die?

Because some of us think that the stuff we watched back then is a million times better than the crap that's available for watching now...

InkyDinky -- Another revenge story for ya:

Friend of a friend with an enemy -- Windows 3.11

Decided he'd had enough and got unsupervised access to the computer in question. Changed all the desktop icons to a black square, went into the themes setup and chose black on black with a black background. Reboot.

Oh yes, the mouse pointer was black also.

PS - Win 3.11 didn't "glow" when you moused over an icon.

Many giggles were had.

Atomic wrote:InkyDinky -- Another revenge story for ya:

Friend of a friend with an enemy -- Windows 3.11

Decided he'd had enough and got unsupervised access to the computer in question. Changed all the desktop icons to a black square, went into the themes setup and chose black on black with a black background. Reboot.

Oh yes, the mouse pointer was black also.

PS - Win 3.11 didn't "glow" when you moused over an icon.

Many giggles were had.

Ooooh. shiny! You can turn off the highlighting on mouse pointers in xp.

Here is another...a friends wife kept plastering pretty magnets all over the new Dell tower. She was upset the machine died every few months. Geek Squad could not figure out what happened(she had to remove them to take the machine in). Hubby did not know her decals were magnetic. When I figured it out, I fixed her machine to give her a gentle warning not to put on the magnets(and did not tell my friend). I then made up some colorforms printables that looked like her fridge magnets for her to play with(but did not give them to her until her lesson was learned).

I discovered she played the sims and second life, and I set up her computer sounds from Garfield and friends...which was fine until she booted up her games. Her games booted up with, Heeeeey Kids!" I almost put Binky into her games...
Unbeknownst to me she is terrified of Binky the Clown...

Instead, I made an animated gif that says, "Use a magnet on me again, and I'll send Binky to your house for a sing-a-gram." and it played Binky's birthday, which played every time she booted up her machine. A week later, she begged me to come over and unpossess her PC while my friend was working. I did, she put all her magnets all over the front storm door, then I gave her colorforms for the tower case, and removed all the evidence...I mean, fixed her machine. They never had to take another computer into Geek Squad ever again. My friend found out later what I had done to his wife's computer, but since it inspired her to take a few computer classes at Purdue to learn about them, he forgave me for pranking his wife half to death.

La vita e bella, eh?

You have definitely convinced me that I should never get you angry with me.

Dave wrote:You have definitely convinced me that I should never get you angry with me.

That might be wise, yes.

For the record, his wife started out life as a gold digger, and broke the heart...bankbook...of more than one of my friends. For whatever reason, she fell hard for him, and changed for the better. She is actually quite smart(you kinda have to be to know the difference between LeVian and costume jewelry, and designers like Prada and Jimmy Choo, and current values.). She actually sold off some of her "collection" and got a job when times were tough for them, so I have an honest respect for her now.

I do not ever respect women that flirt for things, nor leave a guy once he is broke because of it. It gives the rest of us women a hard time being taken seriously. And yeah, I tend to be a bit mean when I suspect a friend is being taken advantage of. Mostly I am harmless. Don't mess with family, and friends, and we will get along just fine.

DinkyInky wrote:

Dave wrote:You have definitely convinced me that I should never get you angry with me.

That might be wise, yes.

For the record, his wife started out life as a gold digger, and broke the heart...bankbook...of more than one of my friends. For whatever reason, she fell hard for him, and changed for the better. She is actually quite smart(you kinda have to be to know the difference between LeVian and costume jewelry, and designers like Prada and Jimmy Choo, and current values.). She actually sold off some of her "collection" and got a job when times were tough for them, so I have an honest respect for her now.

I do not ever respect women that flirt for things, nor leave a guy once he is broke because of it. It gives the rest of us women a hard time being taken seriously. And yeah, I tend to be a bit mean when I suspect a friend is being taken advantage of. Mostly I am harmless. Don't mess with family, and friends, and we will get along just fine.

Are you for hire? Don't answer here, we'll set up an anonymous drop point.....

DinkyInky wrote:

Dave wrote:You have definitely convinced me that I should never get you angry with me.

That might be wise, yes.

For the record, his wife started out life as a gold digger, and broke the heart...bankbook...of more than one of my friends. For whatever reason, she fell hard for him, and changed for the better. She is actually quite smart(you kinda have to be to know the difference between LeVian and costume jewelry, and designers like Prada and Jimmy Choo, and current values.). She actually sold off some of her "collection" and got a job when times were tough for them, so I have an honest respect for her now.

I do not ever respect women that flirt for things, nor leave a guy once he is broke because of it. It gives the rest of us women a hard time being taken seriously. And yeah, I tend to be a bit mean when I suspect a friend is being taken advantage of. Mostly I am harmless. Don't mess with family, and friends, and we will get along just fine.

How is it that every time you give personal info you seem more and more like my ideal woman???

shadowinthelight wrote:

Julie wrote:I miss XP. Also, I've never been computer saavy enough to hack anything so I'm more than duly impressed.

I don't want to have to move to 7 (or 8 *barf*) but the cutoff date for XP support is next year. ReactOS has made major advancements during the last year but I doubt it will be sufficiently usable before then.

There are relatively easy ways to make Win 7 look and act like XP. That's the first thing I did when I "upgraded." Maybe I should write a book. Well, maybe an article on it. Win 8!? <holding up fingers in sign of cross>

Oh, and for God's sake, don't let anyone from MS see that screen image. There might be people from the "Bob" era still around and looking for a new trendy interface project!

Mark N wrote:How is it that every time you give personal info you seem more and more like my ideal woman???

Careful ... IT'S A TRAP!

KnightDelight wrote:There are relatively easy ways to make Win 7 look and act like XP. That's the first thing I did when I "upgraded." Maybe I should write a book. Well, maybe an article on it. Win 8!? <holding up fingers in sign of cross>

It's less about what it looks like and more about what goes on under the hood. I hang out in the bsnes forum a lot so I know things like the desktop compositor cause video syncing problems meaning I would have to turn off Aero every time just to play a game. Even worse, in 8 it is impossible to turn off the compositor.