... or my version of it!
Published on December 1, 2003 By _Martin_ In OS Customization

 

 

 

The Art of Making BootSkins

BootSkins are certainly the skinning fashion of the moment. These are replacements for the screen that is displayed when Windows is loading.

Previously, replacing these screens had been a somewhat risky affair involving hacking your Windows application to pieces, but now BootSkin (www.bootskin.com) allows you to replace the screen without risking damage to your Windows installation under Windows 2000 and Windows XP.

The software allows you to apply one of the default skins or one downloaded from WinCustomize (https://www.wincustomize.com/skins.asp?library=32), but how do you create one of your own?


Well, it’s actually really easy. All that are required are 2 images and one configuration file. The first thing to do is to design how you want your skin to look when it’s completed.

This is my image as I want it to look. It’s just a tweak of the standard look. What you need to bear in mind currently is that BootSkin only works with 16 color images. There are plans to change this in the future to allow more colors but we must work with what’s available at the moment so keep your image simple.

The two images are the background and the progress bar. The background incorporates everything you see above apart from the blue progress bar in the top right. The box surrounding the progress bar is an optional part of the background image.

A lot of image programs claim to produce 4-bit (16 color) bitmaps but often the format is not quite right without knowing your image editing software well. What is fortunate here is that another Stardock program can help.


SkinStudio (www.stardock.com/products/SkinStudio) is mainly a tool for creating WindowBlinds and other skins but it has a useful tool built in that can help. If you select Tools … Bootskin … Prepare Image from the menu you will launch a little utility specifically for this purpose.

If you “browse” for your image you can load it into the utility.

You should then check the “Dither” option and experiment with the different Resampling and Dithering types to find the closest 16 color representation of your original image. You can then press “Save” and save your background image.


You can then move on to prepare the progress bar. The best way to do this is to start with an existing image to tweak. Basically however, in the BootSkin, you will eventually specify how much space the progress bar will take up and then this progress bar you create will be animated as Windows loads to fill this space.

Here we are using a simple image, which also uses the same 16 color palette as the background.

OK, so on to creating the actual BootSkin.

Under the directory where you installed BootSkin there is a Skins directory. Within this directory there will be a series of folders for each BootSkin installed. To add your skin, create a subdirectory with the name of your skin. I’m creating a directory called StardockEdition. Within that folder I’m going to place my two image files and a copy of an existing bootskin.ini file from one of the other folders.

We’re almost there now. We’ve done the hard work in creating the images. Now, we just need to change the .ini file to tell BootSkin how to use these images. Lets take a look at that file now.


[BootSkin]

Type=0

Name = "XXXXXXXXXXXX"

Author = "XXXXXXXXXXXX"

Description = "XXXXXXXXXXXX"

ProgressBar=XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX.bmp

ProgressBarX = XXX

ProgressBarY = XXX

ProgressBarWidth = XXX

Screen=XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX.bmp

Note that I’ve replaced context with a series of XXXXXs. These are the areas you need to change.

Name

Here, simply enter the name of the BootSkin you have created within quotation marks.

e.g. Name = "Windows Stardock Edition"

Author

Here, enter your own name so you can get the credit owed for your wonderful skin within quotation marks.

e.g. Author = "_Martin_"

Description

Enter some information about the skin you have created, again within quotation marks.

e.g. Description = "A simple twist on the standard login to give credit to Stardock’s wonderful software"

Progress Bar

Here, you need to enter the name of the bitmap file you are using for your progress bar.

e.g. ProgressBar=StardockEditionProgress.bmp

ProgressBarX

You need to work our where you are placing the progress bar on the screen. This represents the absolute left edge of the bar. You can use your source image to work out the location.

e.g. ProgressBarX = 508

ProgressBarY

This is the vertical coordinate of the top left of the progress bar on the screen.

e.g. ProgressBarY = 12

ProgressBarWidth

This is how wide you want the progress bar to be. As Windows loads, the Progress bar image that you specified will be moved across this area. Once it has moved across the width of the progress bar you have specified here the progress bar will start again from the left edge of the progress bar.

e.g. ProgressBarWidth = 118

Screen

Here, you need to enter the name of the bitmap file you are using for your background.

e.g. Screen=StardockEditionBack.bmp

OK, so here’s the final version of the bootskin.ini file:

[BootSkin]

Type=0

Name = "Windows Stardock Edition"

Author = "_Martin_"

Description = "A simple twist on the standard login to give credit to Stardock’s wonderful software"

ProgressBar=StardockEditionProgress.bmp

ProgressBarX = 508

ProgressBarY = 12

ProgressBarWidth = 118

Screen=StardockEditionBack.bmp

Now that you have edited the file, save it.

If you load BootSkin now, you can see you skin in the list.

Click the Apply button and your skin will be shown the next time that Windows restarts.

The final thing you can do is to share your BootSkin with others. To do this, select your skin, and select File … Export Selected Skin to File. Then, select a name for your file and a location to save it to. You will then have a .bootskin file that you can share with other BootSkin users. Why not upload it to WinCustomize for others to comment on?


Comments (Page 35)
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on Nov 15, 2006
Hello!
What values the variable ' Type ' can have? The Version of the program 1.05а. I saw values only 0 and 16. Whether It is possible to choose a mode of 256 colors and more?

(It is typed by means of the translator. Please answer without the use of a slang!)
on Nov 15, 2006
s possible to choose a mode of 256 colors and more?


No. Only 4-bit (16 colors) are allowed. It's a Kernel restraint.
on Nov 21, 2006
Hello Sir/Madam,

yesterday i found your software through surfing on google but after installation when i restart my pc then after new boot screen my pc was again restart hence my pc not working with this software. this is a very good software for make our pc different & i want to use it but how? please help me.

with regards,
Mahendra
on Nov 29, 2006
i've never had a problem using other bootskins i have downloaded. with my own bootskin tho, bootskin won't show it in the list. my ini 'name' matches the folder name, i've even zipped the folder and renamed it to a bootskin. bootskin says 'Import Suceeded' but still doesn't show it in the list. Someone have any ideas? I've saved out my bitmaps as 16bit photoshop cs2 default and as 16bit X4 R4 G4 B4 neither seem to work. Any input would be awesome...
on Nov 30, 2006
my ini 'name' matches the folder name,


The .ini needs to be labeled as "bootskin.ini". Not your folder name.

I've saved out my bitmaps as 16bit photoshop cs2 default and as 16bit X4 R4 G4 B4 neither seem to work.


It doesn't work because the images need to be 4-bit (16 colour).
on Dec 01, 2006
Ive created a bootskin, bootskin recognises it and will preview it but when i apply it and restart my pc evrythin all the colour is the same red. help pleaz
on Dec 01, 2006
Ive created a bootskin, bootskin recognises it and will preview it but when i apply it and restart my pc evrythin all the colour is the same red. help pleaz


Both the screen imgage and the progress image MUST have the same "Color Table". If they don't have the same 16 colors, then the image color gets messed up upon application. Once you have converted your Screen image, save that color table, then load that table into the progress image.
on Dec 01, 2006
how u do that ???
on Dec 01, 2006
Here's a tutorial using Photoshop that will explain everything in detail...

Bootskin Tutorial
on Dec 02, 2006
what if i dont hav photoshop?
on Dec 08, 2006
The thing you done is a nice artical but i wonder that how could you do this
on Dec 16, 2006
my bootskin ive bin workin seems to work fine on preview but when i apply it and restart windows about 1/3 of the bootskin has been cut off the left side and put on the right, anyone no how to stop this??
on Dec 18, 2006
I have the same colour table, but can the progress bar have less colour but still using the colour table? I tried lot of ways including using the same colour table, but when I boot everything seems to appear in the wrong colour. (like everybody else)
on Dec 18, 2006
Ihave the same colour table, but can the progress bar have less colour but still using the colour table? I tried lot of ways including using the same colour table, but when I boot everything seems to appear in the wrong colour.


The color table from your Screen Image is the color table you need to use for the Progress bar image. Once you have the palette imported/loaded to the progress bar, you have to use 1 or all of the sixteen colors of the imported/loaded palette/color table.

Your bootskin is appearing wrong becuase both palette's don't match. Make certain you are using the same colors as the 16 in the screen images palette. Just imporing the palette and then choosing a random color isn't going to work. This will change the progress bar's palette.
on Dec 21, 2006
my bootskin ive bin workin seems to work fine on preview but when i apply it and restart windows about 1/3 of the bootskin has been cut off the left side and put on the right, anyone no how to stop this??
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