... 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 36)
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on Dec 27, 2006
************************************************
HOW TO FIX COLOR PROBLEMS USING PHOTOSHOP
************************************************

a lot of people have been having color table problems and here's how to fix it.

1. Open both images in photoshop
2. Do "Image>Mode>RGB Color" for both images
3. In the background image, do "Image>Mode>Indexed Color"
4. For "Palette", choose one of the choices that lets you specify the number of colors ("Master (Perceptual)" and "Master (Selective)" seem to work best.)
5. Enter 16 for Colors, and UNCHECK transparency
6. Click OK, and open the progress image
7. Do "Image>Mode>Indexed Color", but under palette, select "Previous"
8. Save both images as 4-bit bitmaps
on Dec 27, 2006
i'm sure the method is similar for other programs
on Dec 30, 2006
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on Nov 26, 2007
I have been having a problem with my image shifted to the left, and wrapped around to the right. This has been reported several times in this thread, however I have not seen this issue directly addressed.

After messing around with it for a couple of days I have found a soulution.

The image I am working with has only 9 colors. If there are not exactly 16 colors in the color table, bootskin will get confused.

In Photoshop (my version at least), if an image has less than 16 colors, and Palette is set to an Exact, or Local palette, and Colors is set to 16, the number of colors in the Color Table will be set to the number of colors in the image, not to 16.

The workaround is to pad the color table with additional colors such that it contains 16 unique colors. If the colors are not unique, Photoshop will remove the duplicate colors when saving the file.
on Nov 26, 2007

The workaround is to pad the color table with additional colors such that it contains 16 unique colors. If the colors are not unique, Photoshop will remove the duplicate colors when saving the file.

The rule is that a bootskin is 4bit [16 colour] for its palette.

The image itself can have as few as one [though it'd be somewhat pointless], but the palette MUST be 16 ...

on Oct 25, 2008

uhm, is it posible to change the user acount selection screen? im realy bored with the defalt blue one

on Oct 25, 2008
on Dec 08, 2008

i made 2 images of 4 bits and a ini file but bootskin software do not detect it

on Dec 08, 2008

double check your pic size is 640x480....it won't come up unless that's exact......and download bootskin buddy to check it.....

http://hypknotic.deviantart.com/art/BootSkin-Buddy-30733603

(you'll have to copy/paste to new browser...links not working at the moment)

on Dec 21, 2008

sydneysiders
sounds like you need LogonStudio....for XP....https://www.wincustomize.com/skins.aspx?libid=26Free program......https://www.stardock.com/products/logonstudio/or....for Vista...https://www.wincustomize.com/skins.aspx?libid=65
sydneysiders
sounds like you need LogonStudio....for XP....https://www.wincustomize.com/skins.aspx?libid=26Free program......https://www.stardock.com/products/logonstudio/or....for Vista...https://www.wincustomize.com/skins.aspx?libid=65

 its not free for vista!!!!   why say it is?

on Dec 21, 2008

They say it's free because it is free...

Bootskin Pro = not free.

LogonStudio Vista = free

 

on Dec 21, 2008

  its not free for vista!!!! why say it is?

that's a pretty ugly smilie mate, directioned at someone trying to helpout....

on Jan 14, 2009

You have to save as a 4 color BMP format.  Ain't gonna work otherwise.  Hint: don't try an image with many colors.  They'll just get washed out.  And don't expect the image to be smooth unless you want to do a bunch of post-process work after it's been saved in the 4 color format 'cuz it's going to be pixelated.

I use PhotoShop (V7 &V8) with no problem saving.

on Jan 25, 2009

Ok i made all three files and put them in the right directory but i wont show up on my list of bootskins...can anyone help?

on Jan 25, 2009

so...they are definitely saved at 4 bit....

double check your wall size....if it's outside 640x480...won't show up...

make sure the file names written in the ini file are exact...

when it's zipped....and you've renamed .zip to .bootskin ........all you need to do is double click on it and it will self install...don't need to put it in the right directory....

you can also try testing it with this great little gadget.....   Bootskin Buddy...

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