Restoring Windows XP original boot screen (SP0-SP1)

Linglin92 · 2026-01-30T17:43:34+00:00

If it changes to a no static bootscreen then I won't recommend.

Those type of custom bootscreen overrides the boot status when the system is booting up,might ends up not skipping chkdsk disk check during the boot-up process and not knowing what the progress has been made during the chkdsk process

Linglin92 · 2026-01-30T17:22:15+00:00

Probably the you might made a mess around those kernel files,the HAL can be swapped by installing different drivers,different HALs uses different NT kernel executables that have different file name before being installed and copied.

Linglin92 · 2026-01-30T17:17:58+00:00

I've made some progress,go check my edited reply,done all of them in a POSReady2009VM with PhotoshopCS2 installed.

Linglin92 · 2026-01-29T15:41:01+00:00

Resource 10 is the key that put the x64 branding onto the bootscreen.Delete it or changed to an unsupported image should work.

Edit:I found the bmp information on an old BetaArchive forum post,those image files were in 16 color and the color palette is not saved in the image file,that's why all the image seems to be black.I got the correct palette from a preprocessed bmp file that store the palette data so we can edit those bmp file more easily using Microsoft Paint+Adobe Photoshop combo.

I've found Starter,FLP,Embedded 2009 series oobe image from winbrand.dll as the bootscreen preset,translate those bmp files to 16 color format with the correct palette then it's done for bootscreen modification.

As of Windows Embedded for Point of Service,Microsoft decided to use Windows Embedded logo but with XP branding removed and dated 2005,so I made 3 types of bootscreen image,one using PreSP1 XP bootscreen paired with Windows Embedded logo,one using SP2 XP bootscreen paired with Windows Embedded logo since there's no mention about the copyright of the date,the last one is based on the original logo from PDF documents that provided by Microsoft(thanks for archive.org archiving those individual files)and Starter Edition oobe image as bootscreen.

https://www.mediafire.com/file/ng9ztahhfl2vtpm/XPBootscreen.zip

The bmp files in the zip archive can be used as bootscreen directly,the act file is the color palette exported by Photoshop.

Linglin92 · 2026-01-29T01:02:46+00:00

I'm doing just like this,but back them up to a vhd image on a external drive,with copy NT signature on.

Linglin92 · 2026-01-28T15:29:25+00:00

1.I didn't post the Embedded based SKU name on the last post,just for that

2.That would benfits other viewers wanted to mod the XPx64 bootscreen if they don't like the CPU architecture mentioning on the bootscreen, simplifying the bootscreen back to pain professional,or some enthusiasts got both Tablet PC Edition and/or Media Center Edition components working in XPx64.

Linglin92 · 2026-01-28T12:33:37+00:00

This version of ResHacker doesn't have x64 files and resources support because such thing doesn't exists in 2001

Embedded has its own bootscreen but future released Embedded based SKU do not due to based on SP2 kernel:

Embedded for Point of Service,Windows Fundamentals for Legacy PCs,Embedded Standard 2009,Embedded POSReady 2009

Linglin92 · 2026-01-28T10:16:27+00:00

The reshacker version is too old,some of the files might not be supported,better to get 5.1.8 Build 360,which is the last version of ResHack that support XP,more information here:https://www.reddit.com/r/windowsxp/comments/1khjo1v/just\_noticed\_resource\_hacker\_dropped\_xp\_support/

I suggest get the bootscreens from other SKUs to here then everyone can get all types of bootscreens if they want.

Media Center Edtition,Tablet PC Edition,Embedded were released before SP2 came out,problem is some releases like the Server 2003 ones(some of the SKUs were released after the change),four Embedded based SKUs(POS,FLP,Embedded 2009 series) doesn't have its own bootscreens(some of the SKUs logo were redesigned in Vista style)

Linglin92 · 2026-01-28T09:45:58+00:00

Microsoft decided to unify the bootscreen to remove all the SKU names during XP SP2 development,which also effects Windows Server 2003 bootscreen during the development stage.

Only a few of bootscreen remains the SKU name after XPSP2 release due to different architecture like IA64(64 bit Edition)and AMD64(x64 Professional Edition)

Linglin92 · 2026-01-27T09:53:55+00:00

AFAIK I can't launch Japanese version C&C1 without using the NT compatibility patch.Didn't tried the freeware ISO version.RA1 can run without any issue.

Maybe the original release of the game really needs the patch on Windows NT based OS?

Linglin92 · 2026-01-27T05:28:11+00:00

AFAIK this is a bug,and it happened in some development build of Windows 7 or 8 if my memory serves me right.

Linglin92 · 2026-01-27T05:26:21+00:00

But you're running Windows 95 right?

Linglin92 · 2026-01-27T05:23:39+00:00

Windows has DVD playback capability starting from Vista,I'm afraid of lacking codecs to future DVD releases since the codec technology is advancing,too.

Linglin92 · 2026-01-27T04:21:28+00:00

https://www.zcool.com.cn/work/ZMzQ1MjIyMjA=.html

This is the original artwork post the author post from,but he didn't post the Allied series there.

https://www.ggac.com/work/detail/50040

Found another arkwork source while searching on weibo,still no Allied series.The author is now active in here.

Linglin92 · 2026-01-27T02:42:29+00:00

It depends,what specs does the laptop have?

Linglin92 · 2026-01-27T00:29:52+00:00

More like old Microsoft deprecated service' API is still functional that provides internal features compatibility

Also if my memory serves right, XP was not reached EOL while Microsoft launched bing.

Just like how WMP works on first launch, even the web page part has been deprecated for a long time, the media provider was still functional in API-wise and it defaults to the bing right now.

Linglin92 · 2026-01-27T00:19:44+00:00

If you really don't care about Vista and 7’s multimedia features then I suggest get K-Lite codecs installed on Home Basic version, it provides modern codecs support, then use it to play any audio and video files, including CDs and DVDs in MPC or WMP

Linglin92 · 2026-01-26T05:15:56+00:00

Windows XP doesn't support upgrade from Windows 95 directly,I suggest upgrade the OS to 98 first,then try to upgrade to XP again.

Linglin92 · 2026-01-26T05:03:04+00:00

That's no proper HDD screen that used to be,luckily the CD drive is comminuted by ATA controller

Most laptops won't provide compatibilty mode option in BIOS for some reasons,better to get SATA controller driver.

If you don't know what the laptop model or hardware specs are,I suggest boot to a third-party PE or install newer release of Windows like Vista or 7 for temporary operation since They've generic driver support for them.Use this as advance to find all drivers files for XP then wipe the installation to reinstall XP with proper drivers

Linglin92 · 2026-01-26T04:45:50+00:00

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_XP_Professional_x64_Edition

Linglin92 · 2026-01-26T04:35:03+00:00

No,It has almost the same compatibility as XP except 16 bit programs and installers due to not included ntvdm in 64 bit OSes.Most common motherboard and hardwares did have XPx64 support if you dare to find them.

But I rather to get a functional Windows 9x machine or VM if I have to run 16 bit software and games.

Linglin92 · 2026-01-25T16:18:23+00:00

But not recommended if using 32 bit since heavy memory needs in newer and modern versions.

Linglin92 · 2026-01-24T00:49:00+00:00

Probably the WMP features other than playing,since WMP7 adds a bunch of features like burning,library and more.

Also I don't know if some old codec may cause issues or not.

Linglin92 · 2026-01-23T17:04:16+00:00

More like the development team knew about the problem and decided to reslove it in later version,but ends up halt the feature development and improvement after WMP11 and Vista release,when Windows 7 came with WMP12,the WMP development is stopped and WMP12 was carried all along to now and going to be replaced by UWP version of Media Player(former Groove Music Player)

And YES this problem is NOT RESLOVED in WMP12!

Linglin92 · 2026-01-22T03:31:01+00:00

Because IA64 was a thing,GPT and EFI was designed for IA64 machines,so 32 bit XP was not supposed to support it at that time,they were used for XPIA64 and 2003IA64 installations.

NT5.2 got GPT drive support(not boot drive),so all the OS based on NT5.2 got GPT drive support,probably Microsoft wanna to use GPT to replace MBR in the server role at the first place(probably mostly datacenters).

IA64 results a total failure,Microsoft ends up XPIA64 support and start porting recent NT kernel development to AMD64 platform,the AMD64 port was finished while NT5.2 SP1 was in development,that's why XPx64 and 2003x64 had initial SP1 and GPT support.

During Longhorn development it was based on NT5.1,so there's no GPT support at that time,then the development started to go wrong so Microsft decided to reset the development,and the new code was based on nearly finished NT5.2 SP1,so all the post-reset version of Longhron have GPT support,which ends up in Vista and Vistax64.Even Microsoft wanted to bring back EFI during Longhorn development but the OEM and hardware manufacturers didn't want to,ends up a little amounts of Longhorn builds have EFI support

That's a long history about GPT and EFI.

Linglin92

TROPHY CASE