Windows XP Loading & Shutdown Screens

[jopenner]

Hi Again,

Things are rolling along quite well with the cabinet project (thanks to John Sinclair and the Project Arcade book).  I have a MAME boot skin working now (looks great), but the "Windows is starting" and the "Windows is shutting down" screens are still set to the Windows XP deafult screens.  Is it possible to change these screens the same way we can change the boot screen.  If so, how?  It would be nice to completely eliminate the "computerish" look of my Arcade Machine.
Thanks again to the guys that helped me out with choosing a boot utility (BootSkin)...it works great.

John

[sc1103]

To get rid of the startup and shutdown messages via regedit:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE>Software>Microsoft>Windows>CurrentVersion>Policies>System
If there's a DisableStatusMessages dword there, change it to 1, otherwise add it and change it to 1.

[jopenner]

Thanks for the quick reply.  I edited the registry and it worked to get rid of the actual messages.  The problem now is that the Windows XP graphic image is still there when I boot up (follows my Boot Skin) and when I shutdown.  I have the system setup to bypass the logon screens, but the graphic images thst sre behind the text "Windows is Starting" and "Windows is Shutting Down" are still there.
Can I alter this image now or eliminate it altogether?
Thanks again.

John

[sc1103]

Are you trying to describe the welcome screen? If so, shut it off by using the control panel-Control Panel>User Accounts>Change the way users logon...>Click off use the welcome screen and fast user switching, hit apply

[loadman]

Thanks again to the guys that helped me out with choosing a boot utility (BootSkin)...it works great.

  No Problem

Also if your bios permitts you can have it load up with a custom picture rather than bios information.

It was really nice for me as I have a vertical setup so I rotated the picture.

Check my webpage http://www.members.optusnet.com.au/backwash/software

[jopenner]

SC1103,

Thanks again.  It was the "Welcome" screen and your tip did the trick.  I was looking in all the wrong places.
I spent all day yesterday trying to mold this old P3 500 into an arcade machine and your email was a sight for sore eyes.
Can the default colour of blue of the former Welcome screen now be changed to something like a black colour or even a graphic image?

John

[darthbane2k]

Yes you can change it to a  color value of 000 (Black) via the registry. I cant remember exactly how but I found the solution somewhere on this forum, so use the search!

[darthbane2k]

Yes you can change it to a

[sc1103]

SC1103,

Thanks again. It was the "Welcome" screen and your tip did the trick. I was looking in all the wrong places.
I spent all day yesterday trying to mold this old P3 500 into an arcade machine and your email was a sight for sore eyes.
Can the default colour of blue of the former Welcome screen now be changed to something like a black colour or even a graphic image?

John

Change the login background color (from blue to black in my case).
Login is disabled, but background color still shows up.
Background color is here:
HKEY_USERS>.DEFAULT>Control Panel>Colors>Background
It's a 3 digit RGB Color. I just changed mine to 0 0 0

[jopenner]

SC1103,

I can't thank you enough for your assistance.  The registry has always been a forbidden place for me, but your last two suggestions regarding the registry edits worked great.
Thank you very much for your help.
You and the folks on this forum are top notch.

John

[loadman]

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE>Software>Microsoft>Windows>CurrentVersion>Policies>System
If there's a DisableStatusMessages dword there, change it to 1, otherwise add it and change it to 1. Change the login background color (from blue to black in my case).
Login is disabled, but background color still shows up.
Background color is here:
HKEY_USERS>.DEFAULT>Control Panel>Colors>Background
It's a 3 digit RGB Color. I just changed mine to 0 0 0

Yeah nice work sc1103

I'm going to hack the registary as soon as I get home from work.

[Scoobie]

I've read through the many threads on removing the "Welcome" screen in XP.  What I've found in trying the suggestions (I don't want to change my shell to the front end) is if I uncheck the "use welcome screen" under User Accounts in the Control Panel, I am left to either type a password (to log into XP) or need to press enter to bypass the password screen.

As it is now, my machine will lauch right into the frontend (it's dropped into the startup folder) AFTER I see the "Welcome" screen.  I've found that changing the boot screen doesn't change/affect the "Welcome" screen, it only changes the boot screen just before the "Welcome" screen.  Wow, that's sure a lot of quotations...

Does anyone know of a way to remove the "Welcome" screen without needing to go the XP password route or shell change route?

Thanks!

[loadman]

To enable autologon and bypass XP's prompt to enter a username and password, perform the following steps:

Select Run from the Start menu.
Enter
control userpasswords2
and click OK.
Select the Users tab.
Uncheck the "Users must enter a user name and password to use this computer."
Click OK.
When the system prompts you, enter a username and password for users who automatically log on, and click OK.

[Scoobie]

This didn't work.  Now I am locked out of my PC since I've never logged in and don't know what the password would be.

I am left with a prompt asking for my username and password.

It has defaulted my username to "Administrator" and I don't have a clue what my password would be (I've tried all that it might be).

I recall simply pressing enter would do the trick, but this is not the case.

PLEASE HELP!   

[Scoobie]

Well, I've tried several suggestions on recovering my password (which I never needed to use before I screwed things up by trying to remove the blasted "Welcome" screen) and I'm completely locked out of my PC.

The most common suggestion is to boot into safe mode.

I can't even boot into safe mode.  When I try booting into safe mode, I'm able to select the safe mode option but when I press enter, the screen just stays blank.

So basically I need to find a way to get the bloody PC to boot into safe mode (by some other route) or be able to bypass the login/password screen.

I would really appreciate some help with this.  Thanks guys.

[rugby1]

Some good links for password recovery on this page

http://www.petri.co.il/forgot_administrator_password.htm

The second of the 5 free downloads does work very well.....  I have had to use it on several customers machines and it has worked everytime

[DaemonCollector]

I'm going to go ahead and repost a tutorial I made for hiding XP.

For the bootscreen: Use BootXP found at www.bootxp.net, there may be another program out there to do this that is free. I made BootXP free... Wink

For Autologon: Using the Run Dialog type, "Control Userpasswords2" and uncheck Users must log, when you close out of the window it will ask you to set the default user.

To change the Shell: Open regedit under the user you plan on changing the shell for. Be very carefull in the registry!. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\IniFileMapping\system.ini\boot and if there is a value Shell, change the first 3 letters which read SYS to USR. Then go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon and create a value for Shell and put the path to your new shell, in this case Mamewah.

To remove notifications: These are the little windows that come up and say "Loading personal settings" and the like, in regedit go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\policies\system and create a DWORD value DisableStatusMessages and set its value to 1.

Change defualt user backgrounds: This is the autoloaded background when windows starts, to change just the color go to HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Colors and change background to whatever color you want, its an RGB value, so black is 0 0 0. To set a picture like the instruction card I did, just create the picture and set the path for Wallpaper in HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Desktop.

To get rid of the starting cursor in windows XP Open Regedit, got the HKEY_USERS\.Default\Control Panel\ Create a key called "Cursors" and within this key create new string values as shown in the attached screenshot, but point them to whatever cursor you want.




All these changes where made on a Windows XP Profesional box without any SP's on it, it should work on any XP box though, and with the exception of BootXP should work on any NT System (2000, XP and NT)

Lets see how that stuff treats ya? It pretty much goes over whats already been said in the thread and adds a few other things.

[Scoobie]

Some good links for password recovery on this page

http://www.petri.co.il/forgot_administrator_password.htm

The second of the 5 free downloads does work very well.....  I have had to use it on several customers machines and it has worked everytime

What should I do since I can't get my PC to boot from the CD with the password recovery info?

I've checked the option in the bios/setup in DOS and it wants to look for a floppy drive (which I don't have) or goes straight to the hard drive and asks for the bloody password that I don't have. 

[rugby1]

Well, if you can't set your BIOS to boot from floppy or cd then I think you are hosed.... probably have to format that drive and reload everything.  Sorry...

[DaemonCollector]

Some good links for password recovery on this page

http://www.petri.co.il/forgot_administrator_password.htm

The second of the 5 free downloads does work very well.....  I have had to use it on several customers machines and it has worked everytime

What should I do since I can't get my PC to boot from the CD with the password recovery info?

I've checked the option in the bios/setup in DOS and it wants to look for a floppy drive (which I don't have) or goes straight to the hard drive and asks for the bloody password that I don't have. 

Make sure the boot order is set to have the CD come above the HD. This is sometimes a seperate button to hit on bootup.

[loadman]

This didn't work.

Sorry, I've done this many times and never had an issue

[headkaze]

Well, I've tried several suggestions on recovering my password (which I never needed to use before I screwed things up by trying to remove the blasted "Welcome" screen) and I'm completely locked out of my PC.

The most common suggestion is to boot into safe mode.

I can't even boot into safe mode.  When I try booting into safe mode, I'm able to select the safe mode option but when I press enter, the screen just stays blank.

So basically I need to find a way to get the bloody PC to boot into safe mode (by some other route) or be able to bypass the login/password screen.

I would really appreciate some help with this.  Thanks guys.

If you can't log into your machine with "Administrator" and no password, then try to remember the user account your machine was logging into before. If you remember the accound name, my bet is it will log in without a password (otherwise you would remember it from typing it in all the time). Just because it comes up with Administrator dosn't mean you have to log in as Administrator. And when you install an XP machine you setup an accound with administrator rights with a username of your choice. Just a matter of remembering the account. If you can't remember then you can use "recovery console" which has tools that will probably show you a list of users on the machine. Other than that, alot of the old tricks for bypassing the NT passwords have been patched with recent patches of XP. The old method was to boot into a small linux distribution and reset the password. Good luck!

[Taborious]

Scoobie,

You are not hosed but it is going to take you a little work to hack your username/password. I'm sorry I don't have links to everything but you can find these program easily enough by just searching the web. First you will need dosntfs/ntfsdos (tomatoe/tamatoe) if you are running ntfs under windows. Next you will need "Lophtcrack". Use the ntfsdos to boot and copy your SAM file to the floppy, usuall c:\windows\system32\config then on another system run the lophtcrack program and point it to the SAM file on the floppy. It will run for awhile and crack whatever passwords are inside the file....