How to customize your Windows Vista boot screen (SP1 compatible)
Let’s spice things up this week by changing our boring old Windows Vista boot screen to a custom one.
I can assure you that this method will work with all versions of Vista, whether you have SP1 installed or not.
If you’ve customized your Vista boot screen or logo before, you’ll remember how much of a hassle it was. This time, we will use the Vista Visual Master utility to change our boot screen. Click here to download it.
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Once you have finished installing the program, make sure you Run as Administrator. (Right click Vista Visual Master and select the appropriate option.)
The program is very straight forward. Select Boot Screen in the navigation bar on the left.
Click on Browse and select for the photo you want to replace the bootscreen with. Windows will attempt to stretch your photo to fit the entire screen, so it is best to make sure that you have a photo with a resolution of at least 1024*768. If you’re looking for some good wallpaper, there are some great ones at Socwall and Deviantart.
Once you are done browsing, your picture will show up in the box. Click on generate and VVM will generate an MUI file. Click on Apply to finsh. The program will automatically make a backup of the default MUI in the following directory:
C:\Windows\System32\en-US
The en-US part may vary depending on your language and version of Windows Vista.
For future reference, the file used to display the boot screen is called winload.exe.mui
And the backup is called winload.exe.bak.vistamaster
If you want to uninstall the program after you change the boot screen, I recommend you make a copy of the backup and put it somewhere that you can remember.
And that’s it! You should see your new boot screen the next time you start your computer. I also recommend you to explore the other features of Vista Visual Master, as it has other great customization features that allow you to declutter your Windows Vista workspace.
Still need help? Check out our new forums where you can get an even faster and better response!
November 6th, 2008 at 4:49 am
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November 22nd, 2008 at 2:52 am
when ever i try to generate a boot screen i get an error message saying “Generate Boot Screen File Failed: could not find a part of the path C:\windows\system32\boot\en-CA\winload.exe.mui.”
does anyone know how to solve this problem because i got a really neat picture i’d like as a boot screen
thanks
December 1st, 2008 at 12:11 am
this program is sketchy
December 17th, 2008 at 8:42 am
I get the exact same thing as Julien
December 22nd, 2008 at 2:36 am
Does this work with 64 bit Vista?
December 23rd, 2008 at 12:01 am
well im using a 64 bit vista ultimate
December 30th, 2008 at 2:49 pm
Yea it works fine, if you want to restore the original one back just remember to uncheck the No GUI option in the msconfig boot section, the program checks it automatically when it applies the boot screen. And make sure you have an extra backup of the winload.exe.mui file just in case.
January 11th, 2009 at 6:52 pm
Hey,
When I try to generate I want to save the file to my Desktop and then I got a message:
Generate Boot Screen File Failed : Could not find a part of the path ‘C:\Windows\system32\boot\nl-BE\winload.exe.mui
What should I do?
February 8th, 2009 at 6:11 pm
Hey all i figured out how to fix the problem a few of you guys’n'gals are getting,
go to your “control Panel” > “Regional and Language Options” then on the first tab “Formats” on the “Current Formate” setting Select “English (United States)” Relunch “Vista Visual Master” in Admin mode and retry this tutorial.
this fixed the problems for me because i live in the UK with GB settings. i think you can change you “Current Formate” back to what ever it was before.
Enjoy!
February 12th, 2009 at 6:42 pm
Im in the US lang. is “English (United States)” just keep getting the errors above with the no gui checked I get the “Aurora” screen but am unable to generate anything tried diffirent images file types nothing worked.
March 5th, 2009 at 2:39 am
try using tune up utilities much easier and works well with any version of vista
March 12th, 2009 at 6:20 pm
download tuneup utilities 09, with a serial - no hassle change boot screen, logon screen and many other cool visual tweaks and useful tools….
April 2nd, 2009 at 6:07 pm
The boot logos does not recide in winload.exe.mui aanymore as it seems. Filesize of 26 KiB is way too small.
Therefor I guess the images themselves have moved elsewhere since Service Pack 1
May 7th, 2009 at 10:11 am
This might be a stupid question but can anyone advice how to fix error code 39 on windows xp ?
August 24th, 2009 at 12:41 pm
How do I change the boot menu and the words for bitlocker, will this do that? John