Windows 7 Boot Updater ¶

A program that makes it easy to update the Windows 7 boot animation and text. Please tell me if you find any problems or design cool animations!

It is written in C++/CLI and requires Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 and the Microsoft WIM library.

Download ¶

By downloading this program you agree to the terms and conditions. Specifically this is for non-comercial use.

This is currently being tested! It is not finished and does not completely work. Use it at your own risk (or in a virtual machine). If you get stuck forever in Windows Recovery Environment see Recovering winload.exe

At a minimum you need to:

Windows 7 Boot Updater 32-bit (294.54 KB, updated 09/06/10)

Windows 7 Boot Updater 64-bit (300.54 KB, updated 09/06/10)

Original Windows 7 Boot Animation as BMPs (4.42 MB, updated 08/31/10)

Grayscale Windows 7 Boot Animation as BMPs (1.67 MB, updated 08/31/10)

A very new version is currently being made (that's why the file hasn't been updated in almost a month). You can download a preview of it:

Preview of Alpha 9 (1.56 MB, updated 09/30/10)

Note: It currently is only the GUI and will not modify files

If you wish to experiment by yourself the biggest annoyance is signing winload.exe. The following program does just that (it is a stripped down version of Win7BootUpdater.exe)

Winload.exe Signer 32-bit (248.04 KB, updated 09/30/10)

Winload.exe Signer 64-bit (254.04 KB, updated 09/30/10)

Details ¶

Current Version: Alpha 8

Features ¶

• Modifies the boot animation
• Modifies the boot text "Starting Windows" and "© Microsoft Corporation"
• Will compile the animation from 105 BMP, PNG, GIF, or TIFF images
• Does not require any other applications (like ImageX)
• Designed to be idiot-proof by having numerous checks
• Automatically backs up the modified winload.exe and bootres.dll
• Can be run as a GUI or command-line program
• Works for 32-bit or 64-bit Windows 7
• Numerous other little things (e.g. forcing timestamps) to match the original

How to Use ¶

Prerequisites ¶

If you have Windows 7 then you are good to go! The WIM library is included with Windows 7. If you will be running this on Windows Vista or earlier you will need to follow some additional directions.

Certificate Installation ¶

To successfully use the modified bootres.dll and winload.exe you will need my certificate authority as a trusted root. The program automatically installs it on the local computer, however if you want to use it on another machine you will need to install it manually. You can download the CA and CRL below and then run the following commands:

To install the CA and CRL into a Windows installation WIM you can use my tool AddCertToRegHive like so:

Coder For Life Certificate Authority (872 bytes, updated 09/06/10)

Coder For Life Certificate Authority CRL (532 bytes, updated 09/06/10)

The Animation ¶

If you choose to change the animation you will have to make an animation! The animation can be one long BMP that is 200x21000px or a folder containing 105 BMPs, PNGs, GIFs, or TIFFs. All the files must be the same format and will be played in alphabetical order (so if you are numbering them, use three digits always, e.g. 000, 001, ..., 103, 104). Here are the details about the animation:

• 105 frames
• 15 frames / sec
• First 4 seconds play once then the last 3 seconds play in a loop
• Each frame is 200x200px

The GUI ¶

To use the GUI, simply double-click the program "Win7BootUpdater.exe". The program will request administrator priveledges. In the program you will be asked for a folder containing the animation, the text to use, and if testsigning should be enabled. You can also adjust the defaults for bootres.dll and winload.exe. If you don't want to do a particular modification (such as change the animation) then you can just uncheck that group.

The Command Line ¶

The command line is fairly easy to use as well. You should run an elevated command line. The command line syntax is:

For more detailed information about the command line, run Win7BootUpdater.exe from a command line. One note is that you may notice some weird behavior of the command line output. This is due to an unavoidable distinction that Windows makes between GUI and command-line programs. To elievate the issue you can run the following command line instead:

Recovering winload.exe ¶

If you get stuck forever in Windows Recovery Environment then you need to manually restore winload.exe. Here are the directions:

1. Insert the Windows 7 installation disk, or if you don't have it download and burn a recovery disk (see Download Windows 7 System Recovery Discs)
2. Boot the computer, make sure to boot from the CD
3. Select your language and operating system. You should now be at a screen like this
4. Select "Command Prompt" (the last option)
5. Enter the following commands:

   1. c:

   2. cd \Windows\System32

   3. del winload.exe

   4. ren "winload - Backup.exe" winload.exe

   5. exit

6. Click "Restart"




Windows is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and other countries.