Editing boot screen

[DarkHorse]

I've been fiddling with changing my XP Pro boot-up screen, guided by these guides. I've gotten some neat results, but the problem is I'm stuck using the default 16 color scheme. One design I had was a metal-like symbol requiring a varied grayscale, but it looks icky with the only three default grays, the rest of the colors reserved for the colored "windows" panes. If I try to change the palette, it still reads it as the old default and shows it in technicolor.

Is there any way I can modify this palette? If so, where and how?

[imbest123]

The boot-up screen is restricted to a resolution of 640x480 and 256 colors. I dont know why it would only have 16 colors.

[DarkHorse]

I'm pretty certain it is only 16, as I have opened the bitmaps for them and imported the palette...I see all the image and the palette has only 16 colors. I read that it uses VGA mode which I thought was 640x480 and 16 colors

EDIT: Looking at some other images of boot screens I saw some that had a surprising color depth, perhaps even 256 colors. Is there a different mode that I am missing? Thanks for any help you can offer.

[DarkHorse]

This is what I've been able to do so far

As you can see, the text has been dithered down to only three shades of gray, greatly reducing its quality and ruining the effect I had in mind

EDIT: Found a site, here. Guess I should have googled a little more thoroughly... Anyway, I've updated the link above to show the difference between the two palettes, and I believe better results are entirely possible

[QuickSilver]

Hmm, I think I'll try some boot screen editing myself.

[DarkHorse]

Here's another one.

If enough people are interested, I can do a FAQ compiled from all those above, adding a few quirks I've learned (from extensive rebooting and general abuse of my computer). If you need help just PM me and I'll lend my "expertise" and hopefully save your computer some wear

[QuickSilver]

Hey man, do a faq thread on it, that would be awesome!