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BootSkin Gripes  Customize the Windows boot screen

BSOD

March 31, 2006. Version 1.05a.  

 BootSkin is a free program from Stardock. Quoting from the Stardock web site, it "... allows users to change their Windows 2000 and Windows XP boot screens. Unlike other programs that can change the Windows XP boot screens, BootSkin does so in a safe manner. It doesn't patch the Windows XP kernel. Nor does it require the user to download replacement Windows XP kernels to do so." 

The bit about working in a "safe" manner is not true. I installed it on a Windows XP computer and the first boot with a customized boot screen died with the Blue Screen of Death just as it was displaying the customized boot screen. 

I had to reboot to Safe Mode, run the program and tell it to display the normal Windows XP boot screen. Then, Windows booted just fine. 

Don't download it from download.com. As of today, it has been downloaded 1.9 million times. 

FYI: Stardock has a shareware program called WindowFX. They say it can "Add drop shadows, morphing and more to Windows".  Just prior to installing BootSkin, I installed WindowFX on the same Windows XP machine. Or rather, I tried to install it. The installation process ran a long time and was driving the poor cpu at 100%. After a while I used Task Manager to kill the install program. Then Windows complained to me that there wasn't much space left on the C disk. Why? WindowFX had installed almost 700 MB of files.