Startup screens for Windows 95/98/XP

For the conoisseur, the screens on this page have:

• My stripes and Program: text;
• Damien Burke's aspect ratio and palette;
• 128k extras based on work by a contributor who would prefer to remain anonymous.

The screens for XP are based on genuine Spectrum screenshots and don't make use of any previous screens of this type.

Installation instructions

For Windows 95 and 98:

• Extract the file you want from the ZIP file.
• Rename it to LOGO.SYS.
• Save it in the root directory of drive C:, replacing any LOGO.SYS that's there already.

For Windows XP:

• Extract the file you want from the ZIP file.
• Rename it to BOOT.BMP.
• Save it in C:\WINDOWS, replacing any BOOT.BMP that's there already.
• Edit C:\BOOT.INI and add the options /bootlogo /noguiboot to the line that selects Windows XP.

Downloads

For Windows 95 (4.5k).

For Windows 98 (4.5k).

For Windows XP (4.5k). Unlike the other Windowses, XP doesn't support animation so you don't get pretty stripes.

Making your own startup screens

(Note that this only applies to Windows 9x. For XP, you just create a 16-colour 640x480 screen and call it BOOT.BMP).

With ZX2LOGO

ZX2LOGO.EXE (9k) converts a Spectrum SCREEN$ file to a Windows 95 startup screen, adding loading stripes.

ZX2LOGO.C (2k) is the C source for ZX2LOGO. You don't need this to use ZX2LOGO.

1. Get the screen you want to use into SCREEN$ format - either with or without a +3DOS header. Most emulators have the ability to save screenshots in one of these formats.
2. Save the screenshot in the same folder as you put ZX2LOGO.EXE in.
3. Open a command prompt, and use CD commands to get to the folder you saved ZX2LOGO in.
4. Run ZX2LOGO like this: ZX2LOGO myfile.scr LOGO.SYS where myfile.scr is the screen you want to convert, and LOGO.SYS is the Windows startup screen which should result.
5. Copy LOGO.SYS to the root directory of drive C:, replacing any LOGO.SYS that's there already.

With STRIPIFY

STRIPIFY.EXE (8k) adds the familiar blue/yellow loading stripes to a Windows 95/98 startup screen.

STRIPIFY.C (2k) is the C source for STRIPIFY. You don't need this to use STRIPIFY.

1. Create the screen you want to display, as a 320x400 BMP file with 256 colours.
2. Using (for example) Paint Shop Pro, ensure that all the colours used in the image are at the beginning of the palette; if your image uses 16 colours, then these should be the first 16.
3. Fill the area to be striped with one of the other colours; for example, number 17.
4. Save the file in the same folder as STRIPIFY,EXE.
5. Open a command prompt, and use CD commands to get to the folder you saved STRIPIFY in.
6. Run STRIPIFY like this: STRIPIFY myfile.BMP LOGO.SYS n where n is the number of colours you are using (16 in the above example); myfile.BMP is the file you want to convert; and LOGO.SYS is the Windows startup screen which should result.
7. Copy LOGO.SYS to the root directory of drive C:, replacing any LOGO.SYS that's there already.

John Elliott 2005-02-08