How to Change Windows XP Boot Screen Free

Whenever you boot your PC there is a image which loads up stored in hidden system file called as ‘ntoskrnl.exe’ which displays animation along with the boot image. In order to change these files you need to replace this bitmap file but this is seriously not recommended because sometimes this can create big problems and also stop your operating system.

If you use a different ‘ntoskrnl.exe’ file for replacing the boot image then its risky because once you reboot your PC you can get a message of “C:\Windows\System32\ntoskrnl.exe is missing or corrupt.” Missing or
corrupt? which means you just lost something you didnt expect and now you are in a big problem, better try to restore this file or else just ignore these kind of steps some website recommend you.

The above error messages comes in because the person who shared you the file may be using windows xp of different version with different settings and configuaration and your operating system installation would be different. Hence dont go for this kind of file replacement for setting up the boot screen image.

Next the question would be what is the best way to change the boot screen which is the safest for your PC?

The answer for this is that you can use any of the available freeware or paid applications available online whcih can help you in changing your boot screen. The first free solution would be Boot Skin which is a program which helps you in changing boot screens of less than 20kb size for quick loading and also does not require you to replace any of your windows kernal files.

Once you download the software and run it, you will be shown with different bootskin’s out of which you can select one and click on ‘Apply this BootSkin’ to activate it. You can even download different skins from their website and start using them. Rebooting your computer once can show you the new boot screen, continiously whenever you reboot.

If you are looking for more skins then you can check out these websites :
1. SkinBase
2. WinCustomize.com

This bootskin software also shows you the already installed skins in your PC and if you want to change any of these you can do it with a click without installing or replacing any files, something like you are changing your wallpapers. Just download the skin you like from the above mentioned websites and run them once, followed by the BootSkin application to detect your files and list in the software. Along with this the skins are very small in size allowing you to load your pc quicker.

If you have downloaded these skin files from different websites then you need to rename them from .Zip format to .bookskin file formats to get it in working. Once the format is correct you can double-click on the file and import it.