My employer has just replaced my old PC with a newer one. During the
boot process, after the VGA screen with the progress bar, a bitmap
C:\WINDOWS\blueback.bmp is displayed. It is the Corporate Logo. I prefer
the standard XP boot behaviour.

I've tracked this down to the registry entry:

[HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Desktop]
"Wallpaper"="c:\\windows\\blueback.bmp"

What I tried first was to rename blueback.bmp to blueback.old.bmp as
that would be easy to undo if it caused a problem.

Of course the logo no longer appears, but instead I get a blank, black
screen for several seconds. I think a standard XP system would display a
monochrome "Microsoft Blue" screen at this point, until the Welcome
Screen replaced it.

I managed to get at the registry on my old XP system, and in that one,
I'd deleted the "Wallpaper" entry altogether.

Would someone with a vanilla XP take a look to see if the Wallpaper
entry is there, and if it is, what does it point at? If it points at
blueback.bmp then I have a replacement one; I'd welcome a copy of the
original version.

I've just deleted the entry on my new PC, but I'm in the middle of a
long-running backup, so I won't find if I've done the right thing for a
day or possibly two.

--
Steve Swift
http://www.swiftys.org.uk/swifty.html
http://www.ringers.org.uk

Steve Swift <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in
news:#(E-Mail Removed):

> My employer has just replaced my old PC with a newer one.
> During the boot process, after the VGA screen with the
> progress bar, a bitmap C:\WINDOWS\blueback.bmp is
> displayed. It is the Corporate Logo. I prefer the standard
> XP boot behaviour.

<SNIP>

There are several image viewers with a basic function to let you
choose any format image file (which ideally - so it looks good -
should be the /exact/ pixel dimensions of your resolution),
convert it to BMP and set it as your wallpaper until YOU change
it. Messing with the registry especially in XP, especially with
wallpapers, for some reason, is very bizarre.

So get one of those and use it.

Or a wallpaper utility. Wallsmart is a super simple and
excellent one.
Butt-ugly icons but you can change them with Resource Hacker or
Resource Tuner.

http://www.bumpersoft.com/Desktop_En...lpaper/Utiliti
es/D_289_index.htm

or

http://www.bumpersoft.com/Desktop_En...lpaper/Utiliti
es/
if you want to have LOTS of choices...

To make the text under icons transparent you need to enable
"show shadow under icon text" (or something like that) in
Control Panel.

--
The arrows are faster than rodents!
- t.

"J. P. Gilliver (John)" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in
news:(E-Mail Removed):

> In message <Xns9D08B259FE120thanexit@188.40.43.245>,
> thanatoid <(E-Mail Removed)> writes:

<SNIP>

> 1. Since it's his employer's machine, they may have locked
> him out from the normal wallpaper-changing route. (In which
> case I'm surprised he has access to the relevant registry
> key either.) 2. I don't think he's talking about the normal
> desktop wallpaper anyway, that is on the desktop during
> normal operation, but something that occurs during the boot
> sequence. If you reread his OP, he talks about "black for a
> few seconds" (or something like that) after he'd deleted
> something, not the final state.

There are more than one contradictions in his post. He does not
know the correct terminology. But you'd be surprised how many
people can't tell the difference (let alone use the correct
terminology between the BIOS sequence and OS starting up.

I gave him some advice anyway - what the hell. I am certainly
not going to get into discussing how to change the BIOS boot
screen which can only be done on SOME machines and is a major
PITA.

<SNIP>

--
The arrows are faster than rodents!
- t.

The picture displayed is merely the one specified by the registry value for the
default wallpaper :

[HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Desktop]
"Wallpaper"="C:\WINDOWS\blueback.bmp"

Simply locate this value in the registry using [regedit.exe] and change it to what
you want.

The original value in XP for this is the word "none" which makes Windows display just
the light-blue background to the welcome screen with no writing.

==

Cheers, Tim Meddick, Peckham, London. :-)




"thanatoid" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:Xns9D08B259FE120thanexit@188.40.43.245...
> Steve Swift <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in
> news:#(E-Mail Removed):
>
>> My employer has just replaced my old PC with a newer one.
>> During the boot process, after the VGA screen with the
>> progress bar, a bitmap C:\WINDOWS\blueback.bmp is
>> displayed. It is the Corporate Logo. I prefer the standard
>> XP boot behaviour.
>
> <SNIP>
>
> There are several image viewers with a basic function to let you
> choose any format image file (which ideally - so it looks good -
> should be the /exact/ pixel dimensions of your resolution),
> convert it to BMP and set it as your wallpaper until YOU change
> it. Messing with the registry especially in XP, especially with
> wallpapers, for some reason, is very bizarre.
>
> So get one of those and use it.
>
> Or a wallpaper utility. Wallsmart is a super simple and
> excellent one.
> Butt-ugly icons but you can change them with Resource Hacker or
> Resource Tuner.
>
> http://www.bumpersoft.com/Desktop_En...lpaper/Utiliti
> es/D_289_index.htm
>
> or
>
> http://www.bumpersoft.com/Desktop_En...lpaper/Utiliti
> es/
> if you want to have LOTS of choices...
>
> To make the text under icons transparent you need to enable
> "show shadow under icon text" (or something like that) in
> Control Panel.
>
> --
> The arrows are faster than rodents!
> - t.

thanatoid wrote:
> Steve Swift<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote
>> My employer has just replaced my old PC with a newer one.
>> During the boot process, after the VGA screen with the
>> progress bar, a bitmap C:\WINDOWS\blueback.bmp is
>> displayed. It is the Corporate Logo. I prefer the standard
>> XP boot behaviour.

> There are several image viewers with a basic function to let you
> choose any format image file

I found that deleting the registry entry HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control
Panel\Desktop\wallpaper (which was pointing to blueback.bmp) caused the
default XP behaviour to come back — the screen "Windows is starting" now
appears in my boot sequence between the "VGA" phase and the Welcome Screen.

Note: This is nothing whatsoever to do with desktop backgrounds (or
wallpapers if you like).

--
Steve Swift
http://www.swiftys.org.uk/swifty.html
http://www.ringers.org.uk

Tim Meddick wrote:
> The original value in XP for this is the word "none" which makes Windows
> display just the light-blue background to the welcome screen with no
> writing.

Aha! This was what I wanted. Thank you.

I found (by trial and error) that having this entry, but not actually
pointing at an existing file, the "Windows is starting" screen didn't
appear, which gave me a longish period looking at a blank black display.

I deleted the entry, and the "Windows is starting" screen came back.

I've now put the entry back, as "none". I'll wait until my next forced
restart to see what happens as I've just fixed a problem (soundcard
driver) that was causing me to reboot every day, and I'm relishing a
reboot-free period. :-)

--
Steve Swift
http://www.swiftys.org.uk/swifty.html
http://www.ringers.org.uk

Steve,
the OP is not talking about the XP Progress bar, but the behaviour that
between the end of the "XP Loading..." & pulsating bar and the "Welcome" screen
showing, if the registry key mentioned is set to something other than "none" (the
default) or just being set with no value, then Windows displays the "Default
wallpaper" for just a couple of seconds just before the Welcome screen appears.

On a fresh install, where this value has not been modified, a light-blue background
similar to the Welcome screen with no writing appears.


But, once the wallpaper for the first profile created, is set, then the value for :

[HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Desktop]
"Wallpaper"="none"

....gets changed automatically from it's default to the same wallpaper.


Using this effect, it is possible to reset this value to display a sort of "splash
screen", as I said, between the end of the "Windows XP" & progress bar and the
appearance of the "Welcome" screen.

Instead of just saying "it's got nothing to do with wallpapers", why don't you check
out what I am saying for yourself?

==

Cheers, Tim Meddick, Peckham, London. :-)




"Steve Swift" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:Onxf%(E-Mail Removed)...
> thanatoid wrote:
>> Steve Swift<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote
>>> My employer has just replaced my old PC with a newer one.
>>> During the boot process, after the VGA screen with the
>>> progress bar, a bitmap C:\WINDOWS\blueback.bmp is
>>> displayed. It is the Corporate Logo. I prefer the standard
>>> XP boot behaviour.
>
>> There are several image viewers with a basic function to let you
>> choose any format image file
>
> I found that deleting the registry entry HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control
> Panel\Desktop\wallpaper (which was pointing to blueback.bmp) caused the default XP
> behaviour to come back — the screen "Windows is starting" now appears in my boot
> sequence between the "VGA" phase and the Welcome Screen.
>
> Note: This is nothing whatsoever to do with desktop backgrounds (or wallpapers if
> you like).
>
> --
> Steve Swift
> http://www.swiftys.org.uk/swifty.html
> http://www.ringers.org.uk

Sorry, I got confused for a while there, I see you are the OP!

But, when you say "it has nothing to do with wallpapers" you are mistaken.

What causes the "blueback.bmp" image to be displayed, is the registry value for
"default wallpaper"!

That is; if you had not changed the value for this from "blueback.bmp", then, if you
created a new user profile, it would assign the new user with "bueblack.bmp" for
it's wallpaper.

That is the meaning of "default wallpaper"!

In fact, all the reg values under the key :

HKEY_USERS\.Default

....are used to generate new profiles.

So, by changing values under this reg-key, you can change how a brand new user
profile will look and behave...

==

Cheers, Tim Meddick, Peckham, London. :-)




"Tim Meddick" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:%(E-Mail Removed)...
> Steve,
> the OP is not talking about the XP Progress bar, but the behaviour that
> between the end of the "XP Loading..." & pulsating bar and the "Welcome" screen
> showing, if the registry key mentioned is set to something other than "none" (the
> default) or just being set with no value, then Windows displays the "Default
> wallpaper" for just a couple of seconds just before the Welcome screen appears.
>
> On a fresh install, where this value has not been modified, a light-blue background
> similar to the Welcome screen with no writing appears.
>
>
> But, once the wallpaper for the first profile created, is set, then the value for :
>
> [HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Desktop]
> "Wallpaper"="none"
>
> ...gets changed automatically from it's default to the same wallpaper.
>
>
> Using this effect, it is possible to reset this value to display a sort of "splash
> screen", as I said, between the end of the "Windows XP" & progress bar and the
> appearance of the "Welcome" screen.
>
> Instead of just saying "it's got nothing to do with wallpapers", why don't you
> check out what I am saying for yourself?
>
> ==
>
> Cheers, Tim Meddick, Peckham, London. :-)
>
>
>
>
> "Steve Swift" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:Onxf%(E-Mail Removed)...
>> thanatoid wrote:
>>> Steve Swift<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote
>>>> My employer has just replaced my old PC with a newer one.
>>>> During the boot process, after the VGA screen with the
>>>> progress bar, a bitmap C:\WINDOWS\blueback.bmp is
>>>> displayed. It is the Corporate Logo. I prefer the standard
>>>> XP boot behaviour.
>>
>>> There are several image viewers with a basic function to let you
>>> choose any format image file
>>
>> I found that deleting the registry entry HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control
>> Panel\Desktop\wallpaper (which was pointing to blueback.bmp) caused the default XP
>> behaviour to come back — the screen "Windows is starting" now appears in my boot
>> sequence between the "VGA" phase and the Welcome Screen.
>>
>> Note: This is nothing whatsoever to do with desktop backgrounds (or wallpapers if
>> you like).
>>
>> --
>> Steve Swift
>> http://www.swiftys.org.uk/swifty.html
>> http://www.ringers.org.uk
>

Tim Meddick wrote:
> Sorry, I got confused for a while there, I see you are the OP!

You should have kept quiet! My original post has disappeared, and I
wasn't sure that I hadn't accidentally joined onto someone else's thread.

> But, when you say "it has nothing to do with wallpapers" you are
> mistaken.
> What causes the "blueback.bmp" image to be displayed, is the registry
> value for "default wallpaper"!

All I know is that when I deleted the registry key
[HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control
Panel\Desktop]"Wallpaper"="c:\\windows\\blueback.bmp" two things seemed
to happen:

1. The Blueback.bmp image no longer appeared (no surprise there)
2. The "Windows is starting" "page", which normally appears between the
"VGA" startup phase, and the Welcome Screen, started appearing again.

I'm not certain about #2. It may just be that my perception is awry as
the new PC that I have now does everything faster than my previous PC.

Whatever, I'm happy with the outcome, which is (as far as I can tell)
the appearance of the out-of-the box XP boot progress. Until my own
choice of wallpaper appears, that is.

--
Steve Swift
http://www.swiftys.org.uk/swifty.html
http://www.ringers.org.uk

J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote:
> What _was_ Blueblack.bmp - the company logo you didn't like? It seems
> odd that a company should bother to install something that is only
> visible for a few seconds; if they were going to impose themselves in
> such a way, I'd have thought they'd have put is as the desktop
> background, and locked users out of changing it.

It's an IBM branded bitmap (as in Big Blue). It appeared early in the
boot process, and may well have been the default wallpaper, but since I
always chose my own desktop bitmap, it doesn't persist long, and doesn't
appear at all now. I can't explain my motive for wanting to remove it;
it just irritates me for some reason.

IBM doesn't actually lock down much at all on the systems that it ships
to us, just stuff like antivirus settings, and some firewall stuff. It's
a pleasant environment for the technically competent. And fiddlers like
me. There's nearly always a way around the restrictions anyway, if you
try hard enough. I even like the fact that we are still mostly on XP. At
my age, I like things that don't change. I got my new PC on January 6th,
to replace my previous 5-year old one, and was instantly right at home,
with all the skills/tricks that I've learned still working (not to
mention software that I'd purchased). I can now look forward to another
5 years honing those skills. It will be interesting to see what happens
when XP goes out of support. We purchased an extension to Win95 support
the last time we were in this situation.

--
Steve Swift
http://www.swiftys.org.uk/swifty.html
http://www.ringers.org.uk