Stardock BootSkin is an application that 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 doesnt patch the windows xp kernel. Nor does it require the user to download replacement windows xp kernels to do so.

boot screens that use BootSkin are typically under 20K compared to other boot screen programs whose files are over 2 MEGABYTES.

And best of all, BootSkin is free for non-commercial use.

You can download boot screens from HERE

The Portinho boot xp is a useful and free application which will make the windows xp to start more faster. It makes higher the system speed and reduces the number of little bars during the windows start process.

BootPart is an easy tool for adding one partition in the windows NT multi boot menu (by samples, OS/2 boot manager or Linux partition).

Bootpart is compatible with windows NT, windows 2000 and windows XP. BOOTPART lets you add partitions in the windows NT/2K/XP Multiboot menu. Usually, you only have an MSDOS or windows 95 entry and one (or several) entries on the windows NT multiboot.

With BOOTPART, you can add any partition on the menu. You can add OS/2 Multiboot, or Linux Partition (with Lilo) in the menu. You can also restore the Dos, windows 95/98/Me or NT Bootloader boot sector on Fat partition.

BOOTPART creates a 512 bytes file which contains an image of a boot sector that loads the boot sector of the partition. After, this file is declared in C:BOOT.INI (a text file used by windows NT boot menu). The boot sector comes from FDFormat and WinImage.

Repairing the windows NT/2k/XP boot sector on a Fat partition
windows NT installs a boot sector that launches NTLDR and displays the windows NT boot menu. If you lose this boot sector, BootPart can restore it.

boot under MS-Dos (this can be a copy of MS-Dos 6.22 on your hard disk, on a MS-Dos bootable floppy, or the "MS-Dos 7.0" included in windows 95 (you can obtain it by pressing Shift+F5 when Win95 loads). Then, enter the command :

BOOTPART WINNT BOOT:C:
If you want to remove the WinNT boot sector, you can replace it with the command "BOOTPART DOS622 BOOT:C:" or "BOOTPART WIN95 BOOT:C:"

How to have both MS-Dos 6.22 and windows 95 in the NT menu (forget F4 !)
The standard situation for a computer that multiboots to windows NT, windows 95, or MS-Dos 6.22 is : the user selects a "Windows 95" entry in NT menu, and, then must press F4 if he wants to boot MS-Dos 6.22. If you dont have this situation (i.e. : you dont have both Win95 and MS-Dos 6.22 on your system, but want to have both), see the next section.

Just enter these BootPart commands :
BOOTPART DOS622 C:BOOTSECT.622 "MS-Dos 6.22"
BOOTPART WIN95 C:BOOTSECT.W95 "Windows 95"
BOOTPART REWRITEROOT:C:

The last line (REWRITEROOT:C:) MUST BE EXECUTED UNDER MSDOS, and moves the MS-Dos IO.* and MSDOS.* files to the beginning of the root directory, which is required for successful operation.

You may visit the page : http://www.bcpl.net/~dbryan/directboot.html for obtaining more information on triple booting WinNT/Win95/DOS.

If you have WinNT & Win95 and you only want to add MS-Dos
Take an MSDos 6.22 floppy, copy the files IO.SYS, MSDOS.SYS, and COMMAND.COM to C: as IO.DOS, MSDOS.DOS, and COMMAND.DOS (warning : these files may be hidden, but you can tweak some settings to make File Manager or Explorer to make them display hidden files). Then follow the instructions in the section section "How to have both MS-Dos 6.22 and windows 95 in the NT menu"

If you have WinNT & MS-Dos and you only want to add Win95
Install Win95 in a new directory (start the install under MS-Dos 6.22 or windows 3.1) and then follow the instructions in the section "How to have both MS-Dos 6.22 and windows 95 in the NT menu"

How to add OS/2
Unfortunately, I cant directly add an OS/2 partition by itself (if you have a workaround or fix, Id be happy to hear about it !). Install the OS/2 boot Manager (you need 1 MB free on your first hard disk), add the OS/2 partition in the boot menu with automatic startup (0 seconds wait time), and then add the OS/2 boot Manager partition to your NT menu with BootPart. Sometimes, when you install the OS/2 boot Manager, it becomes the active partition of your first hard disk. You can use FDISK to set the partition with NT boot manager as the active partition later.

How to add Linux
For Linux, you must install Lilo at the beginning of the Linux partition (as is the case with the OS/2 boot manager) and then add the Linux partition with BootPart:

When you install Linux or run liloconfig, select "Superblock of the root linux partition" as the location for Lilo. On my own Linux box, this added the line "boot=/dev/sdb4" into the file /etc/lilo.conf

If you want mount your NTFS partition under Linux, visit the NTFS for Linux page.

For more info about mutlibooting, you may take a look at http://www.bcpl.net/~dbryan/directboot.html or at a modified version. There is also a tutorial to use NT loader to boot into BeOs.

There are also several interesting HowTo articles on this subject. Look at NT OS Loader + Linux mini-HOWTO. There is also another howto here.

Microsoft has also several KB article about the boot process : Q102873 describes Boot.ini, Q289022 describe how modify Boot.ini, Q101787 describes the boot process itself.

Whats New in This Release:

· repair windows NT loader boot sector on Fat partition (but Bootpart cannot the repair under windows NT/2K/XP),
· easily add both MS-Dos 6.22 and windows 95 in boot menu,
· support FAT32 and disk over 4 GB, and LBA addressing.

windows Key is an easy-to-use utility to reset passwords and local policy settings for windows NT/2000/XP/2003 accounts in a matter of minutes.

Locked out of your server? Forgot Administrator password? Secure boot disk lost? Those are only a few cases when windows Key becomes a vital solution and quickly gets you back to your computer.

For a minute windows Key creates a special driver floppy, bootable CD or USB image to reset the required password during a boot process. A password and local policy settings can be reset instantly for any local account.

windows xp Tablet PC Edition and the latest release of windows Server 2003 R2 are supported.

windows Key has online help, full install/uninstall support.

Limitations:

· windows Key demo version resets account password only if it is set to [Demo12345]. The demo version will make no changes for other passwords.

JustBoot boot Corrector description
boot Corrector is a system utility designed to resolve various problems which users may encounter during the system boot process boot Corrector is a system tool that was designed to resolve various problems which users may encounter during the system boot process. These problems may be caused by program errors or user mistakes, or become the results of boot virus activity.

Purchasing boot Corrector online, you can download an ISO-image of the bootable disc. For your convenience, we’ve built it as a self-burning image. It is just an EXE-file which contains a packed ISO-image and an embedded CD/DVD recording program. When you run this EXE-file, the embedded recording program unpacks the ISO-image and starts to burn it to any writable CD/DVD.

When the process is over keep this CD/DVD until something unpleasant has happened to your system and it can not boot any more. Then you will boot from the CD that you have made in advance and correct boot problems.

boot Corrector allows you to cure the majority of boot problems for windows 2000/XP/Server 2003. The key advantage of boot Corrector is that it can correct the windows System Registry without windows loaded. It also helps with other operating systems when common boot problems take place, for example, when a boot virus has corrupted the MBR.

You can face serious boot problems after you have done some system works. If you have copied, moved or converted system partitions using various disk utilities, you are likely to immediately experience boot problems. Due to their user-friendly interface, modern disk utilities can cause the feeling that you can manipulate system partitions as easy as you can copy, move and edit text files. Actually, it is not true. Do not start to change configuration of your system disks until boot Corrector is somewhere close to you.

Here are some key features of "JustBoot boot Corrector":

· Searches for valid windows installations (Windows 2000/XP/Server 2003).
· Corrects drive letters in the System Registry of a selected windows installation.
· Edits the Boot.ini file of a selected windows installation.
· Updates the MBR executable code.
· Reorders primary partitions (change primary slots).
· Corrects the boot record for a selected windows installation (increments the Serial Number, corrects the partition offset, makes a copy of the boot record, corrects the Bootsect.dos file if exists).
· Sets the active partition.
· Hides/unhides partitions. 9. Changes Serial Numbers.
· Changes Partition IDs.
· Displays the Master boot Record (MBR) in the understandable form.
· Displays partition properties.
· Creates the boot correction report, displays, saves and prints it.

Stardock BootSkin is a program that 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 doesnt patch the windows xp kernel. Nor does it require the user to download replacement windows xp kernels to do so.

boot screens that use BootSkin are typically under 20K compared to other boot screen programs whose files are over 2 MEGABYTES.

Four Tools in One: Crash Fixer, RegPack, File Backup, and Troubleshooter. WinRescue protects your computer from crashes. Dont spend hours reinstalling windows XP, restore in minutes with WinRescue XP. Defrag the Registry with RegPack. Backup the registry, important files, and any other files that you select. Get quick access to windows Troubleshooters. A Backup Wizard and Restore Wizard take the inexperienced user step-by-step through these processes. The Crash Fixer saves you the hassle of spending hours reinstalling windows by restoring it and all of its settings in minutes. An xp boot Disk can be made that boots to WinXP (if boot files become corrupted). A DOS boot Disk can be made which boots to DOS and runs the DOS version of WinRescue xp (if windows xp will not start). If a drive is NTFS, the DOS boot Disk must be used in conjuction with NTFSDOS Pro. The DOS boot Disk can also be used as a repair disk with the WinXP CD. RegPack defrags (removes blanks and rebuilds) the Registry. Many times this speeds up Windows. Without the RegPack process, the registry will never get smaller. It works with Multiple Users. Undo RegPack with the click of a button. File Backup allows the Registry, default files, and any or all files to be backed up. Use WinRescues Explorer-like window or wildcards to specify files to include or exclude from the Backup. WinRescue backs up to the harddrive, to CD, to DVD, to diskette, to zip drive, and to network drives. The Extractor extracts individual files from a backup and can be used to open ZIP files. Back up automatically daily, weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly or use windows Task Scheduler. Backups can be protected by a password. WinRescue xp works only with WindowsXP. Use other versions of WinRescue for other versions of Windows. There are too many features to mention here. Please see our website for more details - www.superwin.com.