So people obviously want boot screens. But there's a big problem with the way boot screens are currently being (ahem) "skinned":

Everyone of them we've seen so far does it one of two ways:

Either:

A) They actually distribute the Windows XP kernel. In fact, this is what most of those boot screens being distributed are. Inside the ZIP they contain the actual kernel for both XP release and SP1. Not only is this pretty flagrantly in violation of who knows what but it also causes the file to be much bigger. Here's a hint, if the boot screen is roughly 2.2 megs, or higher in a ZIP file it's probably got the XP kernel in it.

or

They contain just the images (good) but then patch the kernel on your computer (bad). What happens when SP2 comes out and the machine fails a kernel CRC? The better boot patchers save a copy of the kernel (good). But that's still a bit much for the average joe.

But if boot screen replacing is as popular as the polls seem to indicate, there needs to be a safer, more robust system.

So we talked to people we know at Microsoft about an idea we had. What if we could do it without touching the kernel? In fact, what if we could do it without touching the kernel and then add support for animated boot screens? High color boot screens? All without having to hack the system?

We've figured out a way and hopefully will have a freeware version available (beta at first) that will take us down the path as early as next week possibly.

Stardock's "Furan" is working on this now. Check out his blog here: http://ian.joeuser.com/index.asp?AID=409