Personalized Boot Logo Screen

Two or three times a week I get an e-mail asking if it's possible to modify the Windows boot screen; the black screen that says Microsoft Home or Professional and has the scrolling green or blue bars. There are many sites that offer customized boot screens for download, but it's unlikely you'll find one specifically tailored to your personal situation. For the price of a couple of free downloads and some of your time you can alter the default boot screen to reflect your personal taste.
So there is no confusion what this procedure accomplishes, I'm going to start off with two images. The screen capture in Fig. 01 is well known by anyone that has used Windows XP. In Fig. 02 you see the boot screen that I modified for use on my home systems. The modified screen is quite simple in this case, but you can make it as complex as you desire during the editing phase....

Warning
This procedure involves modifying files essential to proper system operation.
While I have tested and used the procedures, there is substantial risk involved in implementing these modifications. Proceed at your own risk.
Understand that I provide NO support and assume NO liability for damage to your system.
I strongly suggest you test this procedure on a separate XP installation before attempting it on a primary system or drive that you can't afford to reformat.

As long as you've read the above warning and understand the dangers involved, gathering the tools to do the job is the next step in the procedure.
The Tools
Resource Hacker - Resource HackerTM is a freeware utility to view, modify, rename, add, delete and extract resources in 32bit Windows executables and resource files (*.res). It incorporates an internal resource script compiler and decompiler and works on Win95, Win98, WinME, WinNT, Win2000 and WinXP operating systems. Navigate to http://www.users.on.net/johnson/resourcehacker/and download Resource Hacker.

Jasc® Paint Shop Pro® 7 Anniversary Edition - Paint Shop Pro offers the easiest, most affordable way to achieve professional results! Don't waste your time with high-end professional products that cost a fortune and take a lifetime to learn. And don't settle for slow, cookie-cutter programs that tie you to templates. Get Paint Shop Pro. Navigate to http://www.jasc.com/download_4.asp?prod=001 to download a fully functional, 30 day free trial version that can be used in this procedure.
Once you have the above items you're ready to proceed with the modifications. If you prefer to use a different graphics program than the one I mentioned above it's possible. Because of the way the logo graphics are stored it's necessary to use a graphics program that allows pallets to be imported.