Guide: How I altered Windows to look and feel like an XBMC HTPC appliance

This thread will deal with branding of Windows computers to look like an appliance.


Yesterday I started searching the forums and Google to find out how I can make Windows invisble while booting and using XBMC.

This video shows my first result: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TfdXemzxw30

What I have done is the following:

• Altered the Windows boot screen to display XBMC loading instead of Windows loading. I also made a new animation
• Tweaked the login screen to be as non-windows as possible (removing all icons and branding, new wallpaper and automatic login)
• Disabled the explorer.exe and instead used Eventghost as shell to launch XBMC directly after login (using this guide: http://wiki.xbmc.org/?title=HOW-TO_make_..._Werner.29)
• Disabled some of the auto-startup services (in msconfig and services.msc)
• Edited the current Windows theme to black and disabled all fancy GUI stuff like the aero theme and such
  

My specs are as follows:

• HTPC: Shuttle XS35 GT (noisy as a calculator <3)
• 2GB ram (OCZ or Kingston or something)
• Intel X25 40GB SSD harddive
• Windows 7 Home Premium
• Logitech Z-5500
• Logitech diNovo Edge wireless keyboard
  

Current boot time from pressing the power button to XBMC is ready: 39 seconds approx.

Software I've used

• Eventghost (shell replacement)
• Win7BootUpdater (boot screen altering)
• Win7LogonBackgroundChanger (welcome screen wallpaper change)
• LogonScreenTweaker (removing buttons and branding etc from welcome screen)
  

Here are some images of the process:

I used Photoshop to create the animation and saved it as 105 BMP files


These are the 105 animation files needed for the boot screen


This program altered the windows config files for the boot screen


I used this program to edit the windows welcome screen


This program replaced the wallpaper at the welcome screen

All the program files and animation files will be available at my dropbox as soon as the upload is finished.

I hope that other forum member which are interested in such branding etc will contribute to this thread by adding more tips and tweaks and to further enhance the appliance feel.

edit: link to rar-file containing the software and animation bmps ---> http://dl.dropbox.com/u/7897818/XBMC/XBM...anding.rar

Sweet!!

How do you start explorer.exe if you need to?

Hi

To start the task manager I press ctrl-shift-esc, and I then start any programs I need to from the "file -> run" menu.
(typically explorer, control panel and such)

Excellent work twinflower. I'll try this out later.

Cheers

Why bother going through all this hassle when you can use sleep mode and never see a bootscreen in the first place, no matter what OS you are running (Windows/Linux(&Live)/OS X) ?

Because some people would rather completely power off their av equipment at the wall. If you don't happen to use your htpc everynight, why have it on sleep for days. Also, when you have little fingers nearby (kids), it can be a nightmare.

Looks great to me!

Out of interest, do you run another other processes in the background, like SABnzbd+, SickBeard, CouchPotato? Are they affected at all by not having explorer running?

SpectreX Wrote:Why bother going through all this hassle when you can use sleep mode and never see a bootscreen in the first place, no matter what OS you are running (Windows/Linux(&Live)/OS X) ?

Because when I am away at work (for four weeks at a time), my girlfriend is using the mediacenter by herself and she's not all that into this.
Besides, I like to learn new stuff and try to accomplish small things just for the fun of it.
The simplest solution of all would just be to put xbmc.lnk in the windows startup folder, but that's too easy

bramblepants Wrote:Looks great to me!

Out of interest, do you run another other processes in the background, like SABnzbd+, SickBeard, CouchPotato? Are they affected at all by not having explorer running?

Hi, and thanks

I am not running any other processes in the background except a few drivers and network related services. When I'm getting an MCE remote I would maybe have to add some kind of loader or driver to the startup, but that seemed to be pretty well implemented in Eventghost, at least according to the wiki-link i posted.

The programs you mentioned I have never even heard about ^^
It doesnt seem like Windows care about not having explorer running. It frees up a bit om memory as well.

Well done!