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Welcome to BootSkin Vista

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Themes - MyColors sub-tab - showing features of Theme Manager.

BootSkin Vista allows you to change the boot screen seen when Windows Vista first starts to load. The Vista default screen is black with a green progress bar. You can change that to any of a hundred different images called BootSkins. BootSkin Vista includes several to start with, while WinCustomize.com offers hundreds more to download.

With a paid subscription to Stardock's Object Desktop or Object Desktop suites, you gain the added ability to create your own BootSkins from any image. The image only needs to be 10 MB or under, in PNG or JPG (or JPEG) format (for best quality) or GIF or BMP graphic formats. This opens a lot of possibilities to replace that drab loading screen with a picture of your family, that huge fish you really did catch, favorite pet, or any other image, including graphic art and more. With BootSkin Vista you can change the appearance of how Vista looks when starting up.

Features of BootSkin Vista (paid subscription)

A paid subscription to Object Desktop or Object Desktop Ultimate includes BootSkin Vista which adds the following feature:

  • Allows you to create new BootSkins from image files (i.e. PNG, JPG/JPEG, GIF, BMP). Use the image for your computer, or upload it to WinCustomize to share & impress your friends.

Features of BootSkin Vista (free trial)

  • Change the Windows Vista boot screen to any included BootSkin.
  • Download & apply additional BootSkins from WinCustomize.com.
  • View thumbnail images of multiple BootSkins from within BootSkin Vista.

System Requirements

  • Windows Vista (32-bit or 64-bit).
  • 10 MB free drive space.
  • 256 MB RAM.
  • Impulse must be installed in order to download and update software.

Upgrading from Previous Versions

Impulse will handle the upgrade from previous versions.

Updates

Check Impulse for updates to BootSkin Vista and other installed Stardock software. There is a Check for Updates button on the "About" tab you can click to have Impulse check for updates.

Additional BootSkins

Check WinCustomize.com (http://www.wincustomize.com/skins.aspx?libid=76) for hundreds of free BootSkins created by the skinning (graphics) community.

Location of BootSkins

BootSkins are stored (by default) on your computer with a ".bootskin" (without quotes) file extension in the folder:
Windows Vista: C:\Documents and Settings\Public\Documents\Stardock\BootSkin\Skins
or C:\Users\Public\Documents\Stardock\BootSkin\Skins

Support

Please contact Stardock Support at: www.stardock.com/support.  On that web page you will find helpful FAQ's and other troubleshooting information.  If you are unable to resolve your issue, please use the “eSupport System” to open a Support ticket.  Please include as much information about your computer (i.e. version of Windows, type of computer, version of BootSkin Vista (on About tab), etc.).  This information will allow support to diagnose your issue much quicker and allow for a faster response.

Resources

For additional information on BootSkin Vista (formerly called BootSkin Pro), please refer to this article on WinCustomize:
"BootSkin Pro - Changing and Using Vista BootSkins" by Island Dog, (November 24, 2008).

WinCustomize.com is a great resource for not only getting a lot of great BootSkins, but also provides articles, forums, gallery, store and more.  This is a great site run by the skinning community & Stardock to bring together the best in skinning (graphics) for Windows.  The site is free to use, though you can subscribe to get additional perks and help support the operation of the site.

You can upload a BootSkin file you created to share on WinCustomize.  This may include original material you actually created.

Direct link to WinCustomize message Forums (http://forums.wincustomize.com/).

Documentation

The version of this manual is 1.0 (3-19-09) and is based on BootSkin Vista (version 1.02).  This manual was written and is maintained by Jim Kennedy (TheProf).  Please email comments or corrections regarding this documentation to: documentation@stardock.com.



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