How to get the slickest booting htpc

We want our box to look as slick as possible right? Thanks to a new bootscreen, hiding my desktop icons etc, i came a long shot.
(http://www.maisenbachers.de/dokuw/ho...p?s=bootscreen)

But for me there was always one problem: how do i get rid of those annoying windows flying over telling me useless info like "loading personal settings" etc. I don't want people to find out it's "just a windows app" ;-)

Minlogon, is a replacement for winlogon. It is derailed from XPembedded, which has some other nifty features, but i'll post that when i experimented enough.
Pro's:
-Faster boot time, it saved me 10 seconds. (now in 18 secs from poweron i have mediaportal's splashscreen)
-It doesn't show any crap; bootloader, bang! desktop.
Con's:
-It create's a default user for your pc, so you'll probably have to tweak your shell again. (my htpc is single user anyways)

Which reminds me of SHELL:
http://www.mp3car.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=46088

Download minlogon @ http://test.crimsonstain.net/EWF.zip
1. Run .reg
2. Replace winlogon with minlogon (rename minlogon to winlogon)

Works like a charm for me, but there's no guarantee it won't screw up your windows ok? (i used xp pro US)

--Thanks to mp3car.com forums, they rock--

I just found out there is a minor bug in minlogon.
ctrl-alt-del doesn't work with it.
Fix: http://www.mp3car.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=38179

[jadz]

Great info. I will have to try this with my Carputer.

[cage121]

This messed up my computer.

Originally Posted by cage121

This messed up my computer.

It would be quite usefull for me and others to give some inforation on which part of the process messed up which part of the computer. (i would be surprised if it made your computer spontanious combust)

[Legolas]

I just put my computer in S3 standby and can wake it up in 6 seconds
or so (didn't actually time it). I don't have to worry about tweaking
itsy bitsy windows parameters, as you boot up once in a while

[cage121]

My computer started logging on the user,then 2 secs later it logged the user off. Then it logged the user on,then off, every 2 seconds. Had to reinstall XP

[Smirnuff]

I had the same problem, can't remember exactly what I did but was able to fix the problem from another machine on the network, minlogon is pretty sweet but you absolutely must be okay with the fact that the switch can go bad and that you do lose some features that you might miss initially.

To those of you using mptray.exe to start MP you can start mptray with the /shell switch and this will give you back some of the features (Ctrl-Alt-Del, various Windows Key shortcuts and Shift-Ctrl-Esc to launch Task Manager, also Windows Key + C to start Configuration and Windows Key + M to start MediaPortal).

[ebk71]

Somewhere on the forum I read something about how to get rid of the personal settings window, it didn't work for me, except for the messages. The standard colorscheme of xp was still visible. What I did today was using LogonStudio http://www.wincustomize.com and using the bootscreen from Kai as image for logon. So I have Kai's bootscreen, then as logon screen(without need to logon) also Kai's screen and as background also kai's screen. And also with closing no stupid xp screens.

[pinny121]

I also have kai black as my bios post screen

then i get kai black with loading gfx added using bootskin.
http://www.stardock.com/products/bootskin/



the auto logon shows great mediaportal branded graphix
added using logonstdio.
http://www.stardock.com/products/logonstudio/


Checkit out it makes my media pc a true media potal machine.

i wish i could show my images but here are some examples above


and looks nothing like standard xp