It is possible to change your devices boot screen to a picture that you like, to give your device that personalised touch.
On my Ipaq rw6828, there are three images shown as the device boots up. The first appears to be part of the ROM itself and it shows the ROM version and the HP logo. The second screen flashes up for a second and it looks the same as the first without the ROM information. These can be changed but as they show up for only a second, it is not worth the trouble.
The third image is shown for around 5 seconds and this is the screen we are going to look at changing. It will normally show a Windows Mobile logo.
This could be good for corporate branding or a friendly “Hello” to yourself as you turn on your device.
This article was written for an Ipaq rw6828 running Windows Mobile 5, though it should work for most Windows Mobile Devices. Even if the filenames are different, the theory should be the same.
We are going to be playing around with files that are not meant to be played with. Please ensure that you have your device backed up, and that you are prepared to do a complete ROM update if anything goes wrong. As I was figuring out how to do this, I did not have anything go wrong. I don’t know what damage can be done to devices by doing this. Do this at your own risk.
Getting access to the file:
By default, the file we need to change is hidden and marked as read only, making it a bit more difficult to play around with. It is not possible to stuff around with these files using the standard Windows Mobile File Explorer. Download Voyager and that will let you alter the files properties.
Once you have Voyager installed, by copying the CAB file to your device and then running the CAB file. Open up Voyager and look in the Windows directory. You will probably see that there is a few hundred files which you can see. In actual fact, if we make files visible, there are more than 1500 files.
Lets change a few of Voyagers settings to help us do this task. To do this, tap on “Tools” and then “Options”.
Ensure that “Show Hidden Files” is ticked. You can play around with the other settings also but they will not have any effect to what we are doing.
If you go into the “Extended” tab, you are able to remove the warning which comes up as you go into your “Windows” directory. I unticked this on my device.
There is another tickbox to “Improve performance for \Windows”. I have this ticked but I did not notice any benefits to come out of it.
Tap “OK”
Your device will take a bit of time before showing up the Windows directory again. You are likely to still be missing the majority of the files.
Tap “View” and select “Refresh”
Wait until Windows comes back up and ensure you are viewing many more files.
Changing the files properties:
Scroll down to “Welcomehead.96.png”
Hold down on it until the new menu pops up and then select “Properties”
Untick all the boxes on this page.
Tap “ok”
You may not be able to untick “ROM”. Don’t worry if it is grayed out. The main ones are Read-only, Archive, System and Hidden.
In Windows:
Explore your device using either ActiveSync, WMDC or Windows Explorer. Navigate through to your devices “Windows” folder and find “Welcomehead.96.png”. Copy this file to your computer.
You are now able to use any image editing software to change the picture. I like to alter the original picture as it is the right size and I know what I have to work with. You are able to use your own pictures or drawings in here without any problems.
If you would like, you can use the picture I have used as this articles introduction picture, you can download it here. you may want to use it as a template or for a trial run.
Copy the file back to your device:
In theory, you should be able to copy the edited file directly back to your devices “Windows” directory and that will be the end of it for you. This did not work for me. I received errors. Give it a try and if it does not work, read on.
Copy the file to a convenient place on your device such as your documents folder. Using Voyager, hold down on the new file and select “Copy”. Go into your Windows folder and select “Paste”.
If you still have no luck, ensure that the properties from the original file have not changed, ensuring that all the tick boxes are unticked. If they are unticked, delete the original file before copying the new file in its place. This final method should resolve all conflicts.
It is likely that when you reboot your device, the properties of the file will be marked strict again.
Reboot your device and see if it has worked.
I hope your new boot screen has come up successfully and that you do not have any problems with your device.
In the process of writing this article, I have been successful in changing my boot screen 3 times.
I hope you have enjoyed this article and will stick around at Inspect My Gadgetto have a look at some of my other articles.
