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Howto: Customizing the Windows System Properties applet


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OK, so you're curious at the specs of your PC, and you spawned the Windows System Properties applet. For those of you who have branded PCs, like those at Best Buy or any other computer store, you may notice some extra stuff on it, like the computer manufacturer's name, website, logo and other blah-blah written on it. You may think that this is hard-coded in the applet's code itself. Hmm, think again. After some Google research, I found a way to put some OEM stuff in the applet. The key files that Windows needs to display OEM info are named OEMINFO.INI and OEMLOGO.BMP. These are the files Hewlett-Packard and other manufacturers use to advertise their products. You don't need to use sophisticated hacking tools in this procedure, just some beer, Notepad.exe, a decent photo manipulator such as Photoshop, and you.

1. Open Notepad, and make a new file. Copy and paste the following:

[General]
Manufacturer=Your Company, Inc.
Model=Your Computer Model
SupportURL=http://www.thegtaplace.com/
LocalFile=c:\your\local\support\file.htm

[support Information]
Line1=first line
Line2=second line
Line3=third line
Line4=fourth line
...
LineN=nth line
; Create as many lines as you need by incrementing the Line number

2. Of course, you would edit the text in there, and when you're done, save this to c:\windows\system32 (Windows folder name may vary) as OEMINFO.INI. Now proceed to the logo file.

3. Using Photoshop or any other paint app, make a bitmap (.bmp) file, making sure that the size is 180x114 pixels. Draw anything you want there, and save it as OEMLOGO.BMP. Again, save this to the SYSTEM32 folder.

4. Go to the System Properties applet, via the Control Panel. Voila! You've just customized your System Properties.

Here's an example of what I did:

510323243_8ad5efe4c8.jpg

This is the result when you click the Support Information button:

510323231_c649604143.jpg

If you have an OEM PC that already displays such info, and you don't like to see their adverts whenever you open System Properties, you can delete the OEMINFO and OEMLOGO files if you want to...

I hope you like it... :lol:

P.S.: Yay! I made a hundred posts now... :D

Edited by Huckleberry Pie
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vista sucks and is unuserfrienly!

Since when did your opinion matter? You've made it quiet obvious that your opinions are nothing more then meaningless words.

How so? I have Vista and it works fine for me.

Hmm, how? I didn't find any file.

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I think he meant that Vista works fine overall for him, and that it doesn't suck, like awesome thinks. I disagree.

I have to disagree, I think Vista is the most complete Windows yet. I have had no problems at all. I have no problem with him voicing his opinion, as long as it is valid and in good taste. His wasn't either.

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