[VP} - Branding/Splash screens

McAfee VShield 4.0.2. There's a file called "Default.vsc" in the McAfee folder, open in Notepad. Underneath the [ScanOptions] section is a line "bSkipSplash=0". Change to "1".
There's another file called "Default.vsh". Open in Notepad too and add a line called "bNoSplash=1" underneath the [General] section.

For Norton AntiVirus (7) enter the registry at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Symantec\Norton AntiVirus\Auto-Protect. Add a dword value called "DisableSplashScreen" and set to 00000001. Do the same at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Symantec\Norton AntiVirus NT\Clinic and you're done.

We should do some work on this paragraph, but don't run that much software equiped with splashes... you might send us some tricks, but for sure you should send them here (!) - great page full with tricks to disable all kind of splash screens.

"SplashKiller lets you hide those splash screens that appear when an application is loading. It saves you from having to:

Find a 'no splash screen' option (if one exists) in the application.
Modify your registry to turn off a splash screen.
Hack the application itself to remove the splash screen."

For XP, there's Xplash Screen (thanks metal). Aleni: "It shows a splash screen when your windows starts up, it has a cool fade effect, so it's worth using for you desktop modification lovers." Well, you could add it to anything, actually (if you run a batch or other file to load two programs at once).

tin_omen over at desktopian needed some more configuration options, used lssplash by the geekmaster before (has a copy up too, works in all Windows versions :), now tried his own hands on a tool like this. The features:

"supports a fading splash screen (under Win2k/XP);
supports MagicPink™ transparency to give you non-fading but irregular-shaped splash images (also Win2k/XP-specific);
dynamically scales to use whatever size image you specify;
uses an ini file to configure the following settings:
- the image (Bitmap, icon, metafile, GIF, JPEG),
- total 'splashtime',
- splash effect: none, fade or transparent.
Variant .ini configs can be spec'd from the commandline so it can use a variety of 'canned' settings for use with different themes.

That good enough (?) - you can find it here.

Ok, not running XP, or just in for a cool app - Targaff pointed us to Splasher v3.0. Takes your specified bitmap (no, no alphablending), breaks specified executable open and just puts it inside, lets you specify amount of time for display, amazing :).

Besides removing a splash screen, you can mostly alter the existing one by modifying the file that has the bitmap inside. Find some tools here. If you want to create you own splashes, you need to know the specifications. The most important are the location of the original splash screen, its size and colordepth.

For:

Adaptec Easy CD Creator 4

Usual path:
"C:\Program Files\Adaptec\Easy CD Creator 4\"
File:
"creatr32.exe" (1537 kB)
Bitmap number:
135
Bitmap specifications:
267 x 294 bitmap in 256 colours (78 kB)

Adobe Acrobat 4

Usual path:
"C:\Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat 4.0\Acrobat\"
File:
"acrobat.exe" (1537 kB)
Bitmap number:
"ABOUTDIB" (in folder "DIB")
Bitmap specifications:
508 x 372 bitmap in 256 colours (185,6 kB)

Adobe Acrobat Capture 2

Usual path:
"C:\Program Files\Adobe\Capture\"
File:
"capture.exe" (7076 kB)
Bitmap number:
"ABOUTPIC" (in folder "Bitmap")
Bitmap specifications:
511 x 252 bitmap in 256 colours (126,7 kB)

Adobe Acrobat Catalog 4

Usual path:
"C:\Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat 4.0\Catalog\"
File:
"acrocat.exe" (1252 kB)
Bitmap number:
"ABOUTDIB" (in folder "DIB")
Bitmap specifications:
508 x 372 bitmap in 256 colours (185,6 kB)

Adobe Acrobat Distiller 4

Usual path:
"C:\Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat 4.0\Distillr\"
File:
"AcroDistDLL.dll" (3662 kB)
Bitmap number:
"SPLASHBMP" (in folder "Bitmap")
Bitmap specifications:
508 x 372 bitmap in 256 colours (185,6 kB)

Adobe Golive 4

Usual path:
"C:\Program Files\Adobe\Golive\"
File:
"golive.exe" (7076 kB)
Bitmap number:
6 (in folder "Bitmap")
Bitmap specifications:
480 x 360 bitmap in 24 billions colours (503,6 kB)

Adobe Image Ready 2.0

Usual path:
"C:\Program Files\Adobe\..."
File:
main ".exe" file
Bitmap number:
1858 (in folder "Bitmap" - this is not the regular splash,
but a leftover from its beta stage)
Bitmap specifications:
495 x 378 bitmap in 24 billions colours (549 kB)

Adobe Photoshop 5.5

Usual path:
"C:\Program Files\Adobe\Photoshop\"
File:
"Photos2.dll"
Bitmap number:
5020 (in folder "Bitmap" - this is not the regular splash,
but a leftover from its beta stage)
Bitmap specifications:
482 x 240 bitmap in 24 billions colours (339 kB)

Aladdin Expander 5.0

Usual path:
"C:\Program Files\Aladdin Systems\Expander\"
File:
"Expander.exe" (692 kB)
Bitmap number:
129 (in folder "Bitmap" - #155 is about screen)
Bitmap specifications:
388 x 280 bitmap in 256 colors (107 kB)

Caere Omnipage Pro 10

Usual path:
"\"
File:
"eudora32.dll" (1061 kB)
Bitmap number:
327 (in folder "Bitmap")
Bitmap specifications:
500 x 175 bitmap in 256 colours (86,5 kB)

CorelDraw 7

Usual path:
"C:\Corel\Draw70\programs\"
File:
"drawintl.dll" (4,76 Mb)
Bitmap number:
731
Bitmap specifications:
423 x 227 bitmap in 256 colours (95 kB)

Corel PhotoPaint 7

Usual path:
"C:\Corel\Draw70\programs\"
File:
"pntintl.dll" (3,13 Mb)
Bitmap number:
2701
Bitmap specifications:
423 x 227 bitmap in 256 colours (95 kB)

Macromedia Dreamweaver 3

Usual path:
"C:\Program Files\Macromedia\Dreamweaver\Configuration\"
File:
"resources.dll" (832 kB)
Bitmap number:
327 (in folder "Bitmap")
Bitmap specifications:
504 x 310 bitmap in 256 colours (154 kB)

Macromedia Dreamweaver 4

Usual path:
"C:\Program Files\Macromedia\Dreamweaver\Configuration\"
File:
"resources.dll"
Bitmap number:
7026 (in folder "Bitmap")
Bitmap specifications:
506 x 277 bitmap in 256 colours (138 kB)

Microsoft Outlook 2000

Usual path:
"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office\1036\"
File:
"outllibr.dll" (1713 kB)
Bitmap number:
7702
Bitmap specifications:
401 x 247 bitmap in 16 colours (13 kB)

Microsoft Outlook 2000 - "About"

Usual path:
"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office\1036\"
File:
"outllibr.dll" (1713 kB)
Bitmap number:
7700
Bitmap specifications:
63 x 246 bitmap in 16 colours (8 kB)

Microsoft Outlook Express

Usual path:
"C:\Program Files\Outlook Express\"
File:
"msoeres.dll" (948 kB)
Bitmap number:
5 and 6
Bitmap specifications:
#5 = 400 x 247 bitmap in 256 colors (26 kB)
#6 = 400 x 247 bitmap in 16 colors (13 kB)

Mozilla 1.0

Usual path:
"C:\Program Files\mozilla.org\mozilla\"
File:
not in file, a .bmp named mozilla.bmp in directory will do (thanks, Bosko)
Bitmap:
mozilla.bmp
Bitmap specifications:
any size

Netscape Communicator 4.7

Usual path:
"C:\Program Files\Netscape\Communicator\Program\"
File:
"resdll.dll" (1,34 Mb)
Bitmap number:
1474
Bitmap specifications:
390 x 261 bitmap in 256 colors (101 kB)

Opera 4.0

Usual path:
"C:\Program Files\Opera\"
File:
not in file, seperate .gif
Bitmap:
Splash.gif
Bitmap specifications:
380 x 240 bitmap in 256 colors (31,1 kB)

Opera 5.x

Usual path:
"C:\Program Files\Opera\Images"
File:
not in file, seperate .gif
Bitmap:
splash.gif
Bitmap specifications:
400 x 240 bitmap in 256 colors (8,24 kB)

PowerQuest PartitionMagic 4.0

Usual path:
"C:\Program Files\PowerQuest\PartitionMagic\Win9x\"
File:
"Pm409x.exe" (3,2 Mb)
Bitmap:
IDB_PM_SPLASH
Bitmap specifications:
522 x 318 bitmap in 256 colors (163 kB)

Qualcomm Eudora 4.3

Usual path:
"C:\Program Files\Qualcomm\Eudora Pro 4.3\"
File:
"eudora32.dll" (1061 kB)
Bitmap number:
327 (in folder "Bitmap")
Bitmap specifications:
500 x 175 bitmap in 256 colours (86,5 kB)

Winamp 2.6.3

Usual path:
"C:\Program Files\Winamp\"
File:
"winamp.exe" (832 kB)
Bitmap number:
109 (in folder "Bitmap")
Bitmap specifications:
392 x 192 bitmap in 256 colours (75 kB)

WinOnCD 3.7

Usual path:
"C:\Program Files\CeQuadrat\WinOnCD\"
File:
"Winoncd.exe" (1,73 Mb)
Bitmap number:
224 (in folder "Bitmap")
Bitmap specifications:
338 x 208 bitmap in 256 colours (19,6 kB)