BootSkin wont work after new XP install. HEEEELP

Worked fine with all skins now doesnt. Please help.

from Stardock Forums
Hi people.   Im hoping someone can help me.

A few months back i started using bootskin. For the 1st week i was fiddling with different skins untill i got bored of fiddling and stuck with one i liked (vista blue to go with my vista blue logon and vista windowblind).
Recently i had PC issues (not related) and as a clean install was in mind prior to the issues anyway i decided to clean install my OS and did.

So after the usual drivers and security software put on after the clean install i install BootSkin on C:, import a skin (from another drive) preview it (ok), apply it (ok), reboot, and the default skin appears not my selected one.
Ive tried all versions of Bootskin, all do the same. So i defaulted my bios settings, no good, ive tweaked my bios settings, no good.
I dont have LogonStudio or WindowBlinds installed now just BootSkin.

As the version i had before worked im puzzled. I have no new hardware, my machine hasnt changed.
I know BootSkin doesnt work with some bios but it did with mine before my clean XP install, and a havent changed my bios version, just the settings have been played with.

So what the hell has changed to make it not work?
Please, someone help me out here as i love my modded bootskins (i didnt realise how much till they were gone).
Does anyone know something else i might try?

Heeeeeeelp!  
bootskin
7,518 views 9 replies
Reply #1 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Have you tried one of the alternate versions of bootskin?
Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top
Hi Zubaz,,,,i quote myself from the post above, you obviously missed it....

"Ive tried all versions of Bootskin, all do the same. So i defaulted my bios settings, no good, ive tweaked my bios settings, no good.
I dont have LogonStudio or WindowBlinds installed now just BootSkin."

So yeah, i have fella. And why would i need a different version anyway? (even tho ive tried em)
Ashes of the Singularity II
Reply #3 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Sorry I missed that. 
Reply #4 from WinCustomize Forums Top
- maybe it's your "security" software, uninstall it temporarily to see if that helps.

Also you don't mention if you're receiving an error of some sort during bootup, just that it won't use the bootskin you've selected. Because of this I don't think this is related to any bios settings.

Maybe you have antivirus/anti-malware software or anti-rootkit software that is perceiving the stardock bootskin prog as some form of malware and preventing it from running.

Use the latest version of bootskin (I think it's v1.05).
Save the skins you want to use, uninstall the version of bootskin you have, install v1.05 and don't install any of your custom bootskins. Try applying one of the included bootskins that comes with Stardock's Bootskin app. If you get that to work, then start importing your other bootskins.

Let me know how it works out.
Reply #5 from Stardock Forums Top
Sorry I missed that.

No problem fella, easily done.




- maybe it's your "security" software, uninstall it temporarily to see if that helps.

Also you don't mention if you're receiving an error of some sort during bootup, just that it won't use the bootskin you've selected. Because of this I don't think this is related to any bios settings.

Maybe you have antivirus/anti-malware software or anti-rootkit software that is perceiving the stardock bootskin prog as some form of malware and preventing it from running.

Use the latest version of bootskin (I think it's v1.05).
Save the skins you want to use, uninstall the version of bootskin you have, install v1.05 and don't install any of your custom bootskins. Try applying one of the included bootskins that comes with Stardock's Bootskin app. If you get that to work, then start importing your other bootskins.

Let me know how it works out.

Hi UncleRob.
As far as i can remember my AV software was installed and active when i last installed and used Bootskin suuccessfully.
Prior to this post and similar to your sugestion, i have disabled my AV shield so as not to startup automatically/with windows and this has no effect.
As to the error messeges you mention, there are none, i choose and apply a skin (one that comes with BootSkin), im told it was successfull and will be used on the next boot, i then close BootSkin. Before rebooting i run bootskin again to see if my choice is still loaded and it is, i reboot and windows boots normally with its default skin with no problem (only its the default skin not my one applied by bootskin) so i get no error messege of any kind.
And after the reboot, i fire up bootskin and check what skin it says is in use and it does still say yhe skin of my choice is in use and not the default skin which actually appears.

Its freakin me out as i had been using it up untill 2 days ago (although a hadnt used bootskin/changed the skin for about a month). My PC has been booting an applied bootskin for the last few months with no problems.
Reply #6 from WinCustomize Forums Top
This happened to me too.. I don't use XP anymore though.
Reply #7 from WinCustomize Forums Top
This happened to me once,and what I had to do was re-download the bootskin from the web.The ones stored on my external hard drive would not work.
Reply #8 from Stardock Forums Top
This happened to me once,and what I had to do was re-download the bootskin from the web.The ones stored on my external hard drive would not work.
Yeah tried that to with all 3 versions but it didnt make any odds.  




BUT ANYWAY I'VE SUSSED IT OUT AND FOUND THE CAUSE. Its a very technical reason.....LOL

My PC has 3 HDD's in it, one is partitioned down the middle so i have 4 drives to view in total in 'My Computer'.
A few months back (but after/since installing BootSkin) I installed a new 2nd operating system on my machine that being Vista. I installed it as OS2 (secondary OS) on one of the partitions on the drive that is partitioned down the middle.
If I booted normally XP loaded, or I could pull up the boot menu from bios and choose to boot from Vista.
I then chose to 'sack' Vista (got it on another machine) for the time being and free up my drive. Thats where the problem started (without me knowing).

What i should have done to free up that drive is format it from XP but instead all I did was highlight the contents (ie Vista's windows, program files etc) and right click delete (send to bin).....Bad move on BootSkin's behalf.
What that done was empty my drive but left it as a 'System' drive and not logical partition, thus leaving some hidden info on it regaurding 'Boot.ini'.
So when booting, BootSkin was having trouble due to the fact the machine was seeing more than one bootup drive/OS so obviously causing the problem.

What i did to sort it was simply change the drive from a System/Boot drive to a logical/storage drive with Norton's Partition Magic, but im sure the simple Windows disk management could also do the trick.

So in a nut shell, BootSkin does not seem to work on a system with multiple OS's, or any trace of 2nd boot/system drives installed on the machine.

What can be done if you are using an OS2 is before using BootSkin, unplug the drive with the 2nd OS on it from your motherboard (switched off machine obviously) boot your OS you wish to change the bootskin on, apply the skin with BootSkin, reboot to check its there, switch off, reconnect OS2 drive, now the bootskin you applied 'should' stay with the OS you applied it to.

If you have this problem and need any help feel free to 'question' me.  
I'll check back now n then even tho im sorted, coz it seems like im the only one who knows all this coz i been searching on this forum for days about it with no luck. 
Please post to let me know if this was any help to anyone at all, i hope it is.




Reply #9 from WinCustomize Forums Top
64bitbrain, thanks for posting a through rundown on what to do....you can go to the top of this page & select tools & watch this post, then you will be notified by e-mail when ever anyone replys to it. Keep in mind that months from now someone maybe replying

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