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Overview:
With a Windows keyboard, press your
"Windows" key and hold. Then press your
"Pause/Break" key.
With a standard keyboard, you will have to do it the old fashioned way.
Click on Start, Settings, Control Panel, open the System
Properties applet. Click the appropriate O/S below to see how I have
edited my System Properties panels.
No doubt you noticed a couple of other modifications
to the panels. We are only going to deal with the
"Oemlogo.bmp" and "Oeminfo.ini" files which control
how the lower half of the panels appear.

For Win98, the 2 files, "Oemlogo.bmp" and
"Oeminfo.ini" are located in the C:\Windows\System folder.
For WinY2K, The 2 files, "Oemlogo.bmp" and
"Oeminfo.ini" are located in the C:\WINNT\System32 folder.
Depending on where you loaded your O/S, exchange the "C:"
in the pathway above to your drive letter.
Steps For
Adding/Changing The Oemlogo
( We'll be using MS Paint for this
tutorial )
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Open MS Paint and in the toolbar, click
on Image and then Attributes. Set
the Units as "Pixels" and the Width to 182,
Height 114. These are the maximums for W x H in
pixels for the bitmap to work properly. You can set it smaller
if you like. This would be called your canvas size when set.
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Draw, cut, paste what ever image you would like
to have show up on your panel.
Here's mine: 
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To match the background colour of your bitmap
creation to the actual colour of your System properties panel,
grab the bottom right canvas corner marker, stretch the canvas
quite a bit larger.
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Open up your System Properties panel with a
Windows key + Pause/Break key, (Or Start, Settings, Control
Panel, System Properties applet) and do a Alt + PrtScn
key combo to copy the active panel.
( If you would like to know more about this print Screen
technique, check out screencapture.beemerworld.com
)
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Close the System Properties applet.
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Bring up the MS Paint window you have
been working on and in the toolbar click on Edit, Paste.
Drag the pasted image off your created Oemlogo design. You only
need a corner of the panel to be showing.
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Use the Pick Colour tool, (eyedropper in
other programs) to take a sample colour of your pasted System
Properties panel.
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Now click on your Fill With Color tool
and fill the areas needed to match backgrounds. This is the only
way you will match the background of your bitmap image to the
System Properties panel when viewed.
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Now that you have the proper background for the
Oemlogo bitmap you are creating, crop it down to size using the
canvas markers. Check the Attributes to make sure
the canvas has retained its necessary size.
Tip:
Click on View, Zoom, Large
Size. This will make it easier to see the edges of your
logo.
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Now you can save this image to the C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM
folder for Win98 or C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32 folder for WinY2K.
Name the file, Oemlogo . The
.bmp extension will be automatically added to the file name.
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Now for the moment of reckoning. Bring up your System
Properties panel using what ever method you have been using
throughout this tutorial and ......Is it there? Congratulations!
You have branded your System Properties control panel appearance
with your own custom OEM logo.
Adding/Changing the
System Information Button:
The System Information button can contain readily
available info such as your ISP's emergency phone number, system spec's,
etc, etc. Since it is very easy to bring up your System Properties panel
with a Windows key + Pause/Break key combo, you might want to create,
(if it isn't already installed) this button.
The file that controls the contents of this button is
the Oeminfo.ini file located in the C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM folder for
Win98 or C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32 folder for WinY2K. It should be
right above the Oemlogo.bmp file we have been playing with.
If you have the button already on your System Properties
panel, you are able to change the information displayed when clicking on
this button.
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Mouse your way to the Oeminfo file.
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If you don't have a Oeminfo.ini file, proceed to
Create A Oeminfo File: in
the section below.
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Double click on the Oeminfo file to open it.
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If this doesn't work, read step 5. If it worked,
step 7.
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Right click on the Oeminfo file and from
the context menu select Open With...
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The Open With... panel opens up. If there
is a check mark in the, "Always use this program to open
these files" checkbox, remove it. Select Notepad
from the programs window below and click open.
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You will have something resembling the text
below:
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[General]
Manufacturer=Thunderbird
Model=PC 133/CAS2 1110 MHz
[Support Information]
Line1=Cablelan 1-888-681-9688
Line2=Pager 1-800-811-0619
Line3=I.P. XXX.XXX.XX.XXX
Line4=Gateway 139.142.91.1
Line5=SMTP 139.142.82.12
Line6=Pop3 139.142.82.12
Line7=Favourite Electronics Shop
Line8=Girl/Boy friends Phone #
Line9=What ever! |
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Edit the lines accordingingly and click File,
Save.
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Open your System Properties panel and see if
it's there. Congratulations Again!
Create a Oeminfo
File:
If you don't have this button already installed, you can
easily create one. The Oeminfo file is only a Notepad text file saved
with a .ini extension.
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Open a Notepad window.
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You can swipe and copy and paste these next
lines into your Notepad window:
[General]
Manufacturer=Thunderbird
Model=PC 133/CAS2 1110 MHz
[Support Information]
Line1=Cablelan 1-888-681-9688
Line2=Pager 1-800-811-0619
Line3=I.P. XXX.XXX.XX.XXX
Line4=Gateway 139.142.91.1
Line5=SMTP 139.142.82.12
Line6=Pop3 139.142.82.12
Line7=Favourite Electronics Shop
Line8=Girl/Boy friends Phone #
Line9=What ever!
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Now change the lines to your own information.
Only change what comes after the equals sign.
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Save this by Clicking File, Save
as, navigate to your C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM folder for Win98
or C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32 folder for WinY2K. In the File name:
slot, type Oeminfo.ini . In the Save as type:
All Files
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Click Save
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Go take a peek at the System Properties panel.
Congratulations! once more on a job well done.
Bemer's Tutorials...
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