Change your OEM Information/Picture

[Gothian]

(NOTE: This is not a copy&paste, I wrote this guide long ago.)

(Tutorial originally posted by DragonLady, Revised by TerMight)

The System Properties window, youve probably all seen it, commonly used in screenshots to boast system specifications, but now you can have a bit of fun with it and customize for your own pleasure! Ill show you how:



This is the System Properties window, in its basic form (Picture curtesy of my own PC, vital bits barred out) pretty boring eh? Well.. besides my lovely windows skin, but other than that its your run of the mill System Properties window.





Now to get to the fun stuff, giving this boring old window some personal touch with a bit of crafty notepad skills.

Im going to break down the file you are about to create, 'oeminfo.ini'

First what you need to do is open notepad, you can do this by clicking your start menu and clicking on run. You will get the following dialogue where you will type 'notepad' to get the whole ball rolling, shown in the picture below.





Now that you have notepad open, Im going to explain the .ini file structure.

At the top of the file, paste the following code:

[General]
Manufacturer=Manufacturer Goes Here
Model=Model Goes Here

This is the block which windows will recognise and set the proper lables on the System Properties window, which will get this effect.



Now on to the next block, paste the code beneath the [General] block.

[Support Information]
Line1=Support Information line 1
Line2=Support Information line 2
Line3=Support Information line 3
Line4=And so on...

This block gives some special support information that can be viewed by clicking the "Support Information" button near the bottom of the "System Properties" window. Which will end up looking like this (notice that our manufacture information is displayed in the window bar).



Now you have the 'oeminfo.ini' file completed, and should look something like this.

[General]
Manufacturer=Manufacturer Goes Here
Model=Model Goes Here
[Support Information]
Line1=Support Information line 1
Line2=Support Information line 2
Line3=Support Information line 3
Line4=And so on ...

Save your document in notepad with that name (be sure to select "All Files" in the "Save as Type" drop down box), then drop the file into your C:\WINDOWS\System32\ directory and navigate to "My Computer" where you can right click and click on "Properties" to view your handywork.

Next thing you can add is a cool image to your window, just to top off the personalized changes to your System Properties window. Open up your favorite image editer, in my case its Photoshop CS2, and make an image with a width of 180 pixels by 118 pixels (180x11 then get to creating!!





Alright, now that you have your nice image done, save it as 'oemlogo.bmp' then place it in the same place (C:\WINDOWS\System32\) then re-open your System Properties window, and you should now be met with a pretty new customized window that surly makes your PC wonderful and personal to you!!





I hope you enjoyed this tutorial, and found it informative! Your friendly .NET Developer: Gothian
.
.
.
.