logorand
logo randomizer

utility for managing windows 9x logos

snapshots
 
splash:
 

 
actual view:
 

 
logo view:
 

platform
tested in windows 95-98. not targeted to windows nt4 / 2000.

minimal requirements
- ms vb6 runtimes
- 800×600 display, 256-color

installing
unzip / copy logorand.exe somewhere onto your hard disk. if you want to run it each time you run windows, put a shortcut to logorand.exe in your start menu | programs | startup folder

uninstalling
in the sad and unlikely case you want to remove it, simply delete logorand.exe and logorand.log from the folder where you stored the program, and the registry key hkey_current_user\software\vb and vba program settings\sundaysw\logorand.
(if you dont know how to, leaving the key will be harmless.)

setup
first of all, backup your ms logos.
windows uses:
- startup logo: logo.sys in the root folder of the hard disk where windows resides (usually c:)
- wait logo: logow.sys, in windows folder
- shutdown logo: logos.sys, in windows folder make a copy of these files and store them somewhere.

run logorand.exe. a small splash screen should be visible for some seconds. clic / press setup. should you miss it, run it again :)
you'll be prompted with a dialog to choose the folder for storing the bitmaps suitable as windows logos.

bitmaps must be 320×400×256, i.e. 320 pixels wide, 400 pixels high, and with 256-color depth. their size should be around 129k (127k in windows explorer). when windows displays them, it widens them to 640x400.

as for logorand, all bitmaps must be windows bitmaps (.bmp extension). logorand should display bmp's with different size too, but it's very likely windows wont.

suggest: create a folder to store only these bitmaps, and pick that folder in logorand. you can also put here ms logos, just renaming them with .bmp extension

setup display options
if you chose a folder containing bmp's, the path and number of images should appear in logorand's titlebar. all bitmaps should appear in the list on the left side, and the first image in the folder should be displayed. in the lower left corner its size should appear. if a bitmap is reasonably unlikely to be a logo, you'll have to double-clic its name to display it.
three options are available for display:
- 640×400: this is the format the image should appear when used as logo
- 320×400: this is the format the image should be to be used as logo
- fit to bitmap: for testing whether the image can be used as logo. with this option the image should appear exactly as with 320×400, its size being around 129,000

setup picking options
you can set the logos randomly or choosing them.
- if you check the random radio button, when you close logorand it will pick randomly three images and set them as logos.
- if you check the choose radio button, you can set each logo separately: just click an image name, check the appropriate radio button and clic set. logo names should appear in the upper right corner.
in any case, a file logorand.log will be created in the same folder of logorand.exe. you can open it with any text editor to see which logos have been set.
next time logorand will run, it will only change the logos if the random radio button is checked. to change this option you'll have to run setup again

how to create your own logos
suggest: work with copies of your favorite images, not with originals!

with images whose aspect ratio isnt important, you can just resize them to 320×400, check that their color depth is set to 256, then save them as .bmp files.

a little more complicated if you want to keep the original image ratio. to speed the job, you'd better use graphics programs like irfanview, photoshop, paintshop, picture publisher or the photoeditor included in ms office.
(by the way, the first one is an astonishing freeware program. if you already havent it, download irfanview at once!)
- resize/resample the image to height 400 or width 640, whichever will fit better
- select all; copy
- create a new file, 640×400 px, 256-color or rgb. (rgb should better manage the final resizing.) fill the new file background with the bucket if you wish
- paste the copied image into the new file
- if you use levels, set only one level
- save as windows bitmap (.bmp). the file size shoud be around 751k if the new image is rgb, around 252k if 256-color
- resize the image to 320×400 (be careful that no keep aspect ratio options are checked). i myself had some trouble in getting the right size with photoshop, which tries to optimize and adjusts the size to similar but not exact sizes. irfanview manages resizing more easily
- if the image is rgb, decrease its color depth to 256
- save

ready logos
in the misc page there's some ready 320×400 logos, taken from images by great artists, pictures of labs and other retrievers ( and some from my own images and my own lab, java :)
besides taking many myself, i've collected thousands lab pictures and cant remember where i took them and whose they are. i just put them here for labs loving people, and dont get any money out of them. but if anybody knows any authors, i'll be glad to put their names in a readme file or delete the images.
the same, of course, for the artists' images.
please look in the misc section for downloading the logos.

updates
1.7.2001 - added an exit command to close the program without changing logos.

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