Michael asks, Is there
any way to get rid of "branding" on a computer? Where computer
manufacture advertise there products when you start you computer.
Depending on which computer manufacturer made your computer, you
might have a simple splash screen displayed as the BIOS loads or you
might be inundated with advertising throughout the entire boot process.
These are two separate image locations requiring editing in multiple
places and some confidence in your computing skills, as the BIOS option
can potentially damage your system if done incorrectly.
Changing the Windows Boot Screen
I'll start with the Windows boot screen, since that's fairly easy
and doesn't necessarily require any direct modification of system
files. There are several ways to approach changing the boot screen. One
option is to eliminate it completely, opting to display a blank screen
until Windows completes the boot process. To turn off the boot logo,
Click Start > Run and type MSCONFIG in the run dialog box to launch
the System Configuration Utility. On the BOOT.INI tab, check the box
next to /NOGUIBOOT and click OK. The next time you reboot your
computer, you'll see the BIOS screen and then nothing until Windows
loads completely. The downside to this option is you won't get any
feedback if your PC gets hung up somewhere in the boot process.

To maintain a more visual boot process, while also eliminating any
boot branding, you might simply want to replace the boot image. The
easy way to do this is to download a freeware app from WinCustomize
called BootSkin.
The app automatically overrides the default Windows boot screen,
replacing it with one of the many options in the WinCustomize BootSkin library. With some practice you can make your own custom BootSkin as well.

Download BootSkin
If you want to get really geeky, a third option is to edit the
operating system file where the boot screen information resides. You
need to be careful in doing this or you can end up with a computer that
won't boot. The first part of the process is to create or find an image
you want to use. If your computer simply has the all black Windows XP
boot screen, with the XP logo like the one pictured below, you don't
need a very large image.

Simply create a 215x147 .bmp file with 16 colors (NOT 16-bit) in any
image editor and you've got a working replacement. If your computer
manufacturer overrides this default screen with something else, you may
need to get creative to eliminate all the branding. In general, using a
black background looks more consistent, but you can use any of the 16
colors in your palette.
With your new image created, you need a freeware app called Resource Hacker to make some changes.
Before proceeding, locate ntoskrnl.exe in your Windows > system32
folder. Make a copy of the file called newntoskrnl.exe or something
equally easy to remember and leave the copy in the system32 folder.
Make a second copy of the ntoskrnl.exe on your desktop (this is the one you will edit).
Open ntoskrnl.exe in Resource Hacker. Expand Bitmap > 5 and
highlight the 1033 folder. Right-click the 1033 icon and choose Replace
Resource.

Click the Open file with new bitmap button and locate the image you
created earlier. Click the Replace button. Save and exit Resource
Hacker. You can optionally replace all elements of the boot screen by
editing each portion of the Bitmap.

Reboot into SafeMode and copy your newly created ntoskrnl.exe file into the Windows > system32 folder.
Note: If you are using Windows 2000, you can simply replace the
image in the Bitmap > 1 > 1033 location with a 640x480 16 color
Bitmap to modify the Win2k boot screen in a similar fashion.
Changing the BIOS Splash Screen
To eliminate the branded splash screen associated with your BIOS,
you need to obtain the firmware update for your BIOS and edit the logo
file that's part of the BIOS fileset before applying the update. Since
every computer model and manufacturer uses a slightly different BIOS
configuration, it's important to get the BIOS specific to your computer
from the support section of the manufacturer's Website. In some cases,
like my HP laptop, it's become virtually impossible to replace the logo
because the BIOS flash process is contained in an .exe file that runs
locally in Windows rather than from a separate disk.
Assuming your PC manufacturer has you create a floppy designed to
flash the PC bios, you can fairly easily make a change to the logo
displayed. In following the directions to create the BIOS boot disk,
simply replace the included logo.bmp file in the BIOS update package
with a logo.bmp file created by you. The key here is to use a 16 color
(NOT 16-bit color) 640x480 BMP file. Copy your logo.bmp file onto the
disk used for your BIOS update and run the bundled logo.bat file by
double-clicking it. This converts the logo.bmp to a format ready for
the BIOS update.
It's vital to keep all the files in the BIOS update named exactly as
they were or your computer may not work after the update. Any changes
made to BIOS update files should be done at your own risk and with
extreme care.
Additional Windows XP tweaks you might find useful:
Removing Duplicate Files
Speeding Up Windows Delete
Removing MSCONFIG Startup Entries
How to automatically login Windows XP