More how to Hack
Windows 95...
HOW TO CUSTOMIZE WINDOWS 95 VISUALS
(Comment added in 2000: do you have
Windows 98? This same technique should work on 98 as well as
95. It works on my Win 98 box. If you can't find the file logo.sys,
just make one yourself according to the specifications of this
Guide. If that doesn't work -- oh, well, there are several variations
on Windows 98 and maybe you got one we didn't test. But, hey,
real hacking means struggling around until you find out for yourself
how to make something work.)
OK, let's say you are hosting a wild party in your home. You
decide to show your buddies that you are one of those dread hacker
d00dz. So you fire up your computer and what should come up on
your screen but the logo for "Windows 95." It's kind
of lame looking, isn't it? Your computer looks just like everyone
else's box. Just like some boring corporate workstation operated
by some guy with an IQ in the 80s.
Now if you are a serious hacker you would be booting up Linux
or FreeBSD or some other kind of Unix on your personal computer.
But your friends don't know that. So you have an opportunity
to social engineer them into thinking you are fabulously elite
by just by customizing your bootup screen.
Now let's say you want to boot up with a black screen with
orange and yellow flames and the slogan " K-Rad Doomsters
of the Apocalypse." This turns out to be super easy.
Now Microsoft wants you to advertise their operating system
every time you boot up. In fact, they want this so badly that
they have gone to court to try to force computer retailers to
keep the Micro$oft bootup screen on the systems these vendors
sell.
So Microsoft certainly doesn't want you messing with their
bootup screen, either. So M$ has tried to hide the bootup screen
software. But they didn't hide it very well. We're going to learn
today how to totally thwart their plans.
***********************************************
Evil Genius tip: One of the rewarding things about hacking is
to find hidden files that try to keep you from modifying them
-- and then to mess with them anyhow. That's what we're doing
today.
The Win95 bootup graphics is hidden in either a file named
c:\logo.sys and/or ip.sys. To see this file, open Explorer, click
"view", then click "by file type," then check
the box for "show hidden/system files." Then, back
on "view," click "all file details." To the
right of the file logo.sys you will see the letters "rhs."
These mean this file is "read-only, hidden, system."
The reason this innocuous graphics file is labeled as a system
file -- when it really is just a graphics file with some animation
added -- is because Microsoft is afraid you'll change it to read
something like "Welcome to Windoze 95 -- Breakfast of Lusers!"
So by making it a read-only file, and hiding it, and calling
it a system file as if it were something so darn important it
would destroy your computer if you were to mess with it, Microsoft
is trying to trick you into leaving it alone.
***********************************************
More Beginners' Guide #2--->>
