Logoview is a simple DOS-based program, that allows you to view a Windows95 animated startup logo file, without booting the system.

Great for people developing their own logo's. Or, when you have downloaded a lot of them and don't want to reboot every time to view each logo animate (and to find our that there is no animation). You could even use it as a kind of screensaver...

System Requirements

Logoview was coded in good old C, and compiled to 16-bit DOS executable, and it doesn't take many resources. Any MS-DOS would be nice, although this program runs under Windows3.11 or Windows95 (of course) as well.

Logoview is freeware, use it at your own risk, and have fun with it!

How to use Logoview?

It's fairly simple. You don't have to be a computer guru to find out the procedure. Just follow these easy steps:
In DOS or in a DOS box under Windows:

• Copy the Logoview.exe into any directory.
• Execute the program using one command line argument: the file that contains the startup logo you'd like to view.
• Logoview will now display your animated logo full-screen.
• Press any key to stop the animation.

• Copy the Logoview.exe into any directory.
• With Explorer, associate file with *.sys extension with Logoview.exe (Assuming all your logo files have the extension *.sys).
• Now, when you double click on any *.sys in Explorer, Logoview will start and display your animated logo full-screen.
• Press any key to stop the animation.

Logoview command line options

You can find out about the many options in the program by executing 'Logoview' without any command line arguments.

• -i: interactive mode. Displays the number of cycling colors and looping.
• -1: only once. Display the animation and quit.
• -s: play the animation slower.
• -f: play the animation faster.
• -k: play the animation step by step, every time key 's' is pressed. Stop with any other key.
• -b: display in 640x480x256 screen mode.

  Overriding the animation parameters preset in the file:

• -l: force the animation to loop back and forth.
• -n: force the animation to not loop back and forth.
• -r: force to play the animation backwards.
• -c number: force the animation to use 'number' colors in the color cycling. 'number' must be between 0 and 255. Use the -i option to find the number originally in the file.
• -w file: write the animation to 'file'. The new file will have the parameters of options -l, -n, -r or -c, if any was set. This way you can change an existing logo to e.g. loop and use less colors in the animation.

Error messages

• Cannot open filename: check whether you included the correct filename and path.
• File too short: probably not a correct file type. It must be a BMP file of 320x400 in 256 colors. Filesize is 129078 (or a bit more) bytes.
• Invalid input file: the file is not a BMP 320x400 256 colors file.
• Invalid option: all option must be separated by spaces.
• File already exists: the 'file' in option -w will not be overwritten if it existed.

What is an animated startup logo?

If you are a user of Windows95 you normally see the 'start logo' everytime you power-up or reboot your system. The default logo is a cloudy blue sky with the well-known Microsoft logo signs on it. On the bottom of the screen a small blue line is scrolling sideways.

You can easily change this screen with any picture that you like: (with a little help of a graphics utility)

• first, be sure to backup your existing 'logo.sys' that you may already have in directory C:\ to a save place.
• take any picture that you like as startup logo
• crop it to a size of 4:3 (e.g 640x480 or 800x600). It should still have the correct aspect ratio.
• resample or resize to 320x400.
• reduce or increase the number of colors to 256.
• save the image as a BMP (not RLE compressed) file
• now place the file as 'logo.sys' in the root directory C:\
• next time you re-boot, voila, your startup logo appears.

But how about an animated startup logo?

Animation is created by changing the color palette of the file: some of the 256 colors in the image will rotate. By clever assignment of colors to certain pixels in an image the effect of animation is created.
See my homepage for a few examples of how this animation may look like.

An animated startup logo is still the same type of file, but with a few differences:

• 2 bytes in the logo.sys file have a special meaning:
  - animationlength: this indicates the number of colors to cycle
  - animationloop: this indicates whether the animation loops back and forth
• Their value can be viewed with 'Logoview -i filename'.

How do I create my own animated startup logo?

• Take any logo file you like.
• Use a graphics utility to change the color palette.
• Use Logoview to see what's happening if you change the 'animationlength' and 'animationloop' values (see the commandline options).
• Once you're finished write the 'animation' values with the -w command and place your logo in the root directory.

Any examples?

• Many examples of arithmatically generated logo images can be found at my home page. Also some kind of short movie is available.
• The programs used to create them are not (yet) available for general use.

By the way, there is no animation possible on the 'closing' and 'shutdown' screens of Windows95.

Where to find Logoview

The latest version will be available at http://www.inter.nl.net/hcc/A.Jaw.Venema
E-MAIL to: A.Jaw.Venema@net.HCC.nl

History overview

0.94	19961229	alpha4