With Windows Vista, Microsoft provides new functionalities in the Multilingual User Interface (MUI) area. This new functionality allows developers to separate localized resources (e.g. text strings) from language independent resources (e.g. bitmaps, icons, cursors). Typically, the separate .mui file contains the localized resources and the application executable contains the language independent resources. Just as with any .dll or .exe, a .mui file is just a normal Win32 portable executable (PE) stripped of executable code. On Windows Vista, the Win32 resource API functions have been modified to load resources from the .mui files automatically. Because the loading of resources happens independently of the application, it doesn't matter if the resource is located in the application executable or in a .mui file. The resource loading process can be seen as the following: First, the resources located in the applications executable are loaded into the memory. Afterwards, the system decides which .mui file to use (based on the language) and loads the resources from the .mui file on top of the previously loaded resources, replacing any resources that already exists! If a resource exists in a .mui file it will be loaded from the .mui file, but if a resource doesn't exist in a .mui file, the system loads it from the application executable resources if it exists there. But what does this MUI stuff has to do with boot screen customization? Everything!

 

Because .mui files don't have a digital signature, its resources can be modified without problems. So if one wants to replace a resource in a digitally signed executable, one can add the resource to the .mui file (or replace it in the .mui file if the resource exists there). That's exactly what we'll do to customize the Windows Vista boot screen, so grab your favorite Win32 resource editing tool and let's start! If you don't know which tool you need for this, you can download the excellent Resource Builder or the alternative Resource Hacker.

 

First you have to create a working directory, let's say X:\bootscreen\, which is going to contain the modified winload.exe.mui file. Furthermore, I will assume that you have installed Windows Vista on your V: drive (of course you have to substitute these paths in this article with your own paths).

Changing the text in the boot screen is also possible. XML editing experience is required and assumed below.

Recently, Inky presented me a list of Object Store types (Object Store is the functionality that stores your messenger content [display pictures, emoticons, etc] on your computer) and asked me if I could fill in the blanks. Because I worked the last couple months on a tool that can enumerate all the installed content (the import and export functionality is currently on the to-do list) I was able the complete most of the list. After a small research, I was able to complete the whole list.

 

Value	Name	Comments
1	Avatar	Unknown, but already present since the beginning (MSN Messenger 6.0).
2	Custom Emoticons
3	User Tile	Static display pictures.
4	Shared File	Unknown, but already present since the beginning (MSN Messenger 6.0).
5	Backgrounds	Static backgrounds.
6	History
7	Deluxe Display Pictures	Dynamic display pictures.
8	Winks3	Winks.
9	Map File	A map file contains a list of items in the store.
10	Dynamic Backgrounds	Dynamic backgrounds.
11	Voice Clip
12	Plug-In State	Saved state of Add-ins.
13	Roaming Objects	For example, your roaming display picture.
14	Location	Information about your locations (City, Country, etc).

 

If you list it per Messenger version, you get the following list.

 

• Avatar
• Custom Emoticons
• User Tile
• Shared File
• Backgrounds

Nothing new has been added in this version.

 

• History

• Deluxe Display Pictures
• Winks3
• Map File

• Dynamic Backgrounds
• Voice Clip

• Plug-In State

• Roaming Objects
• Location

Unified User Notification (UUN) was introduced together with Unified Buddy Notification (UBN) in MSNP13, to give clients the ability to exchange data with another without setting up a Switchboard session first. Although MSNP13 isn't the latest version of the protocol, the real purpose of the commands has come to the light with the introduction of Windows Live Messenger 8.1. If you send a UUN command to a buddy via your Notification Server, his or her client will receive it as a UBN command from the Notification Server.

 

When sending a UUN command to the server, 4 parameters are needed: a transaction identifier, the receiving buddy's e-mail address, the type of the data being send and the payload length. The type parameter can have the following values:

The differences between UUN and UBN are that the UBN command doesn't have a TrId parameter and that the parameter containing the e-mail address is the e-mail address of the sender.