how to change the spinning dots boot circle graphic

So at one time you could modify the Winload.exe to replace the boot loading indicator. This would be the spinning dots in Window 10 and 11.

I would love to see something like the Windows 7 multi-color windows boot logo indicator or even a spinning hourglass.

I don't know what it is about the spinning dots but they irritate the crap out of me.

Got rid of most of them by turning off the mouse pointer themes and replaced then defaults with the Smooth Classic Cursors.

Why they changed it from a spinning hourglass to spinning dots as a means of indicating time is just a joke. Some engineers are having a good laugh over that.

Anyone figure out a way top change the spinning dots indicator for the boot up screens?

To turn off spinning dots at boot check No GUI Boot as seen here. Just search for MSConfig, go to Boot tab, make the change, save and restart. If you sign in with a password you'll still see the dots there as it signs you in though.

Thank you for posting the Msconfig.exe pic. That indeed does get rid of the boot indicator circle and as you posted I still get the boot indicator as it finishes loading to the log in screen.

I took a shot at using Resource Hacker to mod the winload.exe file. Only problem is it won't show up in Resource Hackers file open dialog.

Can see in the winload.exe file in File Manager. I even took owner ship of it and still it would not show in Resource Hacker.

Next I removed the all the system permissions for winload.exe, rebooted the machine, and still it will not show up in Resource Hackers file open menu to edit the file. I will try to change the attributes to see if maybe its set to hidden/system later.

I also will try booting from a window PE boot disk but I fear that I will have the same issue. Will try that later today as well.

Thanks again for the post.

@brhester have you gotten any where with this?

No I haven't.

I really enjoy having the classic hour glass animation again and older mouse indicator icons.

How someone convinced the powers to be at Microsoft that spinning dots are a replacement for an hourglass is just amazing.

Hour glass naturally intuitive to represent a time event.

Spinning dots well circle jerk is what always comes to mind.

You do realize Microsoft is a circlejerk company? Windows 10 and 11 underscore that...

Yeah, Just trying to enlighten everyone by directly pointing out the circles.

Both the spinning dots and the progressive ring are actually characters in a font called "Segoe Boot Semilight"

I remember a very long time ago, I had an image from Ulima VI that I used for my Windows Boot Screen. Not sure if something like that is possible anymore.....