I tested BootSkin Buddy people.
Sorry to say, it's flawed with several Bugs.
For basic BootSkins it tested okay, but when it came to more advanced Skins, it said that there were errors, when there really wasn't.
The Program goes by basic guidelines of Progress Bar Size, and Length, but there's more to it than that.
For instance, the first Skin I tried was my newest one, "XP Space Warp"



It gave me an error and corrected my Progress Bar's expansion running Width from 144 Pixels in length to 154. Which of course put it out of bounds of my Progress Bar Window. When I tried to correct the Program's mistake, it gave me a message saying that During actual Reboots, Progress Bar Lengths are rounded to the nearest multiple of 22. Which actually isn't true.
Another flaw, the Progress Bar size.
It keeps everything at 22X9 pixels.
Uncle Rob is proof that it'll work at higher resolutions.
All of his Progress bars are 28X10. Granted, his y coordinates 1 and 10 are always the same as his background, so when they get cut off you don't notice, but his X resolution of 28 pixels works on every boot with no problem. It shows all 28 Pixels.
I haven't done any testing yet, but I believe you could probably create even longer Bars. It probably would effect the right side of your screen where the latter X Coordinates are, possibly creating a static residual image leftover from the Bar, but if placed in the correct spot, you could probably make a long Bar with no side effects. Not sure, only a theory.
I'll have to test the Program out with my "Alien Stonehenge" and "Three Wise Men".
They stretch the limitations of the Progress Bar coordinates in both directions.
In any case, if Xander works out the bugs in the program, it'd be a fantastic work of art to use with the BootSkin community and for Moderator's assistance.  
Plus, I LOVE the Full Screen Preview mode!  

Handy info...I'll check into it closely...

Hey wow. I uploaded Bootskin Buddy to DesktopGadgets.com a long time ago (and deviantArt a bit later). It was my third real widget, and I know that inexperience shows. Particularly in the GUI design.

I think this is the most response I've had to it since then (even though I tend to shamelessly plug my stuff pretty frequently)!

While I'm not in total disagreement with Skinned Alive, I do feel that "flawed with several bugs" is a bit strong. It has been, again, a long time since I worked with bootskins and Bootskin Buddy, but I do remember a big number of reboots as trial and error experimentation. It may be possible to create a 10x28 progress bar that has the top and bottom rows of pixels cut off (it's possible to do a lot of things), but it certainly isn't the easiest way, and also certainly not foolproof.

Bootskin Buddy was designed to make solid, error-free bootskins that will always work. I consider the fact that it will not allow you to stray from strict guidelines a feature rather than a bug. Bootskins are trickier and more complex than they would appear at first glance, as the popularity of questions in this forum attests. You can bend and tweak a few rules, and get a working bootskin. Tweaking the palettes, the ProgBar size or path length can lead to some interesting effects. But not ones that will consistently work or that can really be made with consistent rules. If everyone was willing to check their Bootskins through several reboots to make sure they work it would be one thing, but that is not the case. For example, I think if you reboot a few times and closely watch your progress bar animation, you will find it ends short or goes long when the path is not a multiple of the bar length. One can make a bootskin where this isn't a big deal, but the easiest method for pixel-perfect animations is the one employed by BB.

In any case, thanks for trying it out and for the feedback. I'm afraid I have no plans to revisit Bootskin Buddy--I no longer use Bootskin (it is for XP) or even DesktopX very much, and I'm still a bit, well, bitter, over the resounding chorus of crickets with which BB was greeted back in 2005. Ugly as the GUI may be, Bootskin Buddy has features not seen in a DesktopX gadget before or since, including image palette manipulation, zip archive extraction and compression, camouflaged edit and combo-boxes, and a radical task-oriented approach to widget utility. All that and it was a year before anyone (aside from CerebroJD on IRC, thanks dude!) even acknowledged its existence with a comment.

OK, sorry, I didn't mean to hi-jack this thread. Thanks again for trying my widget. I may not be going back to update BB, but I always remember when people report their experiences with my projects, and your input will help me make better stuff in the future.

For what it's worth, I've never published a bootskin, but I have pushed many people to use BSB and have used it internally to test and instruct new skinners.  Sorry I never gave good feedback. 

It's a very solid app for a very unstable customization.

You're absolutely correct Xander, and I apologize. I truly am sorry for the context of my wording. When I wrote that, I had only tested 3 BootSkins. Mine, Uncle Rob's, and just one I grabbed from the site. My first two came up with errors, which I know aren't, so I automatically thought a 2 out of 3 miss.
I was looking at the program from more of a "final test" method, rather than "test while creating" or "help create" method.
I'm truly sorry that this didn't get noticed like it should have. When I downloaded it, I saw that it was submitted nearly a year ago and only had 160 downloads. This would had been a program that I would have loved to have had when I started creating BootSkins. I went through so much trial and error that I'm still regrowing hair. I had to reverse engineer other BootSkins, so I used Apocalypse67's. Unfortunately, I knew nothing about both color palettes having to match, so I went on with the trial and error. This program lets you know things like that. To me, this program is fantastic for beginners and those who create BootSkins using the basic guidelines of creating BootSkins, which is like 99.5% of the people. I don't really think there's hardly any extremists out there for this type of Skinning. I actually, before you had written your message, sent a comment to Magix66 on his BootSkin "Fantasy Gateway", referring him with a link to your program.
Don't worry my friend, your program has been noticed by me and shortly Rob and Hog. I'm going to start posting a Link back to your Download Page in every one of my upcoming BootSkins to those who wish to learn how to create BootSkins.
I'll put a Link to your Page and the "Stickied" page "BootSkin Tutorial" by CyberWorld.
UncleRob, Hog56, and I get a lot of downloads, and are recognized in the BootSkin Download Community. I'll pass the message onto them to see if we can raise that 160 Downloads up higher to where it deserves to be. 

I started off with Bootskins the hard way...without BB.I tried wierd configurations,and like skinned alive said,yes they are possible.But they were too hit and miss...odd artifacts etc...testing only possible thru rebooting.

Once I used BB,I never had to guess at something again...the speed and ease of creation more than offset the lost ability to fudge certain aspects(which no one noticed anyway...except when they didnt work as expected)

Yes,the interface is gawdy but it functions flawlessly and if you screenshot it without the alignment grids you have a ss with the progress bar already in the image.

And if you have a lot of prog bars...you can quickly test them in succesion.

Rapidrobot...I noticed how unique this was and I did comment.go look.  

Hey Brain, you're a well known Author.
You wanna get in on the action when you put up a BootSkin?
I already posted Links to Xander's Download Page and Cyberworld's Tutorial on my latest BootSkin in the Comments area.
All we have to do is just put a Link back to the two pages with a little explanation. Heck, you can just Copy and Paste what I wrote on mine if you want.
I'm sure his downloads on his Program would pick up really quickly, especially after getting noticed.  

I did mine with a little trial and error....but following the actual requirements of a boot.  Any attempt at deviation from, say, 22x9, or some contrived palette discrepancy proved the 'standard', not allowed change, not really.

If Bootskin Buddy follows the base requirements and flags all deviations from that I would be inclined to reject those that were flagged, certainly not assume some creative person had made 'wrong' work.

In the latter case the onus would definitely be on the uploader to demonstrate the boot's viability/success, stating deviation and function success in its description.

Aw, shucks. I'm glad you were willing to give it a closer look Skinned Alive, and appreciate you spreading the word.

Thanks too, I.R.Brainiac (best nick ever) for your comments and suggestions! I saw those just today! I am especially glad to hear that you have found the gadget useful.


Jafo the eternal optimist. But if we can't convince authors to try their bootskins once before uploading, I doubt we will convince them to explain their skin's idiosyncrasies. But, on the other hand, I'm with you that a strict definition of what constitutes a proper bootskin could be a useful culling point during moderation, although this also puts a certain extra responsibility on moderators to explain rejections.

[EDIT] Didn't mean to overlook Zubaz! Thanks, man!