[Fix] Windows 7 Animated Boot Screen Changed to Vista Style Green Progress Bar

Its a very annoying and common problem in Windows 7. After getting numerous e-mails about this problem, we decided to post this solution.

As we all know Windows 7 contains a new animated boot screen which shows animated items/balls that come together to form Windows logo.

Windows_7_Boot_Screen.png

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Sometimes it starts showing the old Vista styled boot screen which contains only a green progress bar with black background.

Vista_Boot_Screen_Windows_7.png

Most of the time it happens when a user tries to repair the boot loader or adds a new entry for Windows 7.

If you are also facing this problem, then here is a very simple and working solution for you:

1. Boot into Windows 7 and click on “Start button -> All Programs -> Accessories“. Now right-click on “Command Prompt” and select “Run As Administrator“. If you are prompted to enter password, enter the password and continue. You can also open Command Prompt in Administrator mode by typing “cmd” in Start Menu Search box and press “Ctrl+Shift+Enter“.

2. Now provide following command:

bcdedit /set {current} locale en-US

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The above command is for English version of Windows, if you are using some other language version, then change “en-US” to your own locale.

3. Exit Command Prompt and restart your system. Now the new animated Windows 7 boot screen should be back in action.

NOTE 1:

If the above method doesn’t work for you, provide following command again using Command Prompt:

bcdboot %WinDir% /l en-US

And restart your system. It’ll work now.

NOTE 2:

If none of the above mentioned methods work, try following method suggested by our reader “Sirach Matthews“:

1. Open My Computer and go to C:\Windows\System32\ folder.

2. Now look for following 2 files:

bootres.dll
bootres~1.dll

3. Rename bootres.dll file to bootres~2.dll and rename bootres~1.dll file to bootres.dll

Windows will automatically rename bootres~2.dll to bootres~1.dll after this name change.

4. Restart your computer and it’ll fix the issue.

PS: Please keep in mind that new Windows 7 boot screen requires at least 1024×768 screen resolution. If your monitor’s native resolution is smaller than this, Windows 7 will show Windows Vista boot screen.

UPDATE:

Also try the command given in following tutorial to restore default boot screen in Windows 7:

[Fun Tip] Enable Windows Vista Boot Screen in Windows 7

Published in: Troubleshooting Guides, Windows 7

About the author: Vishal Gupta (also known as VG) has been awarded with Microsoft MVP (Most Valuable Professional) award. He holds Masters degree in Computer Applications (MCA). He has written several tech articles for popular newspapers and magazines and has also appeared in tech shows on various TV channels.

Comments

NOTE: Older comments have been removed to reduce database overhead.

  1. Great Tip mr VG but can I ask you a question
    the vista boot screen is very fast than 7 one how I can get the vista boot on windows 7

  2. @Xleorking
    LOL!It actually depends on how better RAM and processor your PC has…Not the pace of Bootscreen!

  3. Many Thanks for this. I was having this problem in Parallels Desktop 9 the second command fixed it

    bcdboot %WinDir% /l en-US

  4. Well, I did try those commands and they didn’t fix it.

    For those that cannot get it fixed with the bcdedit and bcdboot commands and neither the startup repair just like me, I may have a solution.

    I actually tried a lot of things, so it might had something to do with the final result, but what fix it for me was to restore bootres.dll in C:\Windows\System32 folder. Mine was missing, and fortunately I have another drive with Win 7. So I took it and copied to my current boot drive. It didn’t work though. What I was missing was to register the dll (Run [Win+R] > regsvr32 bootres.dll). It sent me an error, but it made it work, so what the hell! It worked! Finally!

    I also have two other files missing in C:\WINDOWS\System32\en-US. They were: winload.exe.mui and winresume.exe.mui. I also took it from my other Win 7 drive. Don’t have to register them; just copy/paste.

    I hope this might help somenone else with the same problem as myself. This was indeed driving me c.zy. I thought of doing a clean windows installation and start all over because of this. Thank God I didn’t had to.

    Best regards,
    Julio

    PS: Yeah, I do love the damn Win 7 boot screen. =)

  5. I agree with Xleorking – Vista style progress bar is several seconds faster than 7 style dots animation. The progress bar vanishes when it is no longer needed in the boot process and the dots animation has to build the whole glowing window in order to vanish even though this stage of boot process has already finished in the background (and another stage has to wait in 7 style boot screen).

    I have configured 2 identical laptops and I really mean IDENTICAL (manufacturer, hardware, firmware, drivers, software, updates etc.) and one of them was and still is booting with Vista style progress bar and the other one was booting fast with Vista style progress bar but now is booting with 7 style dots animation. I have no idea what has caused it. I would like to get beck to the fast green progress bar on the other laptop. But how can I do that?

  6. Yahoo! Success. Had to do step 2. Had tried step 1 from other sites, your was the only one I found that worked.
    Thanks!

  7. @Faann Actually since the bootloader has to load the animation into memory (which is 104 frames @ about 44kb per frame = 4.57 megs) its actually faster to run the Vista one. In fact turning off GUI boot will make it even faster.

  8. If None of the above have worked, here is how I solved the same issue.

    Look in C:\Windows\System32\
    Look for bootres.dll & bootres~1.dll.

    If you do not see bootres~1.dll, this will not work.
    1) Rename bootres.dll to bootres~2.dll
    2) Rename bootres~1.dll to bootres.dll
    *Windows will automatically rename bootres~2.dll to bootres~1.dll after this name change
    3) Restart

  9. I tried both, but none work out for me.. VG do you have any other things that can help me up. Please sir, this boot screen really annoy me.. I want mu windows 7 boot screen back actually…

  10. Nope it does not work for me. I have Windows 7 32 bit on 3 of my netbooks but none of them have the animated boot screen. I think it could be because they are netbooks so it is set to use less resources.

  11. Just looked again at my big laptop which is a full desktop sizex. That does have the boot screen but my netboks don’t. My netbooks originally came with Windows 7 Starter but I upgraded them to Home Premium but still no animated boot screen. I figure it cannot run on a netbook is why because of my screen resolution as you say.

  12. The above commands may not work if you booted from another partition. For example, I boot into Grub4DOS (active partiton), then boot over to Windows 7 (not active). In this case, bcdedit and bcdboot may not find the files needed, and the {current} identifier may be different.

    Use these more specific commands instead:
    bcdedit /store C:\Boot\BCD /set locale en-US
    bcdboot C:\Windows /l en-US /s C:

    Similarly, you may need to use these commands when changing bootux:
    bcdedit /store C:\Boot\BCD /set bootux standard
    bcdedit /store C:\Boot\BCD /set bootux disabled
    bcdedit /store C:\Boot\BCD /set bootux basic

  13. I tried Sirach Matthews Solution and it’s works well !
    Thank You so much you save my life

  14. @Sirach Matthews,thanks for your solution. I tried it and it worked perfectly. Now my windows 7 startup logo is back. Yiippeeee.
    You all should try it…

  15. broooooo thanksss for the solution … this is my brother’s laptop and somehow the virus came in and this happened ….. i read your solution and it worked :3

  16. Many Thanks for this. I was having this problem and this command fixed it

    bcdboot %WinDir% /l en-US

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