How to Extract / Copy System Files from Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8, Server 2003 and Server 2008 Setup?

Today we are going to address a very common Windows problem. Many times we modify or replace system files in Windows for customization purposes. For example, to customize or change login screen, boot screen, Start ORB, Windows theme, etc. Most common system files which are replaced by Windows users are Explorer.exe, NTOSkrnl.exe, LogonUI.exe, Shell32.dll, MSgina.dll, authui.dll, uxtheme.dll, etc. But sometimes we don't like the end result or we face problems after replacing or modifying those system files. In such case, we can perform a System Restore to restore our Windows to a previous working state or we can restore the backup of the system file which we created before replacing or modifying the original file.
But what to do if we neither created a System restore point nor took a backup of the file? In such condition, we have no other option left except repairing or reinstalling Windows or we can copy the same file from another system and paste it in our system.
Don't worry! Today we are going to share a small and easy to use trick which can help you in extracting any system file from Windows setup disc or ISO image file so that you can easily restore the original system file in Windows.
This trick will also help customization lovers who always want to grab system files from a new Windows OS to extract new resources from it without installing the OS in their system.
The one and only tool which we use in this tutorial is 7-Zip which is an awesome and absolutely free file archive software. So first download it using following link:
Download 7-Zip
For your convenience, we have divided the tutorial in 2 parts:

• Extracting system files from Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 setup
• Extracting system files from Windows Vista, 7, 8, Windows Server 2003 and 2008 setup

So without wasting time, lets start the tutorial:

Extracting System Files from Windows XP and Server 2003 Setup

Extracting a system file from Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 is very simple and easy. All system files in XP and Server 2003 setup are stored in "I386" folder present in the setup and all files are stored in compressed format. For example, Explorer.exe file will be present as Explorer.ex_, Shell32.dll file will be present as Shell32.dl_ and so on.
You just need to right-click on the file which you want to copy or extract, go to 7-Zip context menu and click on "Extract Here" option.

That's it. It'll immediately extract the original system file which you can use anywhere you want.

Extracting System Files from Windows Vista, Server 2008, 7 or Windows 8 Setup

Extracting a system file from Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, Server 2003 and Server 2008 setup is a bit tricky because the setup ISO of these Windows OS uses a new file format .WIM to store all system files in it. Normally this file format is not recognized by many popular file archiving utilities but 7-Zip can recognize it without any problem.
Many people mount Windows setup ISO to extract the files but if you use 7-Zip, you'll not need to mount it. You can directly extract any desired system file using following simple steps:
1. If you have Windows setup disc, insert it in the drive or if you already have Windows setup copied in your hard disk, go to that folder.
2. Now go to "Sources" folder and look for a file "install.wim". That's the file which contains all system files. Once you find the file, right-click on it and select "7-Zip -> Open archive" option. It'll open the file in 7-Zip.
Now jump to Step 3.
NOTE: For people who have copied Windows setup ISO directly in their hard disk, right-click on it and select "7-Zip -> Open archive" option.

Now go to "Sources" folder and look for a file "install.wim". Once you find the file, right-click on it and select "Open" option.

3. Once you open "install.wim" in 7-Zip, you'll see a few folders having numbers in their names like 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 as shown in following screenshot:

Actually each number is associated with a different edition of Windows. These numbered folder may vary for different setup ISO.
Now you just need to find the correct folder which corresponds to the correct Windows edition installed in your system. To find out the correct edition, you can extract [1].xml file present in the archive and open it. This file contains information about all these numbered folders.
Look for a line <IMAGE INDEX="1"> in the [1].xml file. It should be 4th line in the file. After a few lines under it, you'll see <EDITIONID>, <NAME>, <DESCRIPTION>, <DISPLAYNAME> and <DISPLAYDESCRIPTION> tags. These tags will give you an idea which number corresponds to which edition of Windows.

The number of occurrence of <IMAGE INDEX="#"> tag in xml file will be equal to number of folders present in "install.wim" file.
If the first occurrence of <IMAGE INDEX="#"> tag doesn't match with your installed edition of Windows, go to next occurrence until you find the correct edition and its index.
Once you find out the correct edition and its index number, open that numbered folder within 7-Zip and you'll see all files and folders which you normally see in C: drive after installing Windows as shown in following screenshot:

That's it. Now you can browser through folders and copy/extract the desired file.
Feel free to post your feedback about this tutorial in your comment. Do you already use 7-Zip to extract system files or was it new for you? If you know any other interesting method, please share it in your comment...

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OEM Configurator 2.0: Free Portable Utility to Add Customized Strings (OEM Information) and Logo in Windows XP, Vista, 7 and 8 System Properties

NOTE: You can check other interesting and useful free software created by our readers here.

UPDATE: New version 2.0 released which comes with support for Windows 8 Developer Preview. Now Windows XP users can also enjoy this tool. The tool now also supports 64-bit Windows editions in this new version.

Long time back we posted tutorials for customizing System Properties window in Windows XP, Vista and 7:

• Add Customized Strings (OEM Information) in System Properties of Windows Vista and 7
• Add Customized Strings (OEM Information) and Logo in System Properties of Windows XP

The above tutorials inspired our reader "Hackerpunk1" and he created an awesome portable utility "OEM Configurator" which allows you to customize Windows XP, Vista, 7 and Windows 8 System Properties window look without any manual registry editing. You just need to enter desired text and select desired logo file and it'll do the rest automatically.

It also allows you to customize and change various items in System Properties window like Owner name, processor name, product ID, etc. Many times when we share our System Properties screenshot with others, we hide product ID from others. Now no need to do this. You can set any desired text string or numbers as Product ID using this tool. Don't worry! It'll now change the actual product ID in your system. It'll just replace the text which is shown in System Properties window.

Following is a result of the output which you can get with the help of this awesome little tool. You can see extra entries like Manufacturer, Model, Phone number, Support hours, Website and logo in right-side in System Properties window:

You can download it using following link:

Download Link

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Simple Trick to Replace Default Built-in “Flower” Profile Picture for All User Accounts in Windows Vista

UPDATE: This method also works in Windows Vista and Windows 8. Thanks to our readers "MasterDevil" and "Swapnil"...
I was looking into various system files using Resource Hacker to find a BITMAP file. Although I couldn't find that particular BITMAP file but found something interesting which I would like to share in this topic.
When you install Windows 7 in a new computer system or create a new user account in Windows 7, by default Windows assigns built-in "Flower" image as profile picture for the new user account.
You can change this profile picture using User Accounts applet in Control Panel. But if you have many user accounts in your computer and want to set your desired image or company logo as user profile picture for all accounts in a single step, this tutorial will definitely help you.

Today we are going to share a very simple and secret trick which will allow you to replace default built-in flower profile picture with your desired image so that if you create a new user account in Windows, the new account will have your desired image as its profile picture instead of default flower picture.
We are not going to use any registry trick or Resource Hacker trick in this tutorial. We'll just replace an existing BITMAP file with our desired BITMAP file.
So without wasting time, lets start the tutorial:
1. The default flower profile picture is actually a BITMAP file which is stored in following folder:

%ProgramData%\Microsoft\User Account Pictures\

PS: Copy the above string and paste in RUN or start menu search box and press Enter. It'll directly open the folder in Explorer window.
The BITMAP file name is user.bmp and its a 128x128, 24-bit bitmap file.

2. We just need to create a new BMP file in an image editing software like MS Paint, Adobe Photoshop, GIMP, etc but we'll keep its size 128x128 pixels similar to default BITMAP file.
3. Once you finish creating the desired BITMAP file, save it at any location with user.bmp file name.
4. Now you'll need to replace existing user.bmp file present in "User Account Pictures" folder mentioned in STEP 1 with your newly created BMP file.
Before replacing default user.bmp file, you should create a backup of the file so that you can restore it later if you want. To take a backup, you can simply rename it to any other name like user_backup.bmp.
Now copy new user.bmp file to "User Account Pictures" folder.

5. That's it. Since you have replaced default BITMAP file with your new one, now all new and existing user accounts which have their profile picture set to default flower picture will automatically start showing new picture which you created in STEP 2.

If your existing user account doesn't show new picture, restart or log off and it'll start using new BITMAP as profile picture.
BONUS TIP: All other profile pictures which are shown when you click on "Change your picture" link in User Accounts applet of Control Panel, are stored in "%ProgramData%\Microsoft\User Account Pictures\Default Pictures" folder. If you want to customize all of them, you can follow above mentioned steps for each BITMAP file.
BONUS TIP 2: You can also customize profile picture for "Guest" account by replacing guest.bmp file present in same folder mentioned in STEP 1.
PS: I don't have Windows XP and Vista installed, so can't check this trick in both OS. If you have Windows XP or Vista, please check this method and let me know if it also works in XP and Vista or not.

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