Windows 7 - Completely removing Logon and Logoff screens and messages

Hi,
I am trying to strip Windows 7 of every single screen and message before login... and before shutdown.

So we've got:
- Boot sequence
- Logon screen
- Preparation to Logon
- Preparation to Shutdown

Boot sequence was easy to completely black out, by using
http://coderforlife.com/projects/win7boot/
(black background, all messages removed)

Logon screen can be skipped without hacks, just a matter of having no password.

Now I'm left with the Logon ("Preparing your desktop...", "Applying user preferences", "Welcome"... etc.) and the Shutdown ("Shutting down..." etc.) screens and messages.

Is there a way to completely disable both?

If there isn't, I am thinking of a hack: both are made by a background (which you can change with custom graphics by putting them into the OOBE folder and a couple registry keys). Then, there are text messages which are contained somewhere and can be emptied by using ResourceHacker (I found some of them but not all). Finally, somewhere within some exe or dll, there should be the "working" circle of light and the Windows 7 logo, which are superimposed to the custom background. I am attaching a picture for clarity.

Hints?
Thanks in advance,

Andrea

Welcome to the Seven Forums
I know 2 of them.
The circles are in the imageres.dll in the PNG or Bitmap folder @ C:\Windows\System32 and C:\Windows\SysWOW64

The logo are in the basebrd.dll in the Bitmap folder @ C:\Windows\Branding\Basebrd
have a look at this Changing the Windows Logon logo | CleverIT - Online werkplekken en systeembeheer
Jerry

Thanks a lot everyone (strange, I see one more answer to the thread in my email but not here - possibly deleted?). I'll try getting bot the logo and circle out of the picture using transparent PNGs - at this point only the text will be an issue, and I've two ways I can follow: matching its color to the background, or emptying all the strings in the various resource files where they are. It's just a choice between a... hackier hack, and a less hackier one When I'm done I'll be happy to show the reason behind all this modding

(Probably all but the right place since this is SEVENforum but... anyway - do you happen to know how to remove the same logon and shutdown screens and messages on XP?)