If you wish to customize the Encryption Desktop bootguard (pre-boot) screen you need to use XPM (X PixMap) format image files.
Encryption Management Server administrators can add XPM format images to the Consumer Policy that applies to Encryption Desktop clients by loading the Desktop policy and navigating to the Drive Encryption tab. A custom Splash Screen and/or Login Screen can be used. At boot time, the Splash Screen is displayed prior to the Login Screen. The user clicks on any key to load the Login Screen.
When the client updates its policy, the Splash Screen is downloaded to the client as "%APPDATA%\PGP Corporation\PGP\pgpstart.xpm" and the Login Screen is downloaded as "%APPDATA%\PGP Corporation\PGP\pgpauth.xpm".
Custom images must meet the following requirements:
XPM file sizes can be ten times larger than an equivalent file in popular formats such as PNG, JPG or GIF. However, Encryption Management Server compresses the XPM file when you upload it.
Note that XPM files are text files. You can load an XPM file into a text editor and check that the dimensions and color palette is correct. Within the first few lines of an XPM file you will see a line like this which shows that the dimensions are 640x480,14 colors are in the palette and there is 1 character per pixel:
"640 480 14 1",
Below are some general guidelines on how to how to create an image with Windows Paint, how to use the ImageMagick convert utility to convert an existing image to XPM format and how to use the GNU Image Manipulation Program (GIMP) or KolourPaint to create a new XPM image.
The Microsoft Paint application is included with Windows. Attached to this article is a 16 color BMP file 1699032480265__grayimage.bmp which you can download and open with Paint. The image is 640x480 and has a similar gray background to the default bootguard screen. It is a useful starting point:
ImageMagick is a free and open source application that can be downloaded here. In a Linux environment, ImageMagick can be installed using the Linux distribution's package manager.
If you have an existing image in a popular format such as PNG, JPEG, GIF or the 16 Color BMP format that Paint can produce, you can convert it using the ImageMagick convert utility. For example, if your source file is image.bmp and you wish to create image.xpm run this command:
convert -depth 8 -colors 16 -resize 640x480 image.bmp image.xpm
Note that the ImageMagick convert utility will not warn if it cannot convert the image correctly. Therefore, load the XPM file into a text editor and check that the dimensions and color palette are correct. ImageMagick adds a comment:
/* columns rows colors chars-per-pixel */
"640 480 14 1",
GIMP is a free and open source application that can be downloaded here. In a Linux environment, GIMP can be installed using the Linux distribution's package manager.
KolourPaint is a paint program included with the KDE Plasma desktop which is available on many Linux distributions. It is as easy to use as Microsoft Paint but unlike Paint it can save files in XPM format: