Windows XP build 2257

Windows XP build 2257 is a build of Windows XP. This build was released on 24 August 2000 as a 'final preview' before Beta 1, which was due in October at that time. This build was released in the Personal and Professional SKUs, just like build 2250.

Boot screen
The boot screen has been updated, replacing the original Windows 2000 branding with a "Microsoft Codename Whistler" wordmark as well as removing the "Built on NT Technology" tagline. The modified Windows 2000 boot screen would be soon replaced in client builds as of build 2264, however, it was still being used as late as build 2433 in server builds.

This is also the first known build to partially implement support for newer boot animation included in build 2264 and later, although it doesn't include the necessary resources. When loading the kernel, the boot loader tries to load  and   from the Windows directory, where the former is a full screen logo with an empty progress bar, while the other is a bitmap including only the highlighted dots. If both files exist, then the "Starting Windows" text mode progress bar is replaced with a particularly glitchy animation. The kernel still ends up drawing the proper boot screen unless the  boot switch is enabled, in which case the custom boot screen remains onscreen (although the animation stops) and a progress bar is drawn in the top left corner of the screen as the system boots.

This is the only known build to implement the newer animation in the boot loader, as build 2264 already implements it in the kernel as usual. However, support for loading a custom logo from a bitmap file was kept in the boot loader, eventually becoming the undocumented  switch.

Likewise, the hibernating and safe to shutdown screens were also updated to have Whistler branding, but it lasted until build 2469 unlike the boot screen.

Setup

 * When upgrading to this build, a graphical overlay with a progress bar, which is in a similar style to the GUI portion billboards, is shown during the text mode portion as it copies files, however, it still falls back to text mode if it encounters errors.
 * Setup now includes billboards during the last portion of GUI setup that resemble the ones used in Windows 98 and Windows Me. Alongside, if this build was upgraded from a previous build or Windows version, an out-of-box experience will run after the GUI portion of setup and before the first boot to the desktop.
 * The Out-of-box experience oddly reverted to the design seen in Windows Me Beta 3 builds, though with the Windows Me branding replaced by Windows Whistler.

Shell

 * The login screen received minor updates, such as a "Please wait..." message while shutting down and the user logging in is shown during the login process.
 * The Professional theme has been given a makeover, and would largely remain unchanged up to build 2419. The theme was renamed to Watercolor in build 2410.
 * Along with the Professional theme, the Start panel (now called the Personal Start Menu) has been given a makeover, and it is now enabled by default in the Personal SKU. The Professional SKU does not have it enabled by default, but it can now be enabled or disabled in the Taskbar and Start Menu properties.
 * Notably, on the preview pane for the Personal Start Menu, there is an image of a concept of the Sample Test Visual Style, which debuted later in build 2410.
 * The "Comments?" link is now enabled by default and the link works properly, as it now opens a window to send a comment to the Whistler development team.
 * This build removes "Hot Pluggable Devices" from the Control Panel, although the applet is still accessible from the system tray. Also, the "Speech v5.0" applet was renamed to just "Speech" and a new "Credential Manager" was introduced.

Miscellaneous

 * ClearType, which was seen since build 2223, now has a user interface to enable it in this build. It can be enabled or disabled in the Desktop Properties.
 * Starting from this build, the kernel has support for the  argument for booting into Windows Preinstallation Environment.

Setup
If setup is started from MS-DOS (via ), the setup will refer to itself as "Windows Whistler Server" in the top left, even though this is the client build of 2257.

Theming
The theming service in this build has rendering problems, and often will fail to redraw the theme borders correctly.

Upgrading from previous builds
Due to a faulty version check from the updated Dynamic Setup, this build will not upgrade from any NT-based build as it will result in a "Windows Whistler Setup can not upgrade the currently installed operating system" error. This build can, however, upgrade properly from Windows 9x. To bypass this error, do either of the following:
 * Use build 2250's installation media and launch the  from build 2250. At the "Welcome to Setup" screen, change the installation media to this build's, resulting in build 2250's setup copying files from this build.
 * Use WinExplorer to enable the option to upgrade.

OOBE
Due to the changes in the OOBE, Merlin will not appear for unknown reasons.

File differences
The following files have been introduced or removed compared to build 2250 Professional: