Scratch

HOMEMADE WINDOWS 2000 IN LESS THAN 5 DAYS
One of my biggest goals in life is to emulate every version of Windows that ever existed. One time, I found a Windows 2000 and a Windows Me. I couldn't use the Me, but I was able to use Win2K. I loved the UI of the system, and searched for an installer for it. However nobody had any Win2K installers, so I decided to make my own 2K from scratch...almost.
I installed Windows XP Professional in a Virtual PC VM. After that, I installed VM Additions so I could copy some Windows 2000 resource files to it. I also installed other software, like Resource Hacker, Booter and IcoFX to aid in system hacking. Then, to get around SFC replacing my modded files with their original, I installed Windows Recovery Console.
Next, I started out with the easy. First, I changed my theme to Windows Classic and deleted the Luna theme. Then, I changed the boot.ini entries to say "Windows 2000 Professional" instead of "Windows XP Professional". After that, I used Resource Hacker to load and edit shell32.dll. I changed all the icons, bitmaps and even the Windows throbber! I saved the file as shell32.win and then loaded msgina.dll. There was were I changed the bitmaps that display a picture of the Windows version. I replaced all the Windows XP edition bitmaps with Windows 2000 Pro bitmaps. and saved it under msgina.win. After that was Windows Explorer. I changed the XP's Windows flag with 2K's. Then I changed the Show Desktop icon and the Explorer icon.
Next, I restarted the VM and booted into recovery console. There, I deleted the shell32 and msgina files and replaced them with my own versions. Then I replaced the explorer file with the better Win2K one. After another reboot, The interface was almost complete. I changed all the system sounds and replaced the Bliss desktop bkg with Windows 2000's traditional bkg. The taskbar, start button and start menu looked all 2K-y, so things were going good. I downgraded to IE 5 and made sure IE 6 was gone for good from this system. I then added the Windows 2000 Welcome application to the startup menu and switched the Welcome logon screen to the old Windowed logon screen.
Next, I loaded Booter. I used it to change my XP Pro bootscreen with Windows 2000 Pro bootscreen. Luckily I ran Windows XP SP1a in the VM instead of SP2, because Booter isn't compatible with XP SP2.
Finally, I went into the registry and changed hundreds of thousands of entries to make XP adapt to the changes and to change the OS's identification to further make XP say its 2K. The registry modding on system identification posed a problem. Registry Checker restored the previous values in the version info. I was forced to redo my changes and edit the permissions to deny SYSTEM from writing to that part of the registry.
After a reboot, I ran some test runs of my modded XP to see if it had the genuine 2K look and feel. Everything from the bootscreen, to the desktop and start menu, the throbber, the taskbar, any IE or Explorer windows and even the BSOD carried it. After hours of exploring the newly made system, I declared all work was good.
I did have bugs though. Shell32 wasn't happy with its mod. In My Computer, it says "No defragmentation program is currently installed" instead of "CD-ROM Drive". The control panel wasn't much joyous either. I can't start Control Panel applets anymore. Some icons were missing or all messed up because of the way XP and 2K store and call the icons. Most changes to the system were direct imports of the 2K DLLs, so they were stored in 2K's style of storing instead of XP's. Sometimes, WinLogon would complain of "UI Failures" and would end with a crash. The UI Failure bug was fixed by additional tweaking of MSGINA and Shell32, though. The others and probably some number of  hidden bugs I have yet to discover are still there. As for activation, that's another long story.
I would post a VHD, but I have dial-up and plus it's probably against the TOU and against copyright laws to post activated, protected OSs. Instead, I'll post screenshots whenever possible. I'll also write instructions on how to make your own 2K from near scratch if I can. I plan to make a Me from a copy of the homemade Win2K's VHD. I won't reuire much changes, so it'll be much, much easier to do. Making the 2K took me 3-5 days to make. It all comes to show you how dedicated I am to reaching that dream.
In a nutshell, 3 days of toying with system files really pays off if you know what you're doing. Especially when you're prepared for it.
WindozeNT