Changing the Windows XP start button Text and Picture

[Lead Head]

Getting tired of seeing "Start" with the tiny windows logo beside it every freaking time you turned on your computer? I don't know about you, but I was! Not to mention that this install of Windows XP is less then 5 days old too!

Well after scouring the internet for a grand total of 5 minutes, I found a few articles on how to change the start button text, but none that easily told how to change the Start button icon. I finially found an article on how to change it, but it was fairly complicated. After making the changes to the start button myself, I set out to make a simple guide on how to change the text and icon on the start button :D

How to change the start button text and icon. A step by step guide.

First of all, you'll need to get yourself a copy of XN Resource Editor, wich can be found here., an image resizing tool capable of saving 32 or 24 bit bitmaps.


First, go to your C:\Windows folder (it could also be C:\Winnt), find the file called "explorer.exe", copy it, and put the copy in a safe place. This is very important incase your shell somehow gets corrupted.





Once you have your shell (explorer.exe) backed up in a safe place, its time to begin the actual start button editing process.

Start up XN Resource Editor, and navigate over to the "File" Menu, and hit Open. Navigate to your C:\Windows (or C:\Winnt, wich ever applies) folder, find explorer.exe, select it, then hit "Open"



Once you have explorer.exe open, XN Resource Editor should look like this.



Double click the "String Table" folder, and navigate to the sub folder 37, once you are in 37, click the file within it.


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You will probably notice the bit of text in a line that says "start". That line of text tells Windows what to show on the start button. You need to double click that line of text. A text editing box should come up. You can delete the word start, and put in whatever you want to be displayed on the start button in the box. You are not limited to 5 characters, but be warned, the start button will stretch acordingly to how many characters you enter, the more characters you enter, the bigger your start button will end up. Once you have what you want typed in, simply click below the text editing box to get out of the text editor portion.



Now that we have our text, we will want to replace the little Windows logo in the start button with our own image. Your image must be 25 pixels wide and 20 pixel high, no more, no less. In your image editor, select your picture, and hit Edit then Copy(or however you copy a picture in your editor).

Once you have done that, its time to go back to XN Resource Editor.

In the resource editor, Navigate over to the Bitmap folder, double click it, open up the sub folder called "143", then click the file within it. XN should be showing a windows logo blown up enough to see each individual pixel.



Now, Go over to the "Edit" menu, and simply hit paste. The Windows logo will now be replaced by your image of choice.

Once that is done, under the section "Pixel Format", if it is not reading 32bit, click it and change it to 32bit. This will ensure that the picture will work.

Now once that is all finished and done with, its time to save it. Go to the "File" menu, hit Save As, and make sure it is in the C:\Windows (or Winnt) folder. Save the file as Explorer1 (I saved it as explorer11, as it was my 11th version of it trying various things to get it working right).



Once it is saved, you can close out XN Resource Editor.

Now that the actual shell editing is done, we have to set Windows to use it by default.

Press the Start button, then hit "run". Once in there, type in regedit and hit Ok. The registry editor will open up.(WARNING: DO NOT TOUCH ANYTHING ELSE IN THE REGISTRY OTHER THEN THAT IS OUTLINED IN THIS GUIDE. DOING SO MAY RESULT IN PERMANENT DAMAGE OR MALFUNCTION OF YOUR WINDOWS OPERATING SYSTEM)



Once in the registry, you will need to open the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE folder. Next, Open the Software folder, then find the Microsoft folder and open that. Once in Microsoft, find the Windows NT sub folder, once in there open the Current Version sub folder, in Current Version, find the folder called Winlogon. Just select Winlogon.

On the right hand panel, find the entry called "Shell", Open it up. Under value, type in the name of your modifed explorer shell. If you followed the guide naming, type this in "Explorer1.exe"(In my case, Explorer11.exe). Then hit ok and close out of the registry editor.



Now if your impatient and what to try the shell out ASAP, Go to your taskmanger, (this can be done by hitting Control, ALT, and the delete keys on your keyboard at the same time, or by going Start>>Run>>taskman>>ok). Once in the Taskamanger, go over to the process tab, find the process called explorer.exe and end it. If done properly, your taskbar should disapear. Now, hit the applications tab in the taskmanager, then press the new task button. Once the dialog box appears, type in "explorer1.exe" and hit ok. The new explorer shell should come up with your modified taskbar.

[img]http://www.imagecross.com/images/771513.jpg[img]

Congrats! If you followed this guide all the way through, you should have sucesfully changed your start button text/and or image!

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Troubleshooting:

If for anyreason when you try to start you new shell, and alls that comes up is a file browswer, all is not not lost! Go back to your taskmanger, hit new task and type regedit back in. The folders should be already open in the correct order. Just open the shell file back up, and replace explorer1.exe with explorer.exe. Close out regedit, and go back to the task manager, end explorer1.exe, then hit newtask and type in explorer.exe, your orginial shell should be restored. (NOTE: You can use the browse function in new task to find your browser executable/instant messaging program executable to get easy assistance if your shell still fails to start).


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*When entering file names, do NOT use quotation marks in them.

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*Disclaimer: Hardware Logic is not responsible for any damages done to your Operating System, and or computer atempting this shell modification. Preform this mod at YOUR OWN risk.

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If you need to contact me, Lead Head you can reach me at

tc1979 AT cox DOT net on E-Mail
iantendo on AIM
amdfan12 on Yahoo
tlischernasky@aol.com on MSN
leadhead13 on XFIRE
lead-head on Skpye

[Tyreal]

Nice guide. I have this in my big book of Windows Tweaks called "Hacking Windows XP by TweakXP.com

[yurimxpxman]

I've been trying to find an explorer hack to add Vista's search box to the XP start menu, but all I've been able to find is this stupid thing :? :lol:

Great guide, BTW.

[Captain Crunch]

You guys are soooooooooooo a bunch of geeks!!!!!!!!!

[yurimxpxman]

And you're a clouch potato! :lol:

[Spider Monkey]

Originally Posted by yurimxpxman

And you're a clouch potato! :lol:

Clouch?

[yurimxpxman]

Originally Posted by Spider Monkey

Clouch?

CS:S joke. He and Rich (Capper) were playing in the office map while he was eating and he said "clouch" instead of "couch" when he had his mouth full. Now we give him crap for it :P

[gvblake22]

Nice! :thup: