Customizing Win2K Professional Start Button
Wednesday, November 21, 2001 at 12:41 am
Windows 2000 Annoyances Discussion Forum
Posted by Cheezwhizzer
(6 messages posted)
I run Win2K Professional Build 2195 and Michael Ward ([Windows 2000] Question about
'Customize the Start Menu Button' (Michael Ward: Wednesday, October 31, 2001) ) 's
trick does not work on my system.
My system automatically updates important system files from the system32\dllcache
directory so that any modification made to explorer.exe is nullified by the system
once the mod'ed .exe is started. In order to get the trick to work on my system,
I had to rename the explorer.exe file in my system32\dllcache directory to some other
name so that the system could not update the mod'ed .exe. After then I was free to
mod the explorer .exe in my winnt folder.
Once finished, Windows comes up with a message about how a critical system file has
been replaced by an unrecognized version. Simply cancel the dialog box, and approve
win2k's use of the mod'ed .exe in the next dialog box(in other words, click yes).
Then as Mr. Ward mentions in his post "[Windows 2000] Question about 'Customize the
Start Menu Button' (Michael Ward: Wednesday, October 31, 2001) ", press Ctrl-Alt-Delete,
select task manager or simply run taskmgr.exe, go to the process tab, and end the
explorer.exe process. Then go to File, New Task, and run explorer.exe.
On a sidenote, user's may use any resource editor to edit the explorer .exe. No hex
editing is required. One can download a simple resource editor at http://www.rpi.net.au/~ajohnson/resourcehacker/
On my build resource 578 contains the word Start. Since we are using a resource editor
there is no restriction on the size of the resource as the editor will modify the
.exe completely, so hey, go for more than five lettersif you want , it's your pc.
P.S. An approach similar to the first one mentioned would be to modify the dllcache'd
explorer .exe directly, then delete the winnt explorer .exe, thus saving one the
process of renaming the winnt explorer .exe.
P.P.S. Any desired taskbar mods may be done from within a resource editor. For example,
look in the Bitmap section. On my system, resource 143 is the windows flag from the
start button. Change that if you want. Resource 157 is the side graphic ("Windows
2000 Professional") from the start menu on my system. Change that as well. Look and
play around and modify the resources.
Cheezwhizzer
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