I have a question about Customize the Start Menu Button:

I did everything in explorer.exe and exited to dos, but I was not able to replace the file.. I thought I was supposed to use chdir for it but appearantly not.. What is the dos commands to this with?

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I do not know if this is what you wanted but I got this from CNET's Windows Registry Guide (or go to: http://downloads-zdnet.com.com/3000-2251-10027292.html). Please read disclaimer. Good Luck! Would you like to change the Start button to say something else, perhaps your name, company or any other 5 or less letter word? This article explains the procedure to manually modify the text of the Windows Start button. Manually changing the Start button requires the use of a binary file editor (Hex editor) to alter a critical Windows system file, it is therefore not recommended for inexperienced users. This method has been successfully tested on Windows 95, 98, ME, 2000 and XP and therefore should be quite safe, although we do not accept any responsibility for system problems or data loss. As mentioned before you will need to have a hex editor installed, there are many different products available and if you don't have one already a quick search of a shareware site should provide many choices, for this tweak we only require basic features. The file that needs to be changed is Windows Explorer, and it is essential to make a backup before you modify anything. "Explorer.exe" can be found in the Windows directory, usually C:\WINDOWS for Windows 95, 98, Me & XP and C:\WINNT for Windows NT/2000. Make a copy of "Explorer.exe" and place it into another directory, C:\BACKUP might be a good choice. Make another copy of the original "Explorer.exe" and name it "Explorer1.exe", then open "Explorer1.exe" in your hex editor. You now need to find the word "Start", although there are many entries for "Start" in the file only one is used for to label the Start button. Use the search function in the hex editor to find all the strings equal to "S t a r t" which is represented as "53 00 74 00 61 00 72 00 74" in hex values. As there are many different "Start" strings keep searching until you find one located just before this text "There was an internal error and one of the windows you were using has been closed.". Below is a list of offsets to help you locate the correct text. Windows 98 Offset: 0x00028D6E - 0x00028D76 Windows NT4 Offset: 0x00028BEE - 0x00028BF6 Windows ME Offset: 0x00033DDE - 0x00033DE6 Windows 2000 Offset: 0x0003860E - 0x00038616 Windows XP Offset: 0x000412B6 - 0x000412BE Once you have located the string, you can then replace the letters in "Start" with five other characters. You must use exactly five characters, if the word you want to use is less, replace the remaining characters with the space key. In this example we have replaced "Start" with "Guide", alternatively a three-letter word would look like "A B C" (note the spaces). Now save the modified "Explorer1.exe" in the Windows directory, and confirm that you now have the two Explorer files in the Windows directory, they both should be the same file size but have different modified dates. The next step is different depending on your operating system. Only do the step required for your version. Windows 95, 98 & ME Exit to DOS (or use a boot disk for Windows ME) and at the command prompt change to the Windows directory and rename "explorer.exe" to "explorer.old". Then copy the newly modified Explorer "explorer1.exe" to "explorer.exe". Do a directory listing and confirm that "explorer.exe" has the most recent modified date and time. Restart the computer and Windows should reload along with the new Start button text. Windows NT First close any open applications and open a new Command Prompt window, then switch back to the GUI and open the Task Manager. Find the "explorer.exe" process and end it, you should now be left with only the command prompt and task manager. Switch back to the command prompt and change to the Windows directory, rename "explorer.exe" to "explorer.old", and copy the newly modified Explorer "explorer1.exe" to "explorer.exe". Do a directory listing and confirm that "explorer.exe" has the most recent modified date and time. Switch back to Task Manager and launch a "New Task" called "explorer.exe" this should reload the shell along with your modified "Start" button. Windows 2000 and XP Open your registry editor and find the key [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon]. Find the value named "Shell" and change it to equal the filename of the new explorer "explorer1.exe". Exit your registry editor and restart Windows for the change to take effect. The reverse the change, modify the value of "Shell" and set it back to "explorer.exe". If everything has gone successfully you will now have a new Start button, and also hopefully learnt something about the Explorer file structure. If you do have problems replace the faulty Explorer with the backup made during the first step. Disclaimer: Modifying the registry can cause serious problems that may require you to reinstall your operating system. We cannot guarantee that problems resulting from modifications to the registry can be solved. Use the information provided at your own risk.


On Wednesday, July 3, 2002 at 8:46 pm, Michael wrote:
>I have a question about Customize
>the Start Menu Button:

>
>
>I did everything in explorer.exe and exited to dos, but I was not able to replace
>the file.. I thought I was supposed to use chdir for it but appearantly not.. What
>is the dos commands to this with?

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He's referring to the instructions at the link in his post...on THIS website.

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Did you install a program similar to the one referred to in the instructions? 

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CJ did you try this, or have you been aware of it?


On Wednesday, July 3, 2002 at 10:03 pm, CJ wrote:

>Did you install a program similar to the one referred to in the instructions? 
>
>
>

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JmC,

No, I haven't tried it myself. Why do you ask? I looked at the instr. on this website 
that he referred to. It says you need a special program to get this to work. It didn't 
sound like they had.

I do have TClock installed, and you can customize the Start button with that.

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I use Hex Workshop and went through the operation and it didn't change the text. 
 There's more to this suggestion than in that post, the attributes to Explorer.exe 
must be changed to even edit them.  Sounds like a quest to "CHANGE THE START MENU 
TEXT"!







On Thursday, July 4, 2002 at 12:43 am, CJ wrote:
>JmC,
>
>No, I haven't tried it myself. Why do you ask? I looked at the instr. on this website 
>that he referred to. It says you need a special program to get this to work. It 
didn't 
>sound like they had.
>
>I do have TClock installed, and you can customize the Start button with that.

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

I don't know anything about using Hex Editors, and I'm really not very technically 
inclined.

Are you saying you think they want to change the word Start to something else? Yeah, 
they haven't explained very well, what exactly they're trying to do.

Btw, TClock can do that too, but it will NOT work on Me, of course.

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The Explorer.exe file has no attributes, you must change it to archive to edit and 
then reset with nothing afterwards.







On Wednesday, July 3, 2002 at 8:46 pm, Michael wrote:
>I have a question about Customize 
>the Start Menu Button:

>
>
>I did everything in explorer.exe and exited to dos, but I was not able to replace 
>the file.. I thought I was supposed to use chdir for it but appearantly not.. What 
>is the dos commands to this with?  

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

That what this is all about, it's not the icon.







On Thursday, July 4, 2002 at 1:05 am, CJ wrote:
>I don't know anything about using Hex Editors, and I'm really not very technically 
>inclined.
>
>Are you saying you think they want to change the word Start to something else? Yeah, 
>they haven't explained very well, what exactly they're trying to do.
>
>Btw, TClock can do that too, but it will NOT work on Me, of course.
>

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Whichever it is, there are instructions for that on the same page.....Anyway, they're 
going to have to be a bit clearer, if they want help, I would think.

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Let's assume your modified copy of explorer.exe is in the folder C:\tempdir and you have exited to MS-DOS mode. You should be at a C:\Windows> prompt.

To rename explorer.exe you would enter the command:

ren explorer.exe explorer.old

copy C:\tempdir\explorer.exe C:\Windows\explorer.exe

Bob Sturtevant  http://home.adelphia.net/~bobstur/
Please reply in the forum and let us know.

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

Thank you everyone! Yes I have a hex editor cause I program Perl on Ultra edit.. I just have been off of computers for a few years and a bit rusty on things so researching and getting my brain to full charge again so that I can go get a job when I get throgh school again. lol Thank you so very much everyone you have been extremely helpful.


On Thursday, July 4, 2002 at 2:45 am, Bobstur wrote:
>Let's assume your modified copy of explorer.exe is in the folder C:\tempdir and you
>have exited to MS-DOS mode. You should be at a C:\Windows> prompt.
>

To rename explorer.exe you would enter the command:

>ren explorer.exe explorer.old

>copy C:\tempdir\explorer.exe C:\Windows\explorer.exe

Bob Sturtevant 
>
>http://home.adelphia.net/~bobstur/

>
>Please reply in the forum and let us know.
>

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dear sir sir is there regedit that i can do to customize my start button in 2000/xp.i know to change by editing explore .exe, u r comments will be usefull to me.

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