Change Start Button Text Be careful

[vidit 0]

CHANGE START BUTTON TEXT

Changing the Start button requires the use of a binary file editor (or hex editor) to alter a critical Windows system file. If you kill this file, bad things can happen to your system.

 

Stop here in you don't know about backups and registry editing. Also please take out life insurance before you start .

 

This method has been successfully tested on Windows 95, 98, ME, 2000 and XP and therefore should be quite safe. Obviously, I do not accept any responsibility for system problems or data loss.

 

Now with that being said, lets get to changing your start button. First of all you will need a binary file editor. The best one i have seen and I have used for years is Resource Hacker avalable for free here:

http://www.angusj.com/resourcehacker/

now that you have this tool lets get to work

 

Editing Explorer.exe File

Now in order to make the changes we need we need to open the "explorer.exe" file typically found in c:\windows\

 

Make a backup copy of "explorer.exe" to "explorer_backup.exe". If anything goes wrong, you'll always be able to restore your backup and get your system back to the way it was before the hack.

 

Open the resource hacker and select the "explorer.exe" file.

 

Once you have opened explorer in Resource Hacker you will notice a menu appears on the left side of the program with a lot of different expandable menus columns. The category we are going to be using is String Table.

 

- Double-click String Table which will show several numbers

- Double-click String 37 (if windows XP, 38 for another version) to expand it

- (If you are using the Classic Layout rather than the XP Layout, use number 38 instead.)

- Click 1033

- Double-click the start text in the right column.

- The text start should be highlighted and the surrounding quotes should not.

- Now type the new text you want in your start button. It can not be more than 10 characters in length and must continued to be surrounded by those quotes.

- Once you edit the text, the Compile Script button will become enabled. Click the Compile Script button

- Click File -> Save As and save your new file as explorer1.exe in the windows directory.

 

Editing Registry

Now we need to tell the OS to use our new edited explorer file.

1. Click Start -> Run -> type in regedit and ENTER

(If your Regedit is disabled leave a comment on this recipe and i will teach you how to enable it.)

 

2. Navigate to the following key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\ SOFTWARE\ Microsoft\ Windows NT\ CurrentVersion\ Winlogon

 

3. Double click on the registry entry named Shell and change the Value Data from "explorer.exe" to"explorer1.exe"

 

4. Click OK to close the registry editor

 

5. Log off user and log back in

 

6. Enjoy your newly hacked Start button with your text in it

 

7. Post a screenshot in the comments to show off you new hacked Start button!

http://www.tech-recipes.com/rx/1619/hack_change_text_start_button_windows/

[sparkx 0]

Nice tutorial. Personally I have done this before on my computer but I found no real use for it (unless you really want to change up your computer and show off). At one time I simply modify my entire computer using a some software I found on the internet. I switched back to normal because I have become used to windows XP default theme even thought it's boring. One thing I havent found out is how to make it your start button an image (like in windows vista). Do you know how to do that or can it just be plain white text? The biggest thing is to always backup your registry and explorer.exe. I dont know what I would do if I messed something up. I guess you would just need to re-install windows or try loading from "last settings that worked".Just a few things I noticed, 10 letters seems like a little much for the start button? I have only tried with 5 and even then it looks a little odd.Again cool tutorial,Sparkx

[Sten 0]

one of my old friends that im now not friends with anymore told me how to do this. but he said that it was an icon and just to change the icon. he made it red and had it say stop.im not gonna try to do this cos i dont wanna kill my computer, trust me, even doing everything to prevent it dying, it will still cark it. lol.

[ethergeek 0]

Just edit the explorer.exe in memory whenever it's paged in ^_^Then you can change the button text without worrying about breaking your windoze box.

[vidit 0]

Just edit the explorer.exe in memory whenever it's paged in
Then you can change the button text without worrying about breaking your windoze box.

But then it will be only for that session, you will need to change the start button everytime you restart or log on your PC.
This tutorial is for changing the start permanently.

[Unregistered 0111405241546 0]

Haha great tutorial, I was bored and I just changed the start button to have my name Just for safety, I changed it back to normal. Does it still work if I have a theme installed with stylexp?

[ethergeek 0]

But then it will be only for that session, you will need to change the start button everytime you restart or log on your PC.This tutorial is for changing the start permanently.

If you edit it in memory you could just have a program load as a BHO to explorer.exe that does it; it also has the advantage of being able to change it to reflect something realtime...like cpu utilization. That would be a cool project...

[takashiro1405241549 0]

That is a good idea!! But I don't dare to do so because I am afraid that I will break my computer system. I am just a beginner and I'd better not to edit the regedit.

[polarysekt 0]

If you edit it in memory you could just have a program load as a BHO to explorer.exe that does it; it also has the advantage of being able to change it to reflect something realtime...like cpu utilization. That would be a cool project...

you're right... my gears are spinning perhaps a bit in this direction... contact me if you have any more interests : ) ... though i'd look into hooks as well as memory management....

[sparkx 0]

Lots of people seem to be scared of breaking their computer maby someone should make a anything.reg file and explorer.exe so that new people at modifing their computer could easly change the button. Someone probably has already done that though so you might look up on the web if you are intrested but a little scared that you might mess up. Just dont download anything that looks like it has viruses or might mess up your computer. As for Style Xp it shold work if you just edit the theme file (you know extract the zip change it up then re-zip and import into style XP). That is how most themes are made for Style XP. Style XP would be the best way to go (but I think it costs money I can't remember).Hope this helps,Sparkx

[G i l i m a d 0]

I did this to my sister's computer. I changed it to "Click Me" and she flipped out because mine still had "Start"