Hack Your XP Start Button:
Tip by Sarah Lane
Change the text and icon on your Start button by following these simple steps.
Change the Start text
1. First of all, make sure you download Resource Hacker. You'll need this puppy to edit
resources inside your Windows shell.
2. Locate explorer.exe in your c:\Windows directory. Make a copy of the file in the same
directory and rename it explorer.bak.
3. Now launch Resource Hacker. In the File menu, open explorer.exe. You'll now see a
bunch of collapsed folders.
4. Expand the String Table folder and then find folder No.37.
5. Click on resource 1033 and locate the text that says "Start." This is your Start button,
and now you've got control over what it says! Change the "Start" text to your text of
choice. You don't have a character limit, but the text takes up valuable taskbar
space, so don't make it too long.
6. Click on the button labeled Compile Script. This updates the settings for your Start
button.
Change your hover text
While you're here, why not also change the text that pops up when your mouse hovers over
your Start button?
Right now it says "Click here to begin." Well, duh! We already know that's where to begin!
1. Open folder No.34 and click on resource 1033.
2. Find the text that says "Click here to begin" and change it to something cooler.
3. Click on the Compile Script button to update this resource.
Customize your Start icon
For an added bonus, you can also change the Windows icon to the left of the text, too.
1. Collapse the String Table folder and expand the Bitmap folder at the top of your
folder list.
2. Click on folder No.143 and click on resource 1033. You should see that familiar
Windows icon.
3. GO to tne Action Menu ana select .'Keplace Dltmap.'. ~eleCt ..upen Tile wltn new
bitmap", and locate the replacement image on your machine. Note: The image must
have a .bmp extension and a size of 25 pixels by 20 pixels. Then click the Replace
button.
4. Now that you've made your changes, save the file in your Windows folder with
another name, such as newstartbutton.exe. Don't name it Explorer.exe, because that
file is already being used by your system. Close all open programs and restart your
system.
5. Boot into Safe Mode With Command Prompt by pressing F8 on startup. Then choose
Safe Mode in the command prompt.
6. Log on as administrator and enter your password.
7. When the command prompt comes up, make sure you're in the right directory by
typing "cd c:\windows" (without the quotes).
8. Now type "copy c:\windows\newstartbutton.exe c:\windows\explorer.exe" (no
quotes). Type "yes" (no quotes) to overwrite the existing file, then restart your system
by typing "shutdown -r" (no quotes).
When Windows relaunches, you'll see your new Start button in all its glory!
