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Sunday, October 3, 2010

Change Text on Windows XP Start Button

The file explorer.exe located at C:/Windows needs to be edited in order to make the changes. Since explorer.exe is a binary file it requires a special editor. For purpose of this article we have used Resource Hacker. Resource HackerTM is a freeware utility to view, modify, rename, add, delete and extract resources in 32-bit Windows executables and resource files (*.res). It incorporates an internal resource script compiler and de-compiler and works on Microsoft Windows 95/98ME, Windows NT, Windows 2000 and Windows XP operating systems.

Get this from h**p://Delphi.icm.edu.pl/ftp/tools/Reshack.zip

First step is to make a backup copy of the file explorer.exe located at C:\Windows\explorer. Place that in a folder on your hard drive for safety. Start Resource Hacker and open explorer.exe located at C:\Windows\explorer.exe.

“String Table” is the category we are going to be using. Expand it by clicking the plus sign and then navigate down to and expand string 37 followed by highlighting 1033. If you are using the Classic Layout rather than the XP Layout, use number 38. The right hand pane will display the stringtable. We’re going to modify item 578, currently showing the word “start” just as it displays on the current Start button.

Double-click on the word “start” so that it’s highlighted, do not highlight the quotation marks. Type your new entry.

Click Compile Script and save the altered file using the Save As Command on the File Menu. Save the newly named file to C:\Windows.

Modify the Registry:

Backup your registry before making changes!

Go to Start, Run and type regedit in the open field. Navigate to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft|Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon

In the right pane, double-click the “Shell” entry to open the Edit String dialog box. In Value: line, enter the name that was used to save the modified explorer.exe file. Click “OK”.

Close Registry Editor and log off or reboot the entire system. You should see your new Start button with the revised text [/b].

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