Changing "start" button

[Jaz]

i heard somewhere that the "start button could be changed with a patch but never saw it again. does anyone know where to get it or how to do it manually?

[FixitDave]

You could have searched for it, I have and found quite a lot of postings.

1. Make a copy of Explorer.exe and open copy with a hex editor.

To change Bubble help text:
2a. Search for hex 43006C00690063006B (i.e. "C l i c k" separated by null 00 characters). There's a few--the right one should be at offset 28736 but it could be different to yours.
2b. Replace bubble help caption with whatever, nulling out as necessary.
2c. Go to step 4

To change "Start" button text
3a. Search for hex 530074006100720074 ("Start" separated by null characters). The right one should be at offset 28D6E, again it could be different to yours.
3b. Replace Start button caption with up to 5 characters, nulling out as necessary.
3c. Go to step 4.

4. Boot to DOS, replace original Explorer.exe with the new Explorer.exe).
5. Reboot.

This is a copy from jstolz posting with a few changes... LOL

Thanks
Dave

[GregM]

check this URL...this program does it....that and more.
http://homepage1.nifty.com/kazubon/tclock/index.html

[Paul D]

Go to http://homepage1.nifty.com/kazubon/ and download tclock. You can replace the Start button with a picture file, and also customise the tray clock with it. Nice little utility

Hey GregM, great minds think alike - beat me by 58 seconds

[Plastic]

****, I did the Tclock thing linking, didn't Paul D did the "Eppie" linking ???

Well, I will, Eppie will do the button, but what's more, it will let you replace the buttons on your windows (max/min/close) with your own bitmaps...

http://www.u.arizona.edu/~jepstein/epdsk/

[jstolz]

Dave--you sound like a lawyer with all those offset disclaimers! ;-) As I recall I caused quite a bit of confusion by NOT putting 'em in there!

Regards...

[Paul D]

Plastic.
You're sort of right - I'm using Eppie at home, but couldn't remember what it was called, as I posted from work, where I use TClock only to enhance the clock. The sort of stuff Eppie does tends to be frowned on at work, but it's an excellent program



<Font face="Brush Script MT" size=+3 color=#3366FF>Paul D</font>

[I]

[Plastic]

..you are. There's some programs available that let you "skin" all windows, have a very different look. But they use a lot of resources. Eppie doesn't and lets you have, being a little creative, a very cool look, without even noticing it's running!
Combined with Tclock for the startmenu side-bitmap and clock it makes a real difference.

[GregM]

LOL Paul D, I jusy knew you were gonna post that URL for Tclock. Tclock is my favorite app, can't believe it's freeware :-)

[Paul D]

Yep - all I've got is a brighter start button and high-contrast minimise/maximise/close buttons on the windows (from Eppie) and an expanded clock with contrasting text (from TClock), and I'm really happy with it. I use small icons in Start Menu, so that one's not an issue.



<Font face="Brush Script MT" size=+3 color=#3366FF>Paul D</font>

[I]