One of the most annoying thing in windows XP is the start button text, which almost every user want to change as per my experience. I’ve read a number of articles on the internet about changing the text on the Start button in XP, however many of them are incomplete, difficult or unsafe. Here i wiil show you exactly how to change the "start" button to whatever you like and even change the picture next to it.
This tutorial is more for advanced pc users, so if you are a begginer or not shure what are you doing, i strongly recommend you to use System Restore to undo changes if problems occur. You can read more about System Restore here.
Step 1: Modify explorer.exe
First of all you need to download a program called Resource Hacker that will really assist you in helping you find what you are looking for and making sure you do not mess up along the way.
Download Resource Hacker
As always before changing anything make shure you back up everything you edit or delete. So open My Computer and navigate to C:\Windows and look for explorer. Copy paste it to a safe location on your hard drive.
Now that you've backed it up, start Resource Hacker and open explorer.exe located at C:\Windows\explorer.exe
Change the Windows Start Button Text
Expand the "String Table" menu, then select folder 37 and click on 1033. The "start" value is on line 4, after the 578. Change the text "start" to anything you want, making sure you keep the quotes. In this example i changed the text to "Hacking Tips and Tricks".
Change the Picture Next to the Windows Start Button
Collapse the String Table folder and expand the Bitmap folder, then select folder 143 and right-click on 1033. Select "Replace Resource", then click on "Open file with new bitmap". Select a Bitmap picture (.bmp extension) with a size of 25 pixels by 20 pixels. Click the Replace button. if you would like to make a bitmap image with transparency, you will need an advanced icon making program such as Axialis IconWorkshop.
When you have changed your button to whatever you want, click "File", "Save As", and save it as explorerhacked.exe. (Note: You can change it to whatever you like, but in this demonstration i am using the explorerhacked file).
Step 2: Changing the Registry
Now that the modified explorer.exe has been created it's necessary to modify the registry so the file will be recognized when the user logs on to the system. Go to "Start", "Run", and type in "regedit". When the Registry Editor loads expand to the following directory: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE,SOFTWARE, Microsoft, Windows NT, CurrentVersion, and WinLogon. In that directory find the entry that is titled "Shell" and right-click it. Select "Modify". Now, type in ExplorerHacked.exe.
All you have to do now is reboot your computer and log back in to Windows XP. You should see the changes that you've made to the Start button.
Here is how my start button looks like. I know it's far from perfect, but anyway i costumized it just to present you this tutorial.
* Simpler Methods to Change Start Button Text
Change Start Button Text with Start Button Caption Renamer
1. Download the utility from here, and double click StartB.exe to run it
2. Enter the name which you want to set in start button and click the button Change Start Button Name
You can revert the default text in start button by clicking the button Change Start Button to Default
Do you have questions, comments, or suggestions? Feel free to post a comment!
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