Customized version of explorer

[Magnum]

I have a customized program, explorer2.exe that shows Go instead of start.

(It gives me room for one more window.)

It worked fine on XP Pro.

I did the register change that was required and renamed all old instances of explorer.exe to exp.exe.

It works fine as an admin and "F8" mode.

It won't work as a limited user.

??

[dedndave]

probably need to create a manifest file
i haven't found a real good reference for this, yet
but, use the forum search tool - there are several examples

[Magnum]

Trying to think of what to try next.

There are no copies of explorer.exe on my hard drive, unless there are some
in a cab file.

Explorer2.exe is in memory and the program does have GO in place
of Start in the String Table part of the executable.

I saw some references to explorer.exe in a few registry entries with MUI in them.

I MAY, backup my registry, delete those references and see what happens.

[dedndave]

you mean there is no Windows Explorer ?
that thing performs a lot of functions
much more than just displaying file trees

[Magnum]

I found a way for my  customized explorer2.exe to work, but to be honest, the method
seems "retarded" to me.

1. I log onto my L.U. account.

2. I kill explorer2.exe in which the Start Button has the flag on the left and Start on the right side.

3. I restart that same copy of explorer2.exe and it now shows GO in it's green box without the flag.
   (Which I took out of the resource. ??)

Does XP, on bootup, reconstruct the "flag logo" and store it in NTUSER.dat?

[dedndave]

if you mean the boot-screen, it is inside ntoskrnl.exe
you can see it with a resource extractor - and modify it - although that isn't a great idea - lol
it is a 16-color bitmap - be careful what you do to the palette, as it is also used elsewhere
i forget where the welcome screen is - maybe the same file, or someplace similar
there is a freeware program that you can use to play with it - i think it's called BootScreen   :P
it is no longer supported, but it is still in use
if you google around a bit, there are forums and sites that have customized screens, skins, icons

[Magnum]

Tried to attached the explorer2.exe, but even zipped it was too large.

Gotta find a place to send it too, lessin' that "frog" place allows file uploads 2?

[dedndave]

www.4shared.com

it's free to sign up
i use a seperate yahoo e-mail address for 4shared
you may want to do the same (i.e., create a new yahoo account, first)
you get something like 20 Gb space
200 Mb file size limit

[Magnum]

http://www.4shared.com/file/0X04gk9A/explorer2.html

[dedndave]

that was quick - lol
i got the d/l   :U

it would also work great for daughter's videos  :bg

[dedndave]

i don't get it - lol

it says it is from Microsoft
same version the one i have, except 2 Kb smaller

[Gunner]

Hmmm...... somebody really likes chocolate mints!  :bg

The modified version does not run on Win7

I get an NTSTATUS error code: 0xc0000142

{DLL Initialization Failed}
Initialization of the dynamic link library %hs failed. The process is terminating abnormally.

[Magnum]

To use my modification, do this.

Stop explorer.exe using Task Manager.

Then, File....New Task....Run....Explorer2.exe

You should then see, GO in a green box where Start used to be.

Bonus

This one has a description of the file. (Has source too.)

http://www.4shared.com/file/tt2391Sy/PE_ExtractorA9.html

[Magnum]

Hmmm...... somebody really likes chocolate mints!  :bg

The modified version does not run on Win7

I get an NTSTATUS error code: 0xc0000142

{DLL Initialization Failed}
Initialization of the dynamic link library %hs failed. The process is terminating abnormally.

Thanks, I would imagine that Win 7 totally rewrote explorer.exe.

To change mine,

I used resource hacker to open a COPY in another directory.

Go to String Table and find the text that you want to change.
In my example it was Start which I changed to GO.

Next thing I did was find the icon that is displayed on the Start button.

I deleted that resource entirely.
This gives a cleaner button.

Then do a Save As and exit Resource Hacker.

Then reboot and hit F8 to get to Safe Mode.

For Win XP, I had to copy the new explorer2.exe to both the Windows and the System32/dllcache/ directories.

Finally, you need to change a registry key to point to your new file.
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.

Now look for "Shell", and right-click it.

Select "Modify."

Now, type in Explorer2.exe

You now need to reboot to see the changes.

[Gunner]

Yeah, that is an old trick from years ago!  Modifying the start button with a resource editor...  Win 7 doesn't have a "button" it has an "orb"