explorerframe.dll

hi all,

i'm new to themeing, and looking for a little help.

i've downloaded plastiQ Aero from deviantart.

i've no trouble installing and using the main parts of the theme, but i'm not sure what to do with explorerframe.dll, to change the explorer forward/back buttons.

what i've tried:

1 - i was using the uxstylecore service to enable the theme. then i replaced explorerframe.dll in both windows/system32 and windows/syswow64

that didn't work.

2 - so i tried uninstalling the uxstylecore and patched my uxtheme instead, using universal theme patcher.

replacing explorerframe again didn't work.

3 - so i downloaded 7CustoMizer.INC, and tried using that to replace explorerframe.



looking at the screenshot, the buttons image on the right seems to have changed, but when i run explorer, nothing has changed.

what am i doing wrong?

i'm on 64bit ultimate, haven't installed sp1 yet, and i'm certain i was using the 64bit explorerframe.dll supplied in the download.

the downloaded theme rar file also included some image files for the explorer buttons, in both png and bmp - am i meant to extract these somewhere too?

yep - many times over the last couple of days

i haven't tried resource hacking - i shouldn't need to as i've been given a custom explorerframe.dll as part of the theme package.

i didn't need to do all the 'take ownership' stuff - i'm on a multi-boot system, so i booted into another os, and replaced the files from there.

am i meant to replace explorerframe.dll in both windows/system32 and /syswow64? putting the supplied 64bit dll into each folder?

am i meant to do something with the image files for the explorer buttons, or does the dll contain the images inside it?

i'm sure it's something really simple that i'm doing wrong.

explorerframe.dll is located in your C:\Windows\Sytem32 folder. Before replacing your original explorerframe.dll with the modified one make sure you backup the original just in case you don't like the modifications on the one you are replacing the original with or ever want to go back to the original.
The exploreframe images should be ( if any ) in a folder that will go into your C:\Windows\Resources\Themes\*nameof theme folder - the images should be called out from there , the same as in changing objects in the shell32.dll file when theming , at least that's my experience with it.

You will also need to take ownership of the original in order to replace it , you cannot just copy and paste and overwrite.

I usually back up my original .dll's that get replaced to an external thumbdrive that gets put away in a safe place this way there is no chance of them getting deleted.

thanks pal, i'll have a look at that prog later. :)

A Guy said:

I must say, I've not only tried changing the exploereframe.dll, and even changing the images one by one, and it's never changed anything. I finally gave up as it's not that important. Have a look at this Mickey, it just may do the trick for you:

How To Replace Explorer.exe, OobeFldr.dll, ExplorerFrame.dll & Shell32.dll Files In Windows 7

A Guy

sigh - didn't work either.

i don't know why it's proving to be so difficult.

i'm glad it's not just me though. :)

i never use those explorer buttons anyhow (my mouse side buttons do the job), but was curious to see how it looked.

i'll just stick to the rest of the theme, which i like, but seems a bit half-finished.

one day when i'm bored and have nothing to do, i may look into making it how i like it...when i've got time.