A couple of questions

[Phrosen]

Hello.
As you can see I'm new to these forums, and I have a few questions.
I'm certain they have been asked before, but I reckon it's faster to just ask them all in the same place. I hope you guys don't mind.

First of all: I have created a custom themepack based on the game Battle Forge.
This themepack consists of sounds from the game, some wallpapers, a script for changing the login screen.
Simply put it's pretty decent, if I may say so myself.

However, it's lacking a couple of advanced tweaks which would make it awesome.
I would like to customize:
-The "textures" of the windows, start menu, etc.
-Start menu button. (Orb?)
-Icons.

I realize that all this might be a bit too much for me to handle on my own, since I'm not very good at Photoshop.
My current problem is that I don't know how to change all this stuff.

I found a program called Windows Blinds which can change your windows theme.
The problem with this program is that not everyone has it, and I would like to make my themepack "independent". -Using simple .bat file scripts for changing stuff.

To begin: what I first need is to know if it's possible to somehow change the start menu button by changing some key in the registry or something? If yes, I would like to know how.
I also need to know how to create a custom button, what file format to use, size, etc. -A detailed tutorial for this would be great.

I will continue with questions about icons and whatnot when I've finished the start menu button.

Link to my BattleForge theme, in case anyone is interested:
Download Windows 7 Battleforge theme v2.0.rar

Ask me if I was unclear on some point.
Help appreciated. =)

 

[Anthony]

Use this to change your start orb, it comes with 10 Orbs: Start Orb Changer Run as Admin if you have problems!!

Here is a Video on How to Make a Start Orb for Windows 7

You might have to watch it a few times!! If anything is unclear in that Video, give me a shout I will try to explain it to you!!

 

[Phrosen]

Use this to change your start orb, it comes with 10 Orbs: Start Orb Changer Run as Admin if you have problems!!

Here is a Video on How to Make a Start Orb for Windows 7

Thank you.
But I would like to do it without any programs. -Since everyone doesn't have all these programs installed.
I would like anyone to be able to use my themepack without problem.

 

[Anthony]

Trust me, it would be easier supplying the start orb changer with the theme, the other way is far to complicated for the average user!!

 

[Phrosen]

Trust me, it would be easier supplying the start orb changer with the theme, the other way is far to complicated for the average user!!

Not if I can put together a script and write in the Readme to double click on the script and that's that.

 

[Anthony]

OK I see what you mean now, Good Luck with that Phrosen

 

[Phrosen]

Does anyone know how to change the start orb image without using any programs?

 

[Prisoner]

You'll have to use Resource Hacker, open Explorer.exe. Find the resource that contains the start orb image. Replace it with your orb image. Save it to your theme folder, or wherever you put it.

Have the script kill the Explorer.exe process, make a backup of the Explorer.exe in the Windows directory, copy the customized Explorer from the script's DIR (directory) to the Windows DIR, and restart the Explorer process.

 

[Phrosen]

You'll have to use Resource Hacker, open Explorer.exe. Find the resource that contains the start orb image. Replace it with your orb image. Save it to your theme folder, or wherever you put it.

Have the script kill the Explorer.exe process, make a backup of the Explorer.exe in the Windows directory, copy the customized Explorer from the script's DIR (directory) to the Windows DIR, and restart the Explorer process.

I don't have permission to make changes to explorer.exe
Do you know how I can gain that permission?


EDIT: Another question:
Does anyone know exactly how to change the Start Menu-Texture, the top of the Window-Texture and the Taskbar-Texture?
I managed to change it using a software called Windows Blinds, but (as always) I would like to do it without any certain software.

 

[Prisoner]

Well, you need to make a copy of the executable first, then you need to be on an administrator account.
Right click the program, select Properties, go to Security, select your account name. Hit edit, and then a popup with checkboxes should pop up. Check the box next to "Full control"

As for the start menu, taskbar textures, etc. It won't work. With the multiple distributions of Windows 7, they put those resources in different parts of the shell. You would probably have to make 5 or six variations of the same script (which would include a few weeks of searching for the determined) in order to do it. I suggest not.

 

[Phrosen]

Well, you need to make a copy of the executable first, then you need to be on an administrator account.
Right click the program, select Properties, go to Security, select your account name. Hit edit, and then a popup with checkboxes should pop up. Check the box next to "Full control"

As for the start menu, taskbar textures, etc. It won't work. With the multiple distributions of Windows 7, they put those resources in different parts of the shell. You would probably have to make 5 or six variations of the same script (which would include a few weeks of searching for the determined) in order to do it. I suggest not.

Thanks. I figured it out.

Aww. There's no easy way of customizing windows. =(

Are there any good free-ware programs that can modify all these things; using a pre-set file made by me?

 

[Prisoner]

Don't believe so. Else this customization forum would be all over it.
And as you said, when it comes to the deeper things, Windows is very hard to customize. Especially remotely through a script..