Custom start orb not animated, but default orb is, why!?

[Mitrosilva]

So this is a small issue, but it's very annoying. I'm trying to customise my start button, which I have done successfully in the past; the process is rather simple. However, I decided to change it again today and for some reason it refuses to animate when I hover over it or click it, it just remains a solid image. When I restore my backup of explorer.exe, the Windows 7 default orb returns and animates as usual. I've tried changing the orb using both automatic software methods, and manually using Resource Hacker to no avail. No custom start buttons will animate any more. I had even considered doing a system restore, only to find I have no recent restore points on my main hard drive because of storage restraints! (It's an SSD)

Any help to resolve this small, but irritating issue, is much appreciated.

 

[Magnakai]

hi there, i've encountered custom start orb warping issues, but unlike urs. do u mean it is stuck on desktop? i thought the animation is just derived from 3 x pics of orbs held in a strip 54 x 162 .bmp- are the physical custom .bmps in order? so far i have misplacement of start orb problems and also 'disfigurement' & replacement of the orb by some unknown white symbol where it should be.

i'm not suggesting i know exactly how to resolve ur issue, but do u think it might be related to start menu/taskbar modifications u have recently tinkered with, or custom win7 themes? are u changing the orb while on some custom theme? try to apply the changer again after selecting standard Windows 7 theme, the basic aero if u r aero.

for my cases, i have detected its sources : i had activated several taskbar-concealing programs and this clashed with the start button operation especially if my taskbar was set to auto-hide. for the unknown white object, it was my custom theme causing the problem; i could uninstall my theme resources changer and my start orb instantly reverted to normal again, but my theme would not run smoothly. in the end i used a combined start button & taskbar .exe-hide program on top of TransBar (TransBar does not hide start button only taskbar), held the hide .exe in machine & user gpedit (both at startup/logon) and this worked out for me. i no longer have a visible start orb, but it's better than having trash at the corner of my screen (i don't really need it anyway, i use WIN key a lot).

i would really like to know how u resolve this matter, for my own knowledge. i hope u don't mind this post, pls. update when u could fix it.

ps. i did not use StartKiller because it ends its process too fast while logging off- i can see the trash symbols/orb again while pc is shutting down.

 

[Mitrosilva]

Hi,

Yeah, I've tried it on multiple themes to no avail. You are correct that the animation is just 3 frames that switch depending on what you're doing i.e. hovering/clicking, but this does not occur for me, for some reason; it simply stays as a solid image of the first icon.

I have limited experience with exactly how it works unfortunately. My investigation into explorer.exe led me to believe that it was simply a case of replacing the existing .bmp images with custom ones of your own for it to work, but I've had all sorts of issues. I've had black squares appearing and the start icon becoming off centre when clicked, and the icon simply being invisible, among other things. It's very confusing as it seems to be a very simple function of the computer, but it just doesn't want to work anymore.

I thought it may be the exact format of the image, as template images seem to be saved as 32-bit .bmp files, but even those fail to animate properly.

Hopefully someone will enlighten us both as to exactly how these things work and we can resolve our issues!

 

[Magnakai]

what other customization have u executed on ur pc lately; try to back-track.