Start Menu Button - Change

How to Change the Start Menu Button in Windows 7​

   Information

This will show you how to change the Start Menu button orb in Windows 7 32-bit and 64-bit.

   Warning

REMEMBER TO BACK UP EXPLORER.EXE!

Here's How:

For custom made start buttons, and further information, please visit this thread: http://www.sevenforums.com/customization/2002-custom-themes-icons-start-buttons-92.html

   Information

The explorer.exe you want to edit is:

C:\Windows\explorer.exe

and not C:\Windows\SysWOW64\explorer.exe (for those running x64)

And for those who use the larger DPI's i.e 125% , 150% you need to change:

6806 - 66 x 198
6807 - 81 x 243
6808 - 106 x 318

NOTE: The start orb replacement always HAS to look like this:
1 orb: Orb when not in use (when not clicked or mouseover'ed)
2 orb: mouseover
3 orb: When start orb is clicked

1. Download Restorator (Shareware) (Restorator 2007 Resource Editor - Restorator - Bome Software)

2. Take ownership of the whole Windows folder (see these links for more info: Take Ownership of file - Vista Forums and http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/1911-take-ownership-shortcut.html)

3. Open explorer.exe with restorator



4. Go to the folder called "Bitmap"

5. Replace 6801.bmp, 6805.bmp, and 6809.bmp (as seen on the picture, you will need to right click and click assign, and then click assign to, then select your file.)



6. Go to "file" and Save as explorer.exe on your desktop

7. Go to the windows folder and rename explorer.exe to explorer.exe.bak and then copy-paste the new explorer, Kill the process in task manager and start it again.
Now you have a new start button!

Please comment, if you have something to say

Related Tutorials

---

• Download a Shortcut that Opens the Start Menu in Windows
• How to Create Custom Start Orb Image
• How to Create a New Rectangular Windows 7 Start Menu Button

 

[sergiogarcia9]

Hi,
Great tutorial! I have had my start orb changed for many a month now to the SevenForums theme orb. I put my laptop on the other day, and it had gone back to the default one. I don't think it was installing updates or anything that affected it. The problem is that now my 30 day trial of Restorator 2007 has run out, I cannot change it back...

Any ideas??

Jake

P.S ClockWorkLemon, have you remembered to go into to task manager and end the process explorer.exe, and then restart it again??

You can change it with other tool like Resource Tuner
Resource Tuner: Resource Editor for EXE and DLL Resource Files. Edit Icon Resources, Replace Strings, Change Bitmaps.

Also, yes it is because of an update it have been changed
Look here:
http://www.sevenforums.com/windows-...ted-explorer-exe-windows-update-kb977074.html

 

[D3ftOn3Z]

IMO,users who customize windows themes,start buttons etc are creative.They think differently and have mad skills on customizing windows.It's more of a "Eye Candy" thingy.They are very passionate and devoted to their artwork.Should say thanks to them cause they share their artwork...

 

[Ephraim613]

Cant rename explorer.exe

awhile ago, i noticed my start icon changed back to the stupid orb. I couldn't have been that the restorator's trial ran out as that happened long before the icon switch. now when i try to change the name of the C:\Windows\explorer.exe file I get the message below (after clearing warnings and permissions and stuff). this is most annoying >.<

ok, apparently the "take ownership" script doesnt work on the updated explorer.exe and you have to manually do it. grrr

 

[redemblem101]

So the problem that I am having is that when I create my own custom orb and I replace explorer.exe with the customized explorer.exe, I notice that the mouseover effect quickly flashes a some black overlap above the startmenu and then it fades back to transparent. If I press the windows key, the black overlay doesn't happen so it must be something in the transition between the three images for the custom start orb.

Someone else had said that the problem was that there might be some pixels that are reaching into the frame for a different portion of the custom orb image (so the mouseover image might have pixels that overlap into the default image). This cannot be the issue, however, because I have tried simply changing the look of images that I know to work and the issue still occurs. Any help?

[EDIT]

clearly Paint.Net just doesn't want to handle the image correctly. I used GIMP and it worked fine if anyone has this problem in the future.

 

[AClockWorkLemon]

NO WAY!
That is the problem that i was having with my bitmaps, and indeed I had been re-sizing them using paint.net.
You are a Savior! XD

 

[DrAnal]

For any of y'all looking for ResHacker

Its in the zip

 

[sergiogarcia9]

*** First post updated ***

 

[Blizarro]

My Problems With Start Orbs

Ok I figured out the issues with black bars and weird colors. I was creating transparent pngs in photoshop and then converting them over to bmp's. I load them into gimp and photoshop and I did see the alpha channel in the files. So for the most part the files are fine (I can load them up in VB and they look perfect).

So from what I can tell explorer.exe ui doesnt only read the alpha channel. It also paints whats visible by the naked eye.

Ok, so that means anytime an image gets converted from png to bmp (by photoshop, gimp, alpha image convertor and my vb programs.) they dont properly paint everything "black" as it should. What looks perfect as a png looks like crap as a bmp when its converted.

How are you guys creating custom orbs that look good? are you highjacking a ripped copy of the image and drawing on top of that?

If you look at my attachment, the first image is the png, looks good. The second image is how explorer.exe ui wants the image in order for it to work. The last image is the results I get no matter what program I use convert the png to a bitmap. That same third image loads up fine in gimp and im able to see the alpha blended image fine. So I know that gimp properly reads the file.

Any thoughts?

 

[AClockWorkLemon]

NO WAY!
That is the problem that i was having with my bitmaps, and indeed I had been re-sizing them using paint.net.
You are a Savior! XD

I take it all back. No matter what I do, I have the problem with the design flahing quickly, then fading away... WTF? any help would be AWSMOE . By-the-by, i still am plagued by the problem of the start orb. it would seem that my start orb is larger than everyone else's, as I have to modify the 66x198 .bmp for any results. Help on this matter would also be greatly appreciated!

 

[Blizarro]

All this is a thing of the past. Im coding something that will blow everyone away. ANYONE will be able to create PERFECT start orbs.

 

[Blizarro]

NO WAY!
That is the problem that i was having with my bitmaps, and indeed I had been re-sizing them using paint.net.
You are a Savior! XD

I take it all back. No matter what I do, I have the problem with the design flahing quickly, then fading away... WTF? any help would be AWSMOE . By-the-by, i still am plagued by the problem of the start orb. it would seem that my start orb is larger than everyone else's, as I have to modify the 66x198 .bmp for any results. Help on this matter would also be greatly appreciated!

Send me the image. I can fix it.

 

[delta253]

Thoughts on Changing the Windows Orb

I'm running W7U.

I always keep two user admin accounts on my pc's as a guard against profile corruption and inabiliity to login. It's a thing I learned doing tech support.

I changed my W7U display and system settings from "let Windows decide" to "performance", hoping for a speed increase as my benchmark wasn't gratifying.

This caused the Start Button (SB) to change from an orb to the XP rectangle (XPR) though I didn't know that was the reason. Immediately I started searching, thinking I had done something, for the start button wanting to put the orb back in place. I used the tutorial above as a guide in my search. I also used the trial version of Restorator. I searched the C:\windows\explorer.exe expecting to find my XPR's. They weren't there.

Not finding my start button in C:\windows\explorer.exe caused me to do some further research. I searched the registry, I used Autoruns attempting to monitor changes in the start button. I wasn't clever enough to find the start button in the registry, but I'm certain it could be found using the MSDN.

Anyway I have observed that the orb is only present when using an Aero display theme. Changing to a non-Aero theme changes the SB to an XPR. The actual flag is probably more subtle than the Aero theme itself, being an element common amongst Aero themes.

The SB will be directly affected by shifting display settings from "Windows best" to "performance" OR by changing from an Aero theme to a non-Aero theme.

Additionally while my login was set for performance (XPR button), I changed to user2 which still had default settings. User2 had an orb SB.

Consider that user1 has an XPR while at the same time user2 has an orb. Therefore I think the true location of the orb is not in c:\windows\explorer.exe - recreating that program for every login isn't reasonable.

Storing the SB in the user profile based on current system settings and for use in creation of a user's system task bar would make sense. In a server environment the usage of custom orbs within a roaming profile would prevent the item from being machine dependent.

After benchmarking my system again while in "performance" mode and getting the same "pitiful" result, I restored the use of an Aero theme and have lost interest in the orb.

If someone could parse the user profile, I think the orb would be there.

 

[Amorphous]

Is there a way to change the button in the Classic theme?

 

[Muneem]

Thanks Mate,

 

[ZaLiTH]

My apologies if this has been asked already, but when using the Start Orb Changer, do you still need to take ownership of the entire Windows folder? I have taken ownership of explorer.exe (I was trying to change the orb the other night, no luck though), but this is the first tutorial I've seen suggest taking ownership of the entire folder... :sarc:

 

[tw33k]

My apologies if this has been asked already, but when using the Start Orb Changer, do you still need to take ownership of the entire Windows folder? I have taken ownership of explorer.exe (I was trying to change the orb the other night, no luck though), but this is the first tutorial I've seen suggest taking ownership of the entire folder... :sarc:

When using Start Orb Changer there's no need to take ownership. Just run it as administrator.

 

[ZaLiTH]

When using Start Orb Changer there's no need to take ownership. Just run it as administrator.

Awesome, that definitely makes things dead simple then. Thanks for the reply.

 

[ZaLiTH]

I decided I'd try make my own orb last night, and came up with a pretty decent one, but I have one small problem that I can't figure out. The orb applies perfectly to my taskbar, no issues with size, but when I move the mouse pointer over and back off again, it flashes a black block first and then the image. It only happens between it's passive and rollover states though, if I open the start menu with my keyboard the button changes to the third in the sequence without any black flash.

I noticed that the custom orbs that I downloaded (from here and in the zip file with the changer app) all had a black background, and mine has the same. I created this from a new doc in CS3, so there's no issue with converting from one format to another, and I never had any transparency to begin with.

Could somebody please have a look at see if they could tell me what went wrong? The bitmap is in the attached RAR file.

 

[gladson1976]

I decided I'd try make my own orb last night, and came up with a pretty decent one, but I have one small problem that I can't figure out. The orb applies perfectly to my taskbar, no issues with size, but when I move the mouse pointer over and back off again, it flashes a black block first and then the image. It only happens between it's passive and rollover states though, if I open the start menu with my keyboard the button changes to the third in the sequence without any black flash.

I noticed that the custom orbs that I downloaded (from here and in the zip file with the changer app) all had a black background, and mine has the same. I created this from a new doc in CS3, so there's no issue with converting from one format to another, and I never had any transparency to begin with.

Could somebody please have a look at see if they could tell me what went wrong? The bitmap is in the attached RAR file.

Hi ZaLiTH,
The black box on hover occurs because of a incorrect Alpha channel in the bitmap.
Try this,
http://www.sevenforums.com/customization/65572-how-preserve-alpha-channel-start-orb-bmps.html

 

[ZaLiTH]

The black box on hover occurs because of a incorrect Alpha channel in the bitmap.
Try this,
http://www.sevenforums.com/customization/65572-how-preserve-alpha-channel-start-orb-bmps.html

Thanks, I'll try that.