How to Change the Windows Explorer Navigation Toolbar Button in Windows 7

There is a possibility, that you like a particular theme, but you want to change the navigation button. Do you think it is very tough? Not really. Just follow these steps line by line, you can yourself change the navigation button.


Step 1

First you need a program which can open, show the contents and allow you to change the images associated with it. I recommend Resource Hacker. It’s a free tool and easy to handle even for the novice.

Download Resource hacker from here.(Home Page of Resource Hacker)

Step 2

Now, you need to know, which particular dll file is associated with it right?

Before proceeding, you must manually take a back up of the dll. Go to the drive where your Windows 7 is installed (say C: drive), open Windows folder, go to System 32:

Find out the file named ExplorerFrame.dll ; just select it, copy it and keep it somewhere in a safe place. Though, Resource Hacker will do the back up for you, its better to get a manual back up . Close the the window (s)

Step 3:

Open Resource Hacker; Open the ExplorerFrame.dll file from the same location:

The left pane will look like this:

Open Bitmap folder and click open the folder named 280, select 1033:

Right click over the flower icon named 1033; Select it to save in other place of your choice (you will need it for editing).

Now, open the folder named 577, Right click over the flower icon named 1033; Select it to save in other place of your choice (you will need them all later):

Do the same for 578 and 579 folder and the bitmaps.

Step 4:

So, you got 4 bitmaps. These are default set; you will replace them with custom one. You need instruction to create them.

Open your powerful image editor (I am saying about Photoshop CS4 for example). You can use similar kind of other program.

elect Black as background color.

Create a new document with these settings:

-Width=54 Pixels

-Height=27 Pixels

-Color mode=RGB 8 bit

-Background contents=your background color (Black in our case).

(A) You will have to create four sets: Inactive, Available, Hover, Pressed. [Open each default set to (which we saved as bitmap) to examine closely in Photoshop.]

For each set, you must create an alpha layer. (Layer>Create a Layer)

(B) Fill the alpha layer with white color. Deselect it (disable eye tool). For the bitmap in 280 folders, just create an empty (will look black) bitmap with 1 pixel verical lines (compare and create with default).

(C) Save each file as bitmap and name them like default set, save as 32 bit.

Step 5:

So, almost done! Now, open resource hacker, Open the ExplorerFrame.dll file and replace each bit map:

Save it.

Restart! Done!

Note:
1.We are getting 3 sets for each action: so the animation would be like start orb.

Scope:

We have a bunch of GFX guys, we may start a custom navigation menu thread.


(I forgot where I read this one, I searched again and again, but not found it, so it is his/her credit to discover it).