Hello everyone and welcome to another one of my little guides :)

Before we start this there is several things to note! I have only done this in XP so please do some research before doing it on a different O/s.

So in this guide I will be telling you how to change the text on the "Start" menu button!
This is very easy but you will be messing with import files so the first step is backing up!

Step One: Backing up
First to back up explorer.exe this can be found in
C:\WINDOWS\
So go to there and make a backup of explorer.exe and store it in a safe place!
Now go to: Start -> All Programs -> Accessories -> System Tools -> System Restore and create a restore point!

That's the backing up complete! Now continue to step two!

Step Two: Getting Res Hacker
As we are going to be opening to edit explorer.exe we need Resource Hacker, this is an open source/freeware (costs nothing) program which is used to open several different extentions for editing such as .exe and .dll!
Download this from: http://www.angusj.com/resourcehacker/

Now once you have the zipped file extract it to the desktop for easy access.


Step Three: Opening explorer.exe
Open Res Hacker and click File -> Open and open C:\WINDOWS\explorer.exe

You should see in the left panel a folder called String Table expand that and then expand the folder called 37 and click the 1033


Step Four: Editing explorer.exe
Now in the right panel you should see:
578, "start"

Along with some other things.

Change the value "start" to what you like, which in my case is "Braggy" make sure you have the speach marks.
Now click above the right panel the Compile Script button!

Step Five: Saving changes to explorer.exe
Click file and Save As... MAKE SURE YOU CLICK SAVE AS AND NOT JUST SAVE!
Save it with the file name explorer1 and now close hackers resource!

Step Six: Editing the Registery
Open Registry Editor to do this go to Start -> RUN and type regedit and hit enter.

In left pane expand HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE menu, scroll down and expand the SOFTWARE menu, scroll down and expand the Microsoft menu, scroll down and expand the Windows NT menu, expand the Current Version folder now don't expand just click the Winlogon Folder!
Now in the right panel scroll down till you find Shell.
Double click Shell and remove "explorer.exe" and replace with the name of your new one which in my case was "explorernew.exe" and click Ok.

Step Seven: Finally
Close regedit and shut down your machine, don't worry if this takes longer than usual, mine took longer than usual.
Now turn your machine back on and log in etc.

Your "Start" menu should have your desired text in :)

PLEASE NOTE I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY COCK UPS OR MESS UPS THAT OCCUR DUE TO YOUR ACTIONS! I POSTED THIS AS I HAVE DONE IT FINE AND IT'S FOR "EDUCATIONAL" PURPOSES!!!


Please PM me if you need help! :)

Have fun :)

- Braggy!

Thanks Braggy

Has it worked ok for you guys? Did it make sence? :)

Haven't tried it yet. I was looking for a guide to do a custom 'start' menu text for years now, but I kept on forgetting about it. Now that I've found a guide, I couldn't be more thankful to you. Cheers

Hehe :) hope you have fun doing it :)

i tried this on my old computer and it works fine, thanks, it just feels a bit slower

It shouldn't of effected the speed.

What a fantastic little hack this is.... I wasn't aware such hack existed... It looks fantastic. Is there any way to change the colour of the start button/bar?

Let me introduce myself. My name is Luke and its my first post on here.. Deffo one forum to recommend.


Muchos Gracias Braggy

Well, there is several options for this mate :) You can use Royle Theme or Zune theme Official themes from M$ (good there names) or you can get a program like Windows blinds to do it :)
Hope you enjoyed that little hack :) I loved it lol

Any idea how to change this with Windows Classic view? I noticed it only changes XP's default view.

Either way, works great. Thanks!

I will play around tonight see if I can solve that for you :)