Change Vista start button icon?

[TheGreatAndMerciless]

Can anyone tell me if there's a way to change the icon used for the Vista start button?

 

[linney]

What's on offer here?

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&...hange+Vista+start+button+icon+-xp&btnG=Search

 

[leewo250]

So was there a solution for this problem cuz I am trying to change mine.

 

[TheGreatAndMerciless]

Sorry, I never did find a satisfactory answer to the “start menu button” question prior to putting Vista on the back burner. I bought the “Ultimate” version within a week of its release. I should say, within a week of its escape. It took me many, many hours of frustrating trial and error to finally figure out how to get around all of the bottlenecks that prevent one from setting up a computer to one’s own liking. Taking ownership, getting or granting permission and the myriad other hoops one had to jump through to simply alter some icons, gain access to the start menu files, etc. I had planned to gravitate to Vista from XP once I had it set up to my liking. However, it has proven to be a step backward from XP and is a constant source of irritation. I have to put it on a par with Windows ME as being a truly faulted effort by Microsoft. Last night I acquired a copy of the just released (escaped really) Vista Sp1. I installed it and as expected, it undid all of the changes I had so painstakingly made. It wouldn’t even allow MS updates and was so full of bugs that it caused me throw up my hands in frustration and revert to the backup copy I made prior to installing SP1. The Aero graphics are very nice, other than that I have no further praise for this horrible operating system. I only use it once in a while for entertainment but never to do any work. I will stay with XP until MS comes up with an improvement. Vista is a frustrating failure in my opinion.

Here’s a Vista question for anyone who may know the answer. Do a search for a particular file and find it listed more that ten layers deep in:
C:\Documents and Settings\Username\Application Data\Application Data\ Application Data\ Application Data\ Application Data\ Application Data\ Application Data\ Application Data\ Application Data\ Application Data\eventually the file.

Sometimes when I uninstall a program and then do a search for any leftover files I find as many a several hundred buried in layers of Application Data folders. It’s far more trouble that the eye pleasing Aero is ever going to be worth.

I won’t be switching to a Mac or Linux because the vast majority of software is made for Windows. I did try Linux briefly and immediately hated it. I’ll stick with XP and an abundant supply of software.

 

[linney]

C:\Documents and Settings\Username\Application Data\Application Data\ Application Data\ Application Data\ Application Data\ Application Data\ Application Data\ Application Data\ Application Data\ Application Data\


I wonder if you have been changing Access Permissions to the C:\Documents and Settings\Username\Application Data folders?

If so that is a "No. No." in Vista and may well break the system. Where set, the Everyone, Deny flag, is set for a particular purpose as this Microsoft quote might explain.


"this is a known and reported issue. It was resolved as won't fix. Here is the reason behind it. "The junctions are there to only provide appcompat for legacy apps and aren’t meant for a user to traverse through. The junctions have been explicitly set to block read through them by setting Everyone Deny Read. The main reason here is because these are just links to the actual location, so you dont want backup tools and other tools operating on your data twice, once from the original path and once via the junctions. There are scenarios where some of these junctions actually form a loop to support the appcompat for the old namespace in comparison to the new and in those cases allowing read through them is disastrous, for e.g. setup was broken for a week when the file system wasnt honorign the deny read.

Also as far as a user goes, you will never see these as they are system hidden, and you will need to take explicit action to see them by default."

Hope this clears up some confusion".

 

[leewo250]

I downloaded this program Stardock Blinds and now I am going to use that to edit Windows Aero and hopefully that will make it possible to edit the windows aero start menu icon. If anyone here has any suggestions to somehow get further in my near impossible quest to do the simple task of making a picture of the HAL-9000 as a start menu icon than please help me.

 

[strongm]

>Last night I acquired a copy of the just released (escaped really) Vista Sp1

1) SP1 isn't released until next month ...
2) There are a final 2 prerequisite patches to be installed before SP1 can be successfully installed, and they were only released 12th Feb

 

[TheGreatAndMerciless]

To Strongm,

SP1 was released to commercial enterprises about a week ago and is expected to be released to the general public soon. The early recipients have it and someone with such access has already uploaded it to the Internet where it can be retrieved by anyone who knows where to look. That's where I acquired it. As for the prerequisite patches, they are already installed. SP1 installed correctly and really screwed up an already screwed up operating system. "You can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear" is an old cliché that certainly applies to this white elephant of an operating system. It's predecessor was a much better effort.

 

[strongm]

As a long-term MSDN Universal subscriber and volume licence holder I'm upset that Microsoft didn't let me know that SP1 was already available. Oh - I guess that might be because the only 'available' version is the one released to OEMs, which is a pretty different beast from the one that will be released to the rest of us in March (it only does a clean install of SP1 which is why "it undid all of the changes I had so painstakingly made" - that's exactly what it is supposed to do). And for proper installation it requires the appropriate OEM Preinstallation Kit (OPK). And it isn't going to actually appear on OEM systems before April (which is after the general public release) because there are still some driver issues to sort out.

I'm afraid that I have little sympathy for your position.

 

[SimonDavies]

To be honest I am surprised at how many people are still having issues with Vista, I was also an early adopter last year of Vista (Technet Plus subscription coming in handy) and initially was horrified at how unstable it was (I am a gamer with a gamers rig, SLI and Nvidia driver support was a joke), a year later however I find that my XP install is gathering dust in my machine (cold swapping hdd's). Not only is Vista working a treat, I have full use of SLI, video card fan control and updates working correctly.
I have to admit that SP1 didn't throw up any surprises, horrors or glitches and it didn't break anything for me.

Over all I am definitely someone who want's others to realise that Vista isn't the POS that others say it is, sure it has issues but in my case I don't have any.

SimonD.

The real world is not about exam scores, it's about ability.