start button color change 2

[malepipe]

Hi all,
I have been reading up on altering the XP "start" button. I have seen how to change the text or change the entire theme but I want to change just the color... Nothing else!! I saw an article on Blink's XP site which lead to another site and they had .Gif's of start buttons and instructions(I think) but it was all in GERMAN!!
Any help out there, surely its just a simple registry hack but even the old standby-

http://www.regedit.com

didnt have anything. Any advice would be great
Jimi_l

 

[Triss]

If you can post a link to the site, perhaps i could tell you what they meant.

~Triss

 

[malepipe]

Hey, thats a nice offer. Thanks a bunch!!

http://twg.mikemth.de:1027/article.php?sid=174

jimi_l(AKA malepipe)

 

[reghakr]

jimi_l,

I was able to "decipher" it by going to:

http://babel.altavista.com/

Choose German to English, pasting the complete web address with page number into the box.

There are alot of graphics...can't post here.

BTW, the new address for regedit.com is

http://www.winguides.com/registry/

reghakr

 

[Triss]

Find the file uxtheme.dll in C:\Windows\System32 this file will have to be modified with a hex editor but never mind that.

Download this modified file version of uxtheme.dll here:

http://www.tweakersguide.net/images/reviews/winxpcolor/uxtheme.dll

Rename this file to uxtheme.new and save it to C:\Windows\System32

then restart the computer when windows it about to load hit F8 to get into the boot menu select ‘secure mode with command line’

Then log in with administrator rights and write the following in the command line:

cd C:\Windows\System32
ren uxtheme.dll uxtheme.bak
ren uxtheme.new uxtheme.dll
exit

Restart the PC

Now you should be able to modify the Windows style file: luna.msstyles in C:\Windows\Resources\Themes

Then you need to extract the bmp file from luna.msstyles. to do this use this tool: (

http://www.tweakersguide.net/ResHack.zip)

with this you open the luna.msstylesand look for METTALIC_STARTBUTTON_BMP in the file tree
(Look picture up on the german website)

Now you should be able to see all the different kind of buttons. Go on and save the bitmap:
(Look picture up on the german website)

Save the bitmap file somewhere and close the hacker program. Then edit the bitmap file to what you want, here’s some in gray and blue:

http://twg.mikemth.de:1027/images/reviews/winxpcolor/modded.bmp

http://twg.mikemth.de:1027/images/reviews/winxpcolor/modded2.bmp

Now download the AXE how editor:

http://www.tweakersguide.net/files/axe.zip

then open the bitmap in the AXE editor and find 0x0000000E in the ‘offset’ bar. Now you most select and copy from 28 and down. Here the start is showen:
(Look picture up on the german website)

It takes awhile.
Then open the luna.msstyles in the AXE and go to offset 0x00350638 and selected until offset 0x00357A66 and press Ctrl+v to replace the old bitmap.

Now the old bitmap should be replaced by the new one. If you now select the Metallic Theme, the Start button should have your desired colour.

hope you make some sense of it

-
Triss

 

[reghakr]

Yea, that sounds right!

You'll need to be careful renaming and/or replacing uxtheme.dll if you're using Style Builder.

More info on Style Builder here:

http://www.tgtsoft.com/

reghakr

 

[malepipe]

DANG I hosed somthing doing this!!!
Help me out here if you can. What are the default settings/skin/theme or whatever. Here's what happened,I was having trouble with scandisk so I ran Norton's diskdoctor and now all the themes to all the users are AFU(all fudged up). The taskbar start button is no longer icky green but its little(and square), as are all the icons on it.There is no longer and definition between them I.E green start/dk blue middle/light blue right. I think this may have somthing to do with that style builder thing I tried. I never actually used it but I seem to remember a warning about somthing like this happening.
Who has the default set up and if you would be so kind what are the settings!!
P.S. I tried a system restore and the "SFC /scannow" command to restore files(it should have reinstalled that .dll right?) and that didnt work.
jimi_l

 

[reghakr]

Try hitting F8 on startup and choose Last Known Good. If that doesn't work:

Safe Safe Mode and System Restore.

After that, it's the Recovery Console.

reghakr