Customise Your start Button

1. Change the Start text
2. First of all, make sure you download Resource Hacker. You'll need this puppy to edit resources inside your Windows shell.
3. Locate explorer.exe in your c:\Windows directory. Make a copy of the file and keep it in a safe place and rename the original with a different name like expo.exe.
4. Now launch Resource Hacker. In the File menu, open explorer.exe. You'll now see a bunch of collapsed folders.
5. Expand the String Table folder and then find folder No. 37 (folder No. 38 if you're in Windows Classic mode).
6. Click on resource 1033 and locate the text that says "Start." This is your Start button, and now you've got control over what it says! Change the "Start" text to your text of choice. You don't have a character limit, but the text takes up valuable taskbar space, so don't make it too long.
7. Click on the button labeled Compile Script. This updates the settings for your Start button. But nothing will happen until you complete through step #19, so keep going!
8. Change your hover text
9. While you're here, why not also change the text that pops up when your mouse hovers over your Start button?
10. Right now it says "Click here to begin." Well, duh! We already know that's where to begin!
11. Open folder No. 34 and click on resource 1033.
12. Find the text that says "Click here to begin" and change it to something cooler. Might I suggest "Click here for a good time, baby."
13. Click on the Compile Script button to update this resource.
14. Customize your Start icon
15. For an added bonus, you can also change the Windows icon to the left of the text, too.
16. Collapse the String Table folder and expand the Bitmap folder at the top of your folder list.
17. Click on folder No. 143 and click on resource 1033. You should see that familiar Windows icon.
18. Go to the Action Menu and select "Replace bitmap." Select "Open file with new bitmap", and locate the replacement image on your machine. Note: The image must have a .bmp extension and a size of 25 pixels by 20 pixels. Then click the Replace button.
19. Saving the changes
20. Now that you've made your changes, save the file in your Windows folder with the name explorer.exe.
21. Now close all applications including Res Hacker. Press Alt + Ctrl + Del to go to the Task manager.
22. Go to the processes tab and right click on explorer.exe and select End Process Tree.
23. Now go to the Applications tab and click on New task and type explorer.exe and hit enter.
24. When explorer relaunches,you'll see your new Start button in all its glory!
25. note you can delete the old expo.exe if you have kept a copy of the original file safe.