How to completely customize Windows Xp

written by Madhukar Hiranya at August 1, 2007

Here is a tutorial on how to completely customize Windows Xp. What I mean is I'm going to show you how to make a bunch of things in Windows say whatever you want it to say.

First, you are going to need a small program called reshack.

It is extremely easy to use and will be used throughout this tutorial.

First, we are going to make the start button say anything we want it to say.

1. Unzip reshack and open up the .exe. You should get a window like this:

Then go open up a file.

Then navigate to C:\Windows\explorer.exe and open it up.

Then open up String Table->37->1033

Now if you look in the main window at line "578." You will see it says "start" You can now change that to absolutely anything you want. I changed it to my own name. If you change it to nothing, the start button will disappear but you can still access it pressing the Windows key. The start panel will appear in the middle of the screen if you change it to nothing though.

Now after you have changed it to whatever you wanted to, select "Compile Script." Then select file->save as.
Now you should still be in C:\Windows\, if not then go there. Now save it as "explorerhacked.exe". Make sure you type the .exe or else this will screw up!

Now go to Start->run->regedit

Now travel all the way to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE->SOFTWARE->Microsoft->Windows NT->Current Version->Winlogon

Now you should see this:

Now look for the key labeled "Shell." Right click and select "modify." Now change "explorer.exe" to "explorerhacked.exe" Press OK then close regedit. Now log off and on again. Now whatever you put into there should be on your start button now.

If this didn't work then reboot into safe mode (press f8 on boot up) and go back into regedit and change it back into "explorer.exe"

Now that you've done all that, you now know how to do some cool stuff in Windows. I will now show you one more thing you can do with this program. This will show you how to make the command prompt say that you own it. I know, not very cool but if you're bored...

Ok, open up reshack and travel to C:\Windows\system32\cmd.exe

Now open up Message Table->1->1033.

On line 9012, you will see Copyright etc. Now, you can change this to what ever you want. I changed to my birthdate and Dan Corp just for fun.
Just compile and save. Next time you go to run->cmd, you will see whatever you put in there.

Now, this last hint goes for almost any .exe. Go to Version Info->1->1033.

You can now change any of those values. I suggest not deleting any of the things like Company name but go ahead and change thing on the right like Microsoft Corporation. Now if you float your mouse over this file, it will say what you just put in there. Stupid but cool.

I hope you enjoyed my tutorial. Please leave comments, wrong statements, etc. This program will not work for 64bit Xp but you can use another program. Thanks!