Local Windows Ressource Hacking

Welcome To Xp Hacks & Tweaks


ORIGINAL VERSION



!!!!!!-DISCLIAMER-!!!!!!

We are not responsible for any damage done to any computer what so ever caused by this information, you proceed with you own risk.

INTRODUCTION:



Sup, this is basik, and glad to say this will be my 4Th tutorial, and the latest as of January 31, 2006. My last tutorials consisted of PhpNuke Platinum Installation, How To Boot, and PhpNuke Platinum Security, or how to Secure you Pnp Site. This tutorial is on a different subject, i will be explaining a little hack or tweak or en thing you may call it, so follow along.





PREFACE:



In this tutorial i will be showing you how to change your Start button, i mean how to change the text on it, from 'start' to anything you want. Now when MS(microsoft) made xp they didnt include the option for changing you start button text, so then other hackers found a way to hex edit some files and mess around with files, which most of the time left problems in user's pcs cause they did atleast something wrong, and the limit was only 5 letters, so you couldnt have more than 5 letters on that tab, but the way that im gonna show you how to do it, you can have as many letters as you want, and you dont need ne hex editors, just a simple file to register you explorer.exe so lets get started.



We will be using only outside program, and its called Resource Hacker, so get that and install it, here is a few links choose the one close to you.


Europe

http://delphi.icm.edu.pl/ftp/tools/ResHack.zip



Australia

http://www.users.on.net/~johnson/downloads/reshack.zip



Now you are going to need to open up the windows explorer main file, called explorer.exe ad mentioned earlier. This file is stored in C:Windows so go to you C: drive and open the Windows Folder, and look for explorer.exe, but you are not gonna need that from here, when you open the ResHacker click on File and click Open, then go to My Computer and then C: and then Windows Folder, then open the explorer.exe, if for some reason you dont see you explorer.exe in there, then in the box for the file opening just type in 'explorer.exe' of course without the quotes ' ' now ur Res.Hack window should be loaded.



Now you should see a bunch of folders on the left side, but first make sure that your ResHack window and everthing in it matches the picture below. (everything on the left side just left) You shouldnt have any problems and everyting should be fine.

http://img205.imageshack.us/img205/957/start0pj.jpg

Now on the left side click on the 'String Table' and it expands, then go down and click on the 37 under it, and as you do that, you will see that now your ResHack. window completely match the picture above.



Now just follow along the steps from 1-3 and they are pointed to on the picture above.

1. First make sure that your title of ResHack is ' C:Windowsexplorer.exe so you arent editing someting else.



2. Now where you see the Start between the quotes, change that text to anything you want, and spaces are allowed.

3. When you are done with step 2, then step 3 should open, now the button pointed to as step3 ( Complie Script ) should be clickable, so just click that and dont close the window yet.

Now click on File and click 'Save As' in the save box you should see 'explorer.exe' but dont save it as that, you could but we ofcourse want back up, just incase something goes wrong, so save this as someting else and make sure you put .exe after it and no space, i recommded saving it as 'HackedExplorer.exe' its easy to remember and better. so type that in (delete the explorer.exe from the box first) and click OK. and you are done with the first half.

Well good to see that you made it to the second part without getting lost, in this part you will be telling you explorer to pick up the right explorer for your start button that you just used, so just remember wat you saved it as, i recomended 'HackedExplorer.exe' but i dont know what you put, so in this you will be doing some registry editing, if it sounds fun, well it might be if you are a pro, but if you have no idea what this is, then dont mess around with it in your spare time, use it only when you know what you are doing or reading a tutorial like this, because you dont want to mess up your pc. unless you are rich and own a factory lol lets get to it.

Go to your Start and select RUN and type in 'regedit' and when the window opens you will see the title as Registry Editor, so you are in the right place. now in the left as before you should see some expandable files. find HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE should be the third one under MY COMPUTER, after expanding that, find SOFTWARE and expand it, after that find Microsoft and expand it, after find Windows NT and expand it, after that find CurrentVersion and expand it, then find Winlogon and expand it.



I will repeat the process here.



HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE > SOFTWARE > Microsoft > Windows NT > CurrentVersion > Winlogon

Dont click anyting under winlogon just click winlogon, and you should see similar stuff of files to the right as show in the pic below,



http://img97.imageshack.us/img97/7973/start28fl.jpg



i have mine scrolled down so dont worry bout that, now scroll yours down and find SHELL and indicated and right click it and click on Modify, then you will see another small box and it should have two typing in boxed inside it, the first one should say Shell and should be locked, and below should be a box titled as Value Data and under it u should see typed in 'explorer.exe' so just take out the explorer.exe and put you explorer name in it, if you had named yours HackedExplorer.exe then type that or if had a custom one then type that in and make sure to put .exe at the end of it, after you have then click OK and now you can exit the registry editor so X that out. and you are done eith everything.



You will see the changes next time you restart your computer, so if you want to just do that now and if, if you see a message saying something like EXPLORER NOT LOADED or something to the effect of that, so this means you didnt edit you registry correct or your explorer. That doesn't mean that you messed up and your computer cannot be fixed, if you followed the first part right, i mean if you saved it as different, and not as explorer.exe, so if you did, then go to your registry editor. Either you go through run or if ur start button dont work then open your task manager which is CTRL+ALT+DELETE then click on FILE and click on NEW and type in 'regedit' and your registery should open again, then just go through the following pattern:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE > SOFTWARE > Microsoft > Windows NT > CurrentVersion > Winlogon



and Winlogon find Shell, then right click it, and click Modify and at the same place where you typed in your explorer, take that of and put in 'explorer.exe' back in and press OK then restart your computer, from the task manager or how ever its possible to do it in this condition and you should be fine. Again you can only do that if you had made another explorer, meaning if you had click Save As where i told you to save in the first part, and you should be good.



It is possible that your computer might be able to change this, but it is very rare, and only happens in Service Pack 1 and 2, If you have XP Professionals, you can apply the hack.

Well now you know a little xp hack or tweak or whatever you want to call it, this is the end of the tutorilal and in the next tutorial i will be showing you how to change your Boot Screen for windows, i hate that default one that comes with windows, and may be i will add in a few trick on changing themes. So Peace out.

If you like this tutorial or anyother of my tutorials give me a shout at my site, www.ecm-network.org and if you have any problems or telling me about my typos if you see any in there, lol there shouldnt be any i give alot of time to my tutorials, this one took like 15 minutes lol so if you do post them at my forums and give me a shout. Thanks.



Special Thanks goes to:



Steve Sinchak