Customize Start Menu Button Windows 7

Tools That You Need:

1. Resource Hacker

2. Custom Start Menu icons (images). It must be of the size 54×162 with a .bmp extension. for eg.

The order is as follows:

1st Image - Inactive button
2nd Image - When button is hovered by pointer
3rd Image – Clicked button

Once you have all those resources ready, you can start the customization process as follows…

1. Take the ownership of the file “explorer.exe“ which is located in the Windows Folder (Most likely in C:Windows).

2. Open the Resource Hacker Tool.

3. Go to File menu and click on Open. Now load the file “explorer.exe” into the Resource Hacker.

4. Expand Bitmap branch in the left pane.

5. Now expand 6801 option, right-click on 1033 and select Replace Resource option.

6. A new window appears. Click on Open file with new bitmap button.

7. Navigate to the customized (.bmp) image, open it and click on Replace button.

8.  Repeat steps 4 to 7 above for the options 6805 and 6809 as well.

9. Now click on Save option (File->Save). Resource Hacker will automatically create a backup file calledexplorer_original.exe so that you can restore it in the future if needed.

10. Log Off and Log On to see the changes in effect.