free downloads

Change the Start Button Text(not Vista tested)

In lieu of the hacker resource method. You can find that method by typing in "hacker resource"; "start button" in google.

Get a binary file editor(or hex editor) to alter critical Windows system file. Just do a quick search; the're everywhere. This method has been successfully tested on Windows 95, 98, ME, 2000 and XP and therefore should be quite safe.

You're going to be changing windows explorer so, please make a back up in case you mess up. "Explorer.exe" can usually be found in C:\WINDOWS for Windows 95, 98, Me & XP and C:\WINNT for Windows NT/2000. Copy/paste "Explorer.exe" into another directory, C:\BACKUP is my suggestion. Now, make another copy and name it something else. 'explorer2.exe or 'blowme.exe' will work just the same.

Find the file word "start". There should be quite a few of them named start so Use the search tool in the hex editor "Start" which is represented as "53 00 74 00 61 00 72 00 74" in hex values. This should find all the strings with this value. Becuase there are a lot of "Start" strings, keep looking until you find one located just above this text "There was an internal error and one of the windows you were using has been closed.".

Here's a list of offsets to help you find the right one.

Windows 98
Offset: 0x00028D6E - 0x00028D76
Windows NT4
Offset: 0x00028BEE - 0x00028BF6
Windows ME
Offset: 0x00033DDE - 0x00033DE6
Windows 2000
Offset: 0x0003860E - 0x00038616
Windows XP (Enhanced Start Menu)
Offset: 0x000412B6 - 0x000412BE
Windows XP (Classic Start Menu)
Offset: 0x0004158A - 0x00041592
Windows XP SP1 (Enhanced Start Menu)
Offset: 0x0004208E - 0x00042096
Windows XP SP1 (Classic Start Menu)
Offset: 0x0004259A - 0x000425A2


When you find the right one, just replace "Start" with five other characters. Yes, sorry, it can't be more than 5 characters. If you want less just fill it in with spaces.(A B C)

Put the changed "blowme.exe" in the Windows directory. Both 'explorer.exe' and 'blowme.exe' should be the same file size but have different modified dates.

Next step depends on your OS. Don't get these mixed up.

Windows 95, 98 & ME
Exit to DOS (or use a boot disk for Windows ME) and at the command prompt change to the Windows directory and rename "explorer.exe" to "explorer.old". Then copy the newly modified Explorer "blowme.exe" to "explorer.exe". Do a directory listing and confirm that "explorer.exe" has the most recent modified date and time. Restart the computer and Windows should reload along with the new Start button text.

Windows NT
First close any open applications and open a new Command Prompt window, then switch back to the GUI and open the Task Manager. Find the "explorer.exe" process and end it, you should now be left with only the command prompt and task manager. Switch back to the command prompt and change to the Windows directory, rename "explorer.exe" to "explorer.old", and copy the newly modified Explorer "blowme.exe" to "explorer.exe". Do a directory listing and confirm that "explorer.exe" has the most recent modified date and time. Switch back to Task Manager and launch a "New Task" called "explorer.exe" this should reload the shell along with your modified "Start" button.

Windows 2000 and XP
Open your registry editor and find the key [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon]. Find the value named "Shell" and change it to equal the filename of the new explorer "blowme.exe". Exit your registry editor and restart Windows for the change to take effect. To reverse the change, modify the value of "Shell" and set it back to "explorer.exe".



(Default) REG_SZ (value not set)
Shell REG_SZ explorer1.exe

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon


If you have problems, just restore the backup.