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Change Text on XP Start Button - Version I

For Windows XP Home and Professional Versions Very Important - See notes at end of article before using this procedure ! Contains SP2 and Ad-aware Cautions

January 3, 2008 - This is the original "Change Text on XP Start Button" page published back in 2002. There are some issues with this procedure that have been addressed and corrected in a new tutorial that is located at "Change Text on XP Start Button - Version II". I've left this page intact as a reference, but if you are going to make the changes, use the "Change Text on XP Start Button - Version II" and not the procedure listed below. --- The original article starts here - Read the January 3, 2008 note above before proceeding. --Note: A number of users have written to say that when the text on the Start Button is changed, the Search function from the Start Button (right click) context menu ceases to function. That's true, it does, and if I ever used that particular function I'd have been aware of the problem. I don't use it, so I wasn't aware, but now you've been warned. As far as I know there are no other caveats associated with the modification.

Ive read a number of articles on the internet about changing the text on the Start button in XP. On more than one occasion Ive seen references to a five (5) letter limitation when the button is renamed. I always wondered if this was true or just an assumption someone made because the default start just happened to fit the button size. So, I decided to run a test and see if there really was a five character limit.

As you can see from the screen capture above it would seem that the five character limit isnt etched in stone. The button expanded to accept the text I entered with no problem. Ive been using the system for a few weeks now with no adverse effects. Thats not to say I wont discover something down the road a bit, but for now I feel comfortable with the changes. If youd like to try the procedure I used, the instructions follow.

Step 1 Modify Explorer.exe File

In order to make the changes, the file explorer.exe located at C:\Windows needs to be edited. Since explorer.exe is a binary file t requires a special editor. For purposes of this article I have used Resource Hacker. Resource HackerTM is a freewareutility to view, modify, rename, add, delete and extract resources in 32bit Windows executables and resource files (*.res). It ncorporates an internal resource script compiler and decompiler and works on Win95, Win98, WinME, WinNT, Win2000 and WinXP operating systems. Navigate here to download Resource Hacker.

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The first step is to make a backup copy of the file explorer.exe located at C:\Windows\explorer. Place it in a folder somewhere on your hard drive where it will be safe. Start Resource Hacker and open explorer.exe located at C:\Windows\explorer.exe as

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Fig. 01

The category we are going to be using is String Table. Expand it by clicking the plus sign then navigate down to and expand string 37 followed by highlighting 1033. If you are using the Classic Layout rather than the XP Layout, use number 38. The right hand pane will display the stringtable as shown in Fig. 02. Were going to modify item 578, currently showing the word start just as it displays on the current Start button.

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Fig. 02

There is no magic here. Just double click on the word start so that its highlighted, making sure the quotation marks are not part of the highlight. They need to remain in place, surrounding the new text that youll type. Go ahead and type your new entry. In my case I used ElderGeek as shown in Fig. 03.

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Fig. 03

Compare the screen captures in Fig. 02 and Fig. 03 and youll notice that after the new text string has been entered the Compile Script button that was grayed out in Fig. 02 is now active in Fig. 03. I wont get into whats involved in compiling a script, but suffice it to say its going to make this exercise worthwhile. Click Compile Script and then save the altered file using the Save As command on the File Menu. Do not use the Save command Make sure to use the Save As command and choose a name for the file. See Fig. 04. Save the newly named file to C:\Windows.

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Fig. 04 Step 2 Modify the Registry

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Now that the modified explorer.exe has been created its necessary to modify the registry so the file will be recognized when the user logs on to the system. If you dont know how to access the registry Im not sure this article is for you, but just in case ts a temporary memory lapse, go to Start (soon to be something else) Run and type regedit in the Open: field. Navigate to:

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Fig. 05

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In the right pane (Fig. 05), double click the Shell entry to open the Edit String dialog box as shown in Fig. 06. In Value data: ine, enter the name that was used to save the modified explorer.exe file. Click OK.

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Fig. 06

Close Registry Editor and either log off the system and log back in, or reboot the entire system if thats your preference. If all went as planned you should see your new Start button with the revised text.

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Tips Here's an interesting note I received from Daniel B. regarding an experience he had with this procedure. I haven't verified this personally nor have I experienced the situation when running AdAware, but it's worth adding it here as a caution. Thank you, Daniel, for sending it along.

Good evening, I would like to mention that your site helps me a lot in understanding Windows XP and suggest

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you add a few lines to your article titled: Change

Text on XP Start Button For Windows XP Home and

Professional Versions
I have executed the procedure to modify the text on the XP start button and it works fine. I did that a week ago. Today I downloaded Lavasofts Ad-aware freeware and ran it. Being curious by nature I looked at the scanned results before suppressing anything. I was surprised to find that the shell modification used to change text on xp start button was picked up by adaware. I did not delete it! I can only image what it would have done to windows if it had been removed. So I suggest a warning be added to your article to the effect that shell modifications and ad-aware could lead to . Windows not starting. Thank you Daniel B

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Hello, I have found your site to be very informative and helpful. However, there is one thing that I believe needs mentioning. I had read before that it was possible to change the text that is displayed on your Start button. I followed your instructions and soon enough, the Start button on my XP Pro SP1 said stop instead (how clever, right???). All was well until I decided to download the network installer for MS new SP2. I ran the installer with all virus scanning software off and updated my machine to SP2. I did the initial Automatic Updates setup and prepared to boot into my desktop. It appeared to be working except my desktop never fully loaded. I got this message saying that Windows Explorer had encountered a problem and needed to close. Blah, blah, blah, you know the drill. So I restart. Same thing. I thought I was in big trouble until I tried ctrl-alt-del. Success! I was able to start a new task (regedit), point my Shell back to explorer.exe, and restart. Low and behold, after I entered my password, my desktop came up and everything was normal. SP2 has worked like a charm ever since. I thought that maybe it was just something wrong with the update to SP2 and later tried to modify my Shell file again. I restarted and got the same error. I think it would be a very good idea to post an update to the text changing site telling users that if they run the update to SP2 with the modified Shell, their computer will become unusable. Its really too bad I enjoyed the heck out of telling Microsoft where to stick their Start button Thanks for the great site and keep up the good work!!! Adam

Thanks, Adam. The bottom line here is that you should revert back to the original explorer.exe file that was backed up in Step 1 of the article. Failure to do so can result in serious consequences.

A Note from Ion I thought I'd have some fun and follow this guide. However I was far too lazy to do the reg hack, and simply directly replaced the original explorer.exe file with my modified one (after backing up both of course). By replace I mean rename the modified file to /explorer.exe/ then rename the original file in the windows folder to /explorer.exe.original /(or similar). Next just copy and paste the renamed modified file into the windows directory and re-boot. Doing it this way eliminates any AdAware issues /and/ keeps the right click menu intact. Thanks for the inspiration, I've move on to changing the button colour now as well. Great (and dangerous?) little tool Resource Hacker.

Important Information
The Elder Geek sites contain many articles and suggestions for modifying the Windows operating system. I've tried these tweaks and tips on many systems. Sometimes they work, sometimes not. The point is, ensure you have a current, tested backup of all system and data files and understand how to restore the system in case something goes very wrong. You can still yell at me, but I assume no responsibility for your actions and use of the information and disclaim any legal responsibility for any consequences of such actions. Copyright 2002/2003/2004/2005/2006/2007/2008/2009/2010/2011, Jim Foley/The Elder Geek, All Rights Reserved Worldwide Reproduction, in any form, of information on this site is prohibited without express written permission. Microsoft is in no way affiliated with, nor offers endorsement of, this site.