"Modding Explorer - Walkthrough Guide"

advance · Rated PG Joined: 27 Apr 2005 Posts: 6

Explorer.exe is probally the most important app in windows. I am going to should you how to hack it to how you like it, and downsizing it from 984 KB to 292 KB, keeping only necessary icons and bitmaps. Most of the hacks done here will be noticeable in the classic windows, not the one with all the graphics.

DISCLAIMER: I DON'T TAKE ANY RESPONSIBILITY FOR WHAT HAPPENS TO YOUR COMUPTER AS A RESULT OF THIS GUIDE, OR MY SCRIPT.

I wrote this guide assuming you have used ResHacker before, but will explain most of it anyway.

Categories we will edit: BITMAPS, ICONS / ICON GROUPS, MENUS, and STRING TABLES.

First we need to know where this file is, it is in "c:\windows\" under "explorer.exe."

Bitmaps: These are the pictures you see in explorer, which you can delete. I kept only the necessary ones, the ones I wanted which were #'s 172 - 175. The way you can quickly delete these are to open the folder containing the bitmaps and hit Alt + A then d. The first time you will click yes, that you want to delete them, then you can just hit alt + a and d from that point. The bitmaps I kept were the arrows that are used for the quick launches and grouping the parts of the start bar. You can also edit these bitmaps. The way you edit them, is to first right click the bitmap and copy it, then paste it into paint or something similar. Edit it, save it, and then click "Action," then "Replace Bitmap." Then browse to the correct area where you saved it and click ok. That's it to bitmaps. Most of them are used for the dialogs when customizing your start menu.

Note: If you, like me, use the classic start menu and taskbar beware: Bitmap 142 is the windows picture next to "Start" on your start button. If you want to keep it there, DON'T DELETE IT.

Icons and Icon Groups: Most of the icons in explorer are pretty much useless, no one uses them. There are two ways to go about getting rid of them.

a) Deleting them: You would delete them the same way you delete bitmaps.

Pros: Reduces file size.

Cons: You have to also edit "user32.dll." and you have to download a blank icon.

b) Replacing them: You would replace them with a blank icon, which you can get more information on ________________HERE________________ .

Pros: Avoids editing "user32.dll."

Cons: You have to download a blank icon.

They really include the same amount of work, because you will need a blank icon along the way no matter what, so its your choice on what you want to do, here is how to do both of them:

Deleting them:

You delete all the icons you don't want here by deleting the ICON GROUPS. That will save you much time. Be careful, after deleting an icon group, the selection of what to delete next will slide down a few spaces and you might not want to delete that. Make sure you know what you are deleting.

Editing user32.dll:

You open up ResHacker and browse to "c:/windows/system32/user32.dll." Then browse to the icon groups and replace the first group (100) with a blank icon. Find more information on blank icons ________________HERE________________ .

Replacing them: Once you have the blank icon, you would replace the icons by finding the group you want to replace, selecting it, clicking "Action," then "Replace Icon," then find the blank icon where ever it is stored on your computer and 'opening' it. Then click ok and it is replaced!

That's it for icons, it is your choice on how you want to go about changing them, I prefer deleting.

Menus: There are only 5 menus in explorer, and I only know about two of them and what they do, these changes will effect the classic menu the most.

Incase you aren't sure you the menus work, I'll give you a brief summary:

"POPUP" can be considered a folder. Examples of these are "Search," "Programs," and "Documents." If you want to delete one of these folders, you must not only delete the popup line, but the brackets and what's inside them as well.

POPUPS generally look like this: