ceerp

If only Windows was that magic! The icon on the toolbar is actually a bitmap-strip but that's irrelevant. All that the icon or bitmap does is visually guide you to that part of the screen where you then click the mouse button. You could put a picture of the moon in place of the printer and it would still print the page so even if you did find the file and change the bitmap, your patrons would still print off pages without a preview. To implement an actual print preview would require some sort of re-coding of IE which is way beyond me! The best thing to do would be to right-click on the toolbar and remove the print button. That way the user will have to use File/Print and while they are there, you could educate them into moving one line down to the Print Preview. Should anyone know how to change the function of the print button, or Ctrl+P for that matter, I would be very interested because I always do a print preview first.

I can almost guarantee that you haven't patched the themeui.dll file. Microsoft don't like people having nice looking themes so the uxtheme file prevents themes from being applied unless they are from Microsoft! There are links in other threads where you can get a patcher to modify the file. I use nlite to do it so don't know much about the patcher. If you don't use nlite then patch the file (in system32), compress it (makecab uxtheme.dll) and put it into I386 and rebuild - I'm sure you'll be pleased!

msgina.dll is the dll where the shutdown dialog lives. The logoff dialog is in shell32.dll. Anyway, if you open msgina.dll in ResHacker and select the very last dialog (20100), you'll see the shutdown dialog and the code that goes along with it. There are lines for Turn Off, Restart and Stand By that look like the following: CONTROL "T&urn Off", 20103, BUTTON, BS_OWNERDRAW | BS_NOTIFY | WS_CHILD | WS_VISIBLE | WS_TABSTOP, 93, 49, 22, 19 If you are only interested in moving the buttons down, then it's the 49 in the above line that you have to change. Alternatively you can click and drag the buttons around. Remember to compile the script before saving the new file. You may have to move the text down as well. This could be line starting CONTROL "" but I'm not sure. If you use Resource Tuner to edit the dialog box then the texts show up as boxes that can be moved.

You're right there! As horrible as Windows icons are they do have one quality: they are immediately distinguishable at a glance even at 16 pixels. Apple icons are super cool but not down at 16 pixels! The trick is to fill as much of the 16x16 canvas as possible and try to reduce any special lighting effects. It always helps to add an outline, even if it's not that dark a colour. Not necessarily all the way round the object but just where there is some definition. Happy icon making!

What are you using to change your pictures into icons? I use Stardock Icon Developer but there is a tidious trick! If you start with your, lets say 128 pixel image, and let Icon Developer make ALL of the icons then they come out rubbish. What you should really do is take your original large image and scale it down in a photo editing package and save all of the sizes individually. Then import each one into the icon package to make up a full set. You should make sure that you have 16x16, 24x24, 36x36 and 48x48 icons in the exe or it will just use what's available and stretch it to fit: hence they will look grainier.

Yip, I've asked about this before because unlike you, it really killed me! It's to do with Out-Of-Box-Experience and runs because you have to activate windows. The nasty little file is msobmain.dll and beside it is also a movie file (intro.wmv) that is the welcome to XP thing that happens just after that window...just in case that bugs you too!

Normally bootscreen editors come at the cost of a licence or else the trial versions leave logos in the corner of the boot screen. Have you checked from the download site that the bootscreens are for SP2? SP1 ntoskrnl.exe don't work. You could try to make them yourself. Use the files you have and use ResHacker to extract the bitmap (which may look entirely black). Then use Photoshop or something to find out the pallet for the indixed bitmap. Then you have to do some tinkering with Hex values in your original ntoskrnl.exe to load in the pallet. Sounds confusing and it is the first time but it's not too bad. There are some good guides on this site and on others. It's been ages since I did mine so I can't remember all the details. First thing though is to find some SP2 files. Just try any SP2 files to prove to yourself that the world is still rotating!

So when windows is already installed and you manually put them into windows\system32 they work? But when they are in OEM\$$ for the installation they do not and you end up with the original windows boot screen? I have had that problem. ntoskrnl.exe seems to do more than just take care of the booting when windows is being installed. I have had windows install fine until the last reboot and it goes wrong. However, this only happens when I change the colour pallet. If I leave the colour pallet alone and just change the bitmap it works fine. You may also have to run in a command window: modifype.exe ntoskrnl.exe -c to make the installation believe that it's the original microsoft file. My solution to the problem is this: I have an ntoskrnl.exe in I386 which has been modified. The colour pallet is the same old 16 horible colours but I use a bitmap that says "Building Windows". That way it looks like something is happening. Then once windows is installed I use deskcln.cmd to move a nice boot screen (with changed pallet) from an OEM folder into system32. After a reboot it looks great! No more horrible windows flag! I don't know if that solution appeals to you because it seems like you want nice boot screens while you are installing. If you ever get a boot screen with a changed pallet to be accepted by the windows installation let me know how!

I've stumbled across it in msgina.dll. It's dialog 2250.

I have replaced logonui.ex_ on my cd and it works fine. I also run nlite though, which expands the cabs and then compresses them again. What ever nlite does it seems to work because I had issues (invalid image as you said) with syssetup.ex_ when I put it into the full windows cd, but it doesn't with the nlited version. Give nlite a go - if not for success then simply for throwing windows components away! On another note, perhaps you could try re-doing the logonui.exe file. Just change a few minor things first and see if it works, then do a bit more.

It's annoying when no one helps! I'm afraid I don't use DesktopX but I have done in the past. I don't know the details of how the widgets work and how they grab data from the pc but I do know one way of sorting it. Rebuild Windows! Back up your files and reinstall the whole operating system, then install only necessary programs (Microsoft Office etc) and then DesktopX. If it works then your laughing, if not then something is up and you should seek out another version of DesktopX. I'm sure this isn't the kind of reply you were looking for but at least I've started the ball rolling!

Have you tried shell32.dll dialog 1089? That dialog is the main log off one but my one has been changed for a while and I can't remember what the original windows one looks like. If not then try msgina.dll because the shutdown dialog lives there.

Well less of the critism and more of sharing knowledge. Those icons are actually a bitmap, or bitstrip, that is in comctl32.dll. There are a number of comctl32.dll files living around your windows directory so do a search and modify all of them. Unfortunately the back button isn't in the bitstrip and as yet I have not found it. You can add a registry tweak to remove it altogether: [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\comdlg32] "NoBackButton"=dword:00000001 Hope that helps your windows makeover!

It's been a while since the original post - hope you're still interested! What I said above about Notepad and the traditional windows yellow icons was finally solved! In comctl32.dll that lives in system32, the bitmaps give the buttons at the top right. Once you replace the bitmaps with nice ones, some applications, like Notepad, still have the old buttons in the dialog. This is because they call different comctl32.dlls! Run a search in your windows folder for comctl32.dll and there will be three of them (maybe more, I don't know) and these have to be modified too. So that clears up the problem that I highlighted. Now, you wanted to modify the dialog itself, yes? Well the dialog lives in comdlg32.dll. I have changed it in ResHacker so that the task plane is the same height as the files box - and only displays four icons. You may be interested in some registry tweaks that go along with the modifications. The back button can be removed (good thing too because I haven't found it's bitmap anywhere) and the shortcuts on the task plane can be modified too. I got rid of the backbutton and Recent Documents with the following: [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\comdlg32] "NoBackButton"=dword:00000001 [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\comdlg32\PlacesBar] "Place0"=dword:00000000 "Place1"=dword:00000005 "Place2"=dword:00000011 "Place3"=dword:00000012 @=dword:00000011 Hope that helps!

I remember you were looking to change the colour, did you go for orange?! I have managed to replace the pointer with the 32-bit cursor and after a modifyPE it was accepted, so now I have a black pionter that occasionally changes to a white one with an egg timer! So that goes against the idea of 2-bit colour but I can't get windows to accept a version with more than one cursor changed. Any ideas?

I am working on an XP SP2 build that has custom icons and bitmaps throughout many system files. The only one left to modify is user32.dll. The problem is when I change the cursors (using ResHacker) and then replace user32.dll in system32 the system crashes during boot, just before logon. I have tried running MODIFYPE user32.DLL -c but this doesn't help. The replacement cursors are 32-bit whereas windows cursors are 2-bit, would this be the problem? Has anyone managed to bodge user32.dll successfully? I know I could apply a cursor theme using the registry at T-12 but then it wouldn't be a true use of windows - it's like using StarDock for applying icons, for instance. Even if a theme was applied, you would still get the windows pointer prior to login which screams of inconsistency! I'd appreciate any wild ideas!

@muiz Can you expand on that a bit? Where is that written? Winnt.sif? I have tried FactoryMode=yes but I don't know enough about it to be happy with my pc being in a factory mode. It seems like it (if it had a rational thought process) would want to be 'closed' like an audio cd when it's burned. The files of concern are msobmain.dll and intro.wma. If I change the bitmap and delete the .wma, will Windows halt at that piont due to the missing file?

I'm afraid I don't know the answer but I'm hoping that the person who does know can answer my question too. How do you completely remove icons from the system tray. For some applications you can't run the program without the icon being there. Surely there is something somewhere in the registry that you can bodge? I like to see what's in the tray but I don't like to see icons that have no relevance, ie a Pinnacle TV remote.

Not sure how fancy your cursor theme is (I can only think of a few cursors within windows) but if they are just replacing the traditional white arrow, timer etc then they can be put into user32.dll. Only drawback is that only .cur files can be used, rather than .ani so the result might not be too good. User32.dll is where that horrible 4-bit colour CD cursor lives - the one that shows for a second when you insert a disk. Anyone doing a nice 32-bit custom build will want to show that cursor the door asap!

Having looked though the suggested web page it is only comctl32.dll that is modified. I have already done this previously. The dialog seems to be duplicated though because in some applications you see the nice buttons but in others, notepad for example, the buttons are traditional windows yellow. Does anyone know where these mysterious bitmaps live? Also, the bitmaps in comctl32.dll don't cover the 'back' button so this stays green when the rest are modified. Any ideas where that lives?

I have been working on a customised windows version for some time now - just changing the icons and the theme etc. I've even got a nice install screen and logon screens. There's one thing spoiling it though. After the install has run (the screen from winntbbu.dll) there is a screen that is very similar to the default boot screen, but where the scrolling bar would be, it 'says please wait'. You see it at full resolution (in my case 1280x1024) and the screen is small so I guess its 640x480. Does anyone have any idea where the bitmap will live? Its not in ntoskrnl.exe or in ntkrnlpa.exe. Cheers