How do i replace my Explorer.Exe

[mujinrecca]

I am installing a new theme and in order to get a new start menu i need to replace the explorer.exe but i dont have the permission to do it even though im the administartor, how would i do this? Thanks.

[Tripredacus]

I am installing a new theme and in order to get a new start menu i need to replace the explorer.exe but i dont have the permission to do it even though im the administartor, how would i do this? Thanks.

You can't do this while logged into the system. First, you would be using Explorer.exe to replace itself, and this is denied because the program is open. Even if you closed the explorer.exe process and used some other method (like cmd.exe) to do it, this won't work either because there is an underlying explorer.exe you can't see. Additionally, explorer.exe is a protected file, if you were to replace it, Windows will restore the correct version!

If you want to do this, you will need an alternate method to access your OS volume. You can do this with NTFSDOS, WinPE or other programs. First you need to backup your regular explorer.exe just in case you need to restore it. Then you can overwrite the explorer.exe in (WinSxS I believe? I haven't done this in Win7) and the one in system32 OR just delete the one in system32. When the PC boots up off the OS volume again, it will restore your fake one from its backup (if you just deleted the system32 one) or use the one you replaced. This was the method I used for replacing files in Server 2003.

If you use WinPE, you may need to change the permissions on the files or folders or change ownership to replace them. NTFSDOS isn't free I don't believe, but there may be alternatives or it may be abandonware by now.

Or if you don't want to go through all that hassle, rename your custom one to something else, drop it in system32 and change the SHELL registry key from explorer.exe to your filename.