I just did the start button text change + was thinking that I'm wasting time by not making these settings default on XP cd. But when I copy the disc to my harddrive + find explorer.exe,it's named explorer.ex +it's compressed or something! So I can't hex edit it. I'm unsure what program I need to decompress it?

And, has anyone tried to do this? When you integrate service packs to new discs,why not take your menu show delay ( 0 ) setting with you, along with long lists of other tweaks?

this isn't a programming question.. moved to Software - Help & Support ->Windows XP ->Windows XP

I just did the start button text change + was thinking that I'm wasting time by not making these settings default on XP cd. But when I copy the disc to my harddrive + find  explorer.exe,it's named explorer.ex +it's compressed or something! So I can't hex edit it. I'm unsure what program I need to decompress it?

Copy explorer.ex_ to a folder on your hard drive, and then load up Command Prompt and browse to that directory.

Type:

expand explorer.ex_

And, has anyone tried to do this? When you integrate service packs to new discs,why not take your menu show delay ( 0 ) setting with you, along with long lists of other tweaks?

I think you can only do that on unattended installations of Windows XP, using command batch files to execute reg hacks during the [GuiRunOnce]. I don't have the details on this, but one of our members will be making a guide on this soon.

I have to find out how hard it is to do put all my tweaks into action during an unattended installation before I say that your news sucks.But I also want my own text on the start menu and stuff like that. And they're not registry tweaks so that'll suck. But I think there's away.

I got the expanding explorer.ex_ into explorer.ex from the disc part down. But how do I recompress it to put it back onto the disc. I'm almost positive you can't just rename it explorer.ex_ again. It has to be compressed to original.

I got the expanding explorer.ex_  into explorer.ex from the disc part down. But how do I recompress it to put it back onto the disc. I'm almost positive you can't just rename it explorer.ex_ again. It has to be compressed to original.

You will need Makecab.exe to compress it back to a .cab file. (most likely in the C:\Windows\System32\ directory)

But don't expect Windows XP Setup to install explorer.ex_ because it won't pass the digital signature as its been modified by you.

that is correct aaron.. so its not worth doing dude

It's not a .cab file.Why would I need makecab.exe?So your saying you can't alter it's creation date or tell windows to let it pass,or tell windows not to check for digital sigs?

it still uses CAB compression, whether it has a .cab extension or not.

Can you point me to where you read that?

Can you point me to  where you read that?

By opening one of the i386 files with WinRAR, it shows it as a "CAB Archive"

And at the command prompt:

makecab /?

C:\>makecab /?
Microsoft (R) Cabinet Maker - Version 5.00.2134.1
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corp. 1981-1999.

MAKECAB [/V[n]] [/D var=value ...] [/L dir] source [destination]
MAKECAB [/V[n]] [/D var=value ...] /F directive_file [...]

  source         File to compress.
  destination    File name to give compressed file.  If omitted, the
                 last character of the source file name is replaced
                 with an underscore (_) and used as the destination.
  /F directives  A file with MakeCAB directives (may be repeated).
  /D var=value   Defines variable with specified value.
  /L dir         Location to place destination (default is current directory).
  /V[n]          Verbosity level (1..3).

Note the underscore.

Okay,your right... But there's no way to Hack it and then put it back without windows refusing it?

I guess not