i was wondering if anyone new anyone who modded explorer like the dude who made the 256 color support patch. i mean like toolbars without internet explorer and newer folder icons

Windows Explorer [%windir%\explore.exe] icons are set in:

- AUTORUN.INF files [in the root dir of each drive/partition] = drive icons:

http://www.mdgx.com/newtip6.htm#NEWDRIVE

- DESKTOP.INI files [in each dir] = folder icons:

http://www.mdgx.com/newtip6.htm#NEWFOLD

or hardwired in SHELL32.DLL.

Some system icons are set in the registry as values pointing to system files [examples]:

REGEDIT4

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\CLASSES\Drive\DefaultIcon]
@="C:\\WINDOWS\\SYSTEM\\SHELL32.DLL,8"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\CLASSES\Folder\DefaultIcon]
@="C:\\WINDOWS\\SYSTEM\\SHELL32.DLL,3"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\CLASSES\CLSID\{208D2C60-3AEA-1069-A2D7-08002B30309D}\DefaultIcon]
@="C:\\WINDOWS\\SYSTEM\\SHELL32.DLL,17"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\CLASSES\CLSID\{645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E}\DefaultIcon]
@="C:\\WINDOWS\\SYSTEM\\SHELL32.DLL,31"
"empty"="C:\\WINDOWS\\SYSTEM\\SHELL32.DLL,31"
"full"="C:\\WINDOWS\\SYSTEM\\SHELL32.DLL,32"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\CLASSES\CLSID\{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}\DefaultIcon]
@="C:\\WINDOWS\\SYSTEM\\SHELL32.DLL,-137"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\CLASSES\CLSID\{2227A280-3AEA-1069-A2DE-08002B30309D}\DefaultIcon]
@="C:\\WINDOWS\\SYSTEM\\SHELL32.DLL,-138"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\CLASSES\CLSID\{5ef4af3a-f726-11d0-b8a2-00c04fc309a4}\DefaultIcon]
@="C:\\WINDOWS\\SYSTEM\\SHELL32.DLL,-33"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\CLASSES\CLSID\{1A9BA3A0-143A-11CF-8350-444553540000}\DefaultIcon]
@="C:\\WINDOWS\\SYSTEM\\SHELL32.DLL,-173"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\CLASSES\CLSID\{1f4de370-d627-11d1-ba4f-00a0c91eedba}\DefaultIcon]
@="C:\\WINDOWS\\SYSTEM\\SHELL32.DLL,-135"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\CLASSES\CLSID\{e17d4fc0-5564-11d1-83f2-00a0c90dc849}\DefaultIcon]
@="C:\\WINDOWS\\SYSTEM\\SHELL32.DLL,-134"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\CLASSES\CLSID\{B005E690-678D-11d1-B758-00A0C90564FE}\DefaultIcon]
@="C:\\WINDOWS\\SYSTEM\\SHELL32.DLL,-173"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\CLASSES\CLSID\{6DFD7C5C-2451-11d3-A299-00C04F8EF6AF}\DefaultIcon]
@="C:\\WINDOWS\\SYSTEM\\SHELL32.DLL,-210"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\CLASSES\CLSID\{0DF44EAA-FF21-4412-828E-260A8728E7F1}\DefaultIcon]
@="C:\\WINDOWS\\SYSTEM\\SHELL32.DLL,-40"

;

One can either use custom INF and/or INI files, or hex-mod SHELL32.DLL using Resource Hacker or similar tool:

http://www.mdgx.com/toy.htm#HEX

I bet Virtual Plastic web site has at least 1 page dedicated to this purpose:

http://www.virtualplastic.net/

PS:

I modded my shell32.dll ver 4.72.3812.600 [using Win98 SE] to use most icons from WinXP.

Hope this helps.

Looking for this ?

Go here

http://www.dr-hoiby.com/TrayIconIn256Color/