[Big-K]

Here's a screenshot of what were going to do today.



Alright, first go and download Resource Hacker. Once downloaded, simply unzip it to a folder and run the program. This will require hacking windows, but its worth it and i havn't experienced any problems in my hacking experiences. Open reshacker, then go to the open dialog. Navigate to your C:\WINDOWS folder(C:\WINNT for win2k and NT). Open up explorer.exe first. To get the start button to leave your taskbar, go to the String Table submenu, and go through each string. Everytime you see just the word 'start', delete that word. Leave the "" and everything else in the line of code though. For Windows XP the string containing them are 37 and 38. This will simply remove the button. To access the menu like this, press the windows logo key, it will appear in the top left corner of the screen, like in the shot. If you also want to have the menu be as compact as mine, go to Menu/204/1033, and replace the code with this one.

204 MENUEX
LANGUAGE LANG_ENGLISH, SUBLANG_ENGLISH_US
{
POPUP "", 0, MFT_STRING, MFS_ENABLED, 0
{
POPUP "Applications", 504, MFT_STRING, MFS_ENABLED, 0
{
MENUITEM "(Empty) ", 513, MFT_STRING, MFS_GRAYED
}
POPUP "Functions", 508, MFT_STRING, MFS_ENABLED, 0
{
MENUITEM "Load", 401, MFT_STRING, MFS_ENABLED
MENUITEM "Control", 505, MFT_STRING, MFS_ENABLED
}
MENUITEM "Shut Down", 506, MFT_STRING, MFS_ENABLED
}
}

If you have a hold of the basics of the program, you can edit this to whatever you want. Popups are menus that go out, like my Applications one. Save the file as explorer.exe to your desktop(NOT the windows folder, windows won't usually allow this). Now go download Replacer. Unzip it, follow instructions if needed, and open up replacer.cmd. Type in C:\WINDOWS\explorer.exe for the original file, then drag/drop the explorer.exe on your desktop for the replacement file. Press yes, and when its complete reboot. Your start menu should now be somewhat like mine.

Now for the run box. This is slightly harder in my opinion. You'll need both ResHacker and Replacer again. Open up ResHacker, and open the file C:\WINDOWS\system32\shell32.dll . Go to the Dialog section, and select 1003/1033. It's best if you have an understanding of how the code editing works by now, but if you wish you can just use the code I used for mine. (see the window labeled -(Load)- for what that looks like). The code for my box is

1003 DIALOGEX 0, 0, 90, 14
STYLE DS_MODALFRAME | WS_MINIMIZEBOX | WS_POPUP | WS_CAPTION | WS_THICKFRAME
CAPTION " -( Load )-"
LANGUAGE LANG_ENGLISH, SUBLANG_ENGLISH_US
FONT 6, "hooge"
{
CONTROL "", 12289, STATIC, SS_LEFT | WS_CHILD | WS_VISIBLE | WS_GROUP, 1, 28, 181, 18
CONTROL "", 12298, COMBOBOX, CBS_SIMPLE | CBS_AUTOHSCROLL | CBS_HASSTRINGS | CBS_DISABLENOSCROLL | WS_CHILD | WS_VISIBLE | WS_TABSTOP, 0, 0, 90, 14
}

If your going to use this, make sure you have the hooge font, if not pick a different one such as tahoma or times. My box is completely minimalized. It's designed to be used purely with keys. To exit this box I use esc. To run the program/file/resource I press enter. If you want, modify the original code instead. ResHacker should show a little model of the box your code implies in the lower right of the screen. To update code changes, press 'compile'. Clicking anywhere on the model will make the text cursor go directly to the line of text that corresponds with it. If your the kind of person whos doing this at all, you can probably figure out how to use reshacker, so I dont think much further explaining is required. After you've done this, save the file to your desktop as shell32.dll(make sure that your system is set to reveal system files like dll's). Follow the same steps with Replacer as for the start button.

Any questions just ask. Remember, hack at your own risk.