How To To Change Image File Icons In Windows XP Using Resource Hacker

Ok friends, I am back with a new Windows XP hack. In this tutorial I am going to teach you that how you can change image file icons manually.

Reuirements : This tutorial needs a basic knowledge about Resource Hacker.

Lets start :

Open Resource Hacker and click on Open and search for shimgvw.dll file in C:>> Windows >> System32

In the left side panel, click on Icon and you can replace the existing icons with any icon you want.

You can download icons here.

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How To Change Windows XP Shutdown Dialog Box

Here I am going to tell you that how to customize the default Shutdown Dialog Box in Windows XP.

First let me tell you what is Shutdown Dialog Box. See below :



Lets Start :


Requirements :

1) Resource Hacker
2) Windows XP Installed on your system
3) Images you want to replace

Before starting I would like to tell you that this tutorial needs some basic knowledge about Resource Hacker. Click here to read the post on Resource Hacker.

First download these images that you have to replace with default images.

We have to edit 2 dll files here :

1) Shell32.dll
2) Msgina.dll

Editing Shell32.dll :

Now open Resource Hacker and press Ctrl+O and navigate to C drive >> System32 >> shell32.dll and click on Open.

Navigate to Bitmap >> 14351 >> 1033 and replace this image with gagan1.bmp
Navigate to Bitmap > 14353 >> 1033 and replace this image with gagan2.bmp
Navigate to Bitmap >> 14354 >> 1033 and replace this image with gagan1.bmp
Navigate to Bitmap >> 14355 >> 1033 and replace this image with gagan2.bmp
Navigate to Bitmap >> 14356 >> 1033 and replace this image with gagan3.bmp

Now save your file.

Editing Msgine.dll :

Again press Ctrl+O and navigate to C drive >> System32 >> msgina.dll and click on Open.

Navigate to Bitmap >> 20140 >> 1033 and replace this image with gagan1.bmp
Navigate to Bitmap > 20141 >> 1033 and replace this image with gagan2.bmp
Navigate to Bitmap >> 20142 >> 1033 and replace this image with gagan1.bmp
Navigate to Bitmap >> 20143 >> 1033 and replace this image with gagan2.bmp
Navigate to Bitmap >> 20100 >> 1033 and replace this image with gagan4.bmp


Now save your file.

And when you will click on Shutdown button, the dialog box will look like this :

So hows the new look ?? Do reply !

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Change Progress Dialog Box Using Resource Hacker

People using Windows Vista may be familiar with the new look of the Progress Dialog Box.It really looks nice.Now XP users can also get that look without any software but just following my steps.In this tutorial I am going to tell you that how you can replace the Progress Dialog Box in XP from old XP style to new Vista Style.

Old XP style :


click on the image to enlarge


New Vista Style :


click on the image to enlarge


Instructions :

Before doing anything you will need to know about Resource Hacker.(click here to know all about Resource Hacker).

Now,as you know about basics of Resource Hacker.So lets start :

In this tutorial we have to do 3 things :

Replace Script

Replace AVI's

Add BMP Image


1)Replacing Script : Here we will replace the original script with new created script.

>>Open shell32.dll from %windir%\System32\Shell32.dll in Resource Hacker.

>>Then goto Dialog>>1020>>1033 and replace the code in Right Hand Side Panel to the code given below :

click here to download the code.Just copy it and replace it and press Compile Script

See this screenshot :


click on the image to enlarge

2)Replacing AVI's : Now you have to replace AVI's.Follow the steps given below :

First download these 3 AVI's.(click here to download).It's a RAR archive so you will need WINRAR to open it.

Now in Resource Hacker goto AVI and replace AVI's as given below..

Goto AVI>>160>>1033>> and replace it with 160.avi (just downloaded)
Goto AVI>>161>>1033>> and replace it with 161.avi (just downloaded)
Goto AVI>>162>>1033>> and replace it with 162.avi (just downloaded)
Goto AVI>>163>>1033>> and replace it with 162.avi (just downloaded)
Goto AVI>>164>>1033>> and replace it with 162.avi (just downloaded)

3)Adding BMP : It works as the background image.You can also change its colour and then add.

First download the BMP from here and extract it.

Now in Resource Hacker click on Add A New Resource.After that a new window will pop up,in it click on Open File With Resource.

Now navigate to the BMP file you just downloaded and open it.

In Resource Name type 404
In Resource Language type 1033 and click Add Resource.

Click on SAVE and your are done !!

If you are facing any problem in this tutorial do comment here I will reply as soon as possible.

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How To Change Windows Boot Screen Manually

You might be knowing about the Boot Screen.The screen that appears when system boots up is known as boot screen.

There are many applications available with which you can give a new look to boot screen and can change them automatically,but I believe in doing things manually.

So in this tutorial I will tell you how you can change Windows Boot Screen manually using Resource Hacker.

If you do not know about Resource Hacker first read this post.

So lets start :


Open Resource Hacker and press ctrl+o now go to your Windows directory and then open System32 folder,and search for NToskrnl.exe file ,click on open.

See this screenshot for help :


click on the image to enlarge

After opening expand Bitmap and you can change the bootscreen by replacing the default bitmaps to your own created bitmaps.
Press ctrl+s and you are done.Now reboot your PC and see now you will see your own boot screen and not the default one.

Need any help about resource hacker feel free to drop me an email at gagan.exe@gmail.com or comment here.

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Change Start Button Text !!

There are many tools available to change the text of the start button.But why to use any third party application when we have Resource Hacker.

To know about resource hacker visit this post : All about Resource Hacker

So lets start :



>>First open resource hacker and go to C:\WINDOWS and open explorer.exe file.
>>If you are using Luna Theme perform the following steps :

Go to String Table>>37>>1033>>578

If you are using Windows Classic Theme perform the following steps :

Go to String Table>>38>>1033>>595

>>After locating the above directories, in the right side panel just change the "start" string to whatever text you want.If not understood see this screenshot for help :


click on the image to enlarge

>>After doing the changes click on Compile Script.
>>Save your changes and reboot your machine.

To know about resource hacker visit this post : All about Resource Hacker

If you like this post,do make a comment on it !!

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All About Resource Hacker !!

Resource Hacker

Defination : Resource HackerTM is a freeware utility to view, modify, rename, add, delete and extract resources in 32bit Windows executables and resource files (*.res). It incorporates an internal resource script compiler and decompiler and works on Win95, Win98, WinME, WinNT, Win2000 and WinXP operating systems.

Download : click here to download.No need to install it,its just a rar file, extract it and run the aplication.

How To Use : Whenever you open Resource Hacker you will see this :




click on the image to enlarge

Now to edit any file click FILE on the upper left corner and open that particular file.Whenever you open any file to edit you will see the following directories in left-side pane :


click on the image to enlarge

Here are some examples of directories :

• AVI
• Cursor
• Bitmap
• Icon
• Menu
• Dialog
• String Table
• Accelerators
• Version Info

and many more.....

The above directories may vary from file to file.So here is a brief description about the directries mentioned above :

AVI : contains all the AVI files.
Cursor : contains all the Cursor files.
Bitmap :contains all the Bitmap images.
Icon : contains all the Icon files.
Menu : contains all the various Menus.
Dialog : contains all the various Dialog boxes.
String Table : contains all the various Strings.
Accelerators : contains all the Shortcut keys.
Version Info : contains the version information of the file.

Viewing the resources : To change any resource you first have to locate it and then you have to replace it with your own resource. (Here resource means images,bitmap images,AVI's etc).So first we will learn how to locate and view resource and then we will learn about changing/replacing resources.

Suppose we want to locate any image in any file, so what we will do.First we will open that particular file in which we have to edit the image.If it is an image type so it is understood that it must be located in BITMAP directory.Here I take an example of SYSDM.CPL file located in SYSTEM32 folder.

After opening it we have to expand the BITMAP directory ,see the image below


click on the image to enlarge

In the red cirles above you can see that I have expanded BITMAP and I have located the images stored in SYSDM.CPL file.

Similarly we can locate or view any type of resource like this.

Now comes the main and informative part.Any resource file contains 3 parts :

• Resource Type
• Resource Name
• Resource Language

Resource Type tells us about the type of resource ,that resource is AVI or BITMAP or ICON etc..

Resource Name tells us about the resource name.In any file no two resources of same type can have same name.

Resource Language tells us in which language the particular resource is written.

As told before ,to edit any resource we first have to locate it and then we have to replace it.So now lets learn how to EDIT any resource.

Editing or Changing the Resource :

Suppose we have to change the BITMAP image of SYSDM.CPL file shown above, we have to follow the following steps :

1)First select the resource : for example I have selected BITMAP>>1>>1033
2)Now to replace it right click on the selected resource and then select REPLACE RESOURCE. See this screenshot for help


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3)After clicking replace resource a new window will pop up asking for the file to replace.See this screenshot for help


click on the image to enlarge

Now click on "Open file with new bitmap" >>Select your new BITMAP image and then click on REPLACE.

Remember I told you about Resource type, Resource Name and Resource Language.

So after replacing any resource it will ask for :

Resource Type : Name it according to your type e.g if it is AVI name it AVI,if it is BITMAP name it BITMAP and so on .....

Resource Name : Give the name of the resource replaced as it was earlier.

Resource Language : And for language just write 1033. 1033 is for ENGLISH

After that click on FILE and you can save your resource by clicking SAVE AS.

To edit Menus/Strings/Dialogs just select the resource , edit the script and make the changes and click on COMPILE SCRIPT. See this screenshot for help


click on the image to enlarge

This was all about on how to use Resource Hacker

In the future posts I will tell you that how you can use Resource Hacker to edit Windows Themes,Making Yahoo Messenger Skins,Editing Windows Looks and animation and many more......So keep visiting :)


If you need any help regarding this tutorial feel free to drop me an EMAIL at gagan.exe@gmail.com or comment here.

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