Start button makeover?

[Terry Pinnell]

After years on good 'ol Classic, I'm trying the XP style. I could
conceivably grow to love rounded corners and graded colour fills. But
that enormous green START button is too much!

Is there a tweak or hack to shrink it, and silverize it to match my
colour scheme please?

 

[Guest]

Yes i just did this. First you have to put all of your desk top icons in a
circle in the middle of your screen. Then click start 3 times. Reboot. After
reboot go into control panel and network settings. remove tcp/ip and then
re-add it. Reboot again. After reboot auto arrange your icons. After this is
complete you will here three chimes. The hidden control panel will now show
up in your start menu that will allow you to do this..

I hope this helps!

 

[Linda B]

One of the crappiest things about public newsgroups is that there's no way
to keep schmucks like Anthony from posting.

No, Terry, to the best of my knowledge there's no way to resize the Start
button outside of XP and Classic views. And I apologize for Anthony's
idiocy.

--LB

 

[Allen M]

And after you are done doing that, stand up, close your eyes and click your
heels three times and say "I do believe in miracles" three times
Or id that is all too dramatic for you simply right click on your dektop and
left clcik on Properties. On the themes tab in the drop down Theme window
select Windows classic.

 

[Guest]

Funny, I think it is the best things about public message boards

 

[Steve N.]

Funny, I think it is the best things about public message boards

You would think so. And it would be funny if you were funny, but you're not.

Steve

:

 

[J. S. Pack]

After years on good 'ol Classic, I'm trying the XP style. I could
conceivably grow to love rounded corners and graded colour fills. But
that enormous green START button is too much!

Is there a tweak or hack to shrink it, and silverize it to match my
colour scheme please?

The easy and free solution is to download the Uxtheme multi-patcher, run it
to replace your uxtheme.dll, and then download and apply some fine
minimalist style xp themes from sites like deviantart.com. Check out
neowin.net.

If you want to go all out, then get Windowblinds from Stardock. If you turn
off your themes service, which you wouldn't need, then wb would not use
signficantly more resources. Wb has greatly improved from its shaky
beginnings and is really quite good now.

BTW, I thought some of the answers you got in this thread were pretty
funny. It does seem like you have to go through some unlikely contortions
sometimes to get something working the way you want in Windows.

 

[Terry Pinnell]

One of the crappiest things about public newsgroups is that there's no way
to keep schmucks like Anthony from posting.

No, Terry, to the best of my knowledge there's no way to resize the Start
button outside of XP and Classic views. And I apologize for Anthony's
idiocy.

Thanks, Linda.

 

[Terry Pinnell]

The easy and free solution is to download the Uxtheme multi-patcher, run it
to replace your uxtheme.dll, and then download and apply some fine
minimalist style xp themes from sites like deviantart.com. Check out
neowin.net.

Thanks, I'll give that a try.

If you want to go all out, then get Windowblinds from Stardock. If you turn
off your themes service, which you wouldn't need, then wb would not use
signficantly more resources. Wb has greatly improved from its shaky
beginnings and is really quite good now.

Seems a tad OT to resize one button though!

BTW, I thought some of the answers you got in this thread were pretty
funny.

'Puerile' was the adjective that popped into my mind...

It does seem like you have to go through some unlikely contortions
sometimes to get something working the way you want in Windows.

That's for sure! Pity there's apparently no hack for this specific
though.

 

[Terry Pinnell]

And after you are done doing that, stand up, close your eyes and click your
heels three times and say "I do believe in miracles" three times
Or id that is all too dramatic for you simply right click on your dektop and
left clcik on Properties. On the themes tab in the drop down Theme window
select Windows classic.

"...I'm trying the XP style."

P.S: Your spell-checker needs servicing.

 

[Alex Nichol]

After years on good 'ol Classic, I'm trying the XP style. I could
conceivably grow to love rounded corners and graded colour fills. But
that enormous green START button is too much!

Is there a tweak or hack to shrink it, and silverize it to match my
colour scheme please?

Only by unofficial patches that modify the code, and would be against
terms of use by the people producing them. Such modified code can cause
trouble when running updates, and especially with service packs.

 

[Terry Pinnell]

Only by unofficial patches that modify the code, and would be against
terms of use by the people producing them. Such modified code can cause
trouble when running updates, and especially with service packs.

OK, thanks Alex. I suspected it was 'hard-coded'!

 

[Terry Pinnell]

Sorted! From Fred in the Customising newsgroups:
"If you want to change the start button, then a program that changes
the start button would seem reasonable. Such a program is "mySB".
Info at http://www.sayesoft.com.au/mySB/info.htm
You can edit/create the graphics to make the start button's appearance
be exactly as you want it. End of problem."

Installed that, and now have Start button a fraction of the size of
the standard version, and it's not a garish green! For time being I'll
settle for the one reasonable free option, 'small computer', but I
might even fork out USD9.95 sometime and make my own!