I know its possible but whats the easiest way to change these icons:



Maybe a freeware proggy?

Thanks guys.

Use a resource editor. The icons are located in one of the files...

Thx that was incredibly helpfull......

Could someone just tell me which system file I have to open with ResHack?

Y'z Toolbar = http://www.winmatrix.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=1161 <-- It is a very small program and has some very beautiful themes for the explorer buttons. Also it uses very little resources and will skin both the IE and windows explorer buttons...

the file u need to edit is browseui.dll in windows\system

yap edit browseui.dll and you might found 6 bitmap for the toolbar (3 for big and 3 for small icon) the last 2 of each can be at same color res, btw grab windows 98 revolution pack (full or lite) by Tihiy to patch it

Thanks again for all the help. Now back to pimping my aging OS.



P.S.
Copland icons rule!

Is there a simple way to this because Resource Hacker is kinda complicated
for me.Can a batch or reg file be created to make the process easier.I just wanna
make them active with colors instead of them Sh***y greyscale Icons.

@PROBLEMCHYLD
grab windows 98 revolution lite 4.0c pack by Tihiy this available in this forum (forgot the exact post link)

Try BeeIcons

"Bee Icons can replace almost any system icon with a more stylish and improved version. You can change Desktop icons, Start Menu, Hard, Floppy and Compact Disk icons. You can also assign unique pictograms to any folder or file type. Bee Icons allows you to change just one or two icons or you can apply an entirely new icon set to the desktop using Icon Themes. Currently, there are more than 50 unique Icon Themes to choose from.

The program is designed for Windows 95/98/Me/2000/XP. It is easy to use and has a multilingual interface (35 languages are currently supported). If you like variety and enjoy working in a stimulating environment then this program is definitely for you."

There is a free trial, so see if you like it. Peace

Edit: It can also edit Explorer and IExplorer icons.

http://www.virtualplastic.net/wint/ -- has alot of tutorials/guides involving ResourceHacker so after a few you should have it down.

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I have a question about Revolutions Pack Lite v4

I was wondering if it also added 32Bit icon support for the normal Explorer Toolbar not just InternetExplorer toolbar. Yes I know its stupid newb question but please help. Thanks in advance.

Why would I need a program just to change icons, when a (free) resource editor works perfectly fine?

Well I wasnt talking to you. I was replying to PROBLEMCHYLD's question, so you can use whatever you want.

I hope I'm not out of line for asking this
but can someone resource hack all the greyscale icons to make them active

read PM ^_^

alright, im done with the browseui.dll file.. read my PM for a download link

replace it by booting into real dos mode and copying the the new file over the old one in c:\windows\system\

I have 2 CONGRATULATE you with a BIG THANK U.I really appreciate it very much.

1 last thing guys
I wanna change all my default 98SE icons to all the default Windows XP icons. Is that
possible to do without a unofficial pack or a 3rd party app.
Thats all i want. No GUI change or nothing else just the icons.Please some1 help me out.

you need to edit shell32.dll for most things like folders
mydocs.dll for mydocuments icon
explorer.exe for mycomputer icon (i think)

A resource editor and some time is what you need...

Where are the toolbar icons in 98SE so i can replace them with XP icons?

they are bitmaps in EXPLORER.EXE and BROWSEUI.DLL

When i try to replace the bitmaps in Win98 they show up the same as in winXP

i'm not sure if i follow you
do you mean it doesn't show up the same as in winXP ? you don't see the high color depth 'buttons' ?
post a screengrab maybe ?

if i remember rightly, the 'large' toolbar 'strip' is a different size
so you have to resize/edit/touch-up the XP ones

also 24 or 32 bit doesn't work, but with clever Palette manipulation you can get the 'strip' down to 256 colours and it still looks good.
you can use a custom palette but its best to include the windows colours (i don't know about other apps but psp has this option)
the transparent background colour is 255, 0, 255 #FF00FF

one of the best ways to get a pallet is use Irfan view to reduce a pictures colour depth to 250 (* 256 minus the 16 windows colours that you put in later) custom colours using Floyd-Steinberg dithering
then copy the pic into psp (or an alternative) via the clipboard,
increase the colour depth to 24 bit,
decrease the colour depth to 256 colours (* including the windows colours),
have 'Nearest color' reduction method ticked (if available)

this kind of palette manipulation is the key to doing good looking pics in these types of situations without increasing the resource 'load'

alternatively you could insert your own creations and designs
many people prefer a minimalist style with even less colour.

another old trick (for those that like the 9X style icons) is to insert copys of the existing colour 'strips' into the positions of the existing grey ones so that the toolbar buttons are no longer grey all the time except when in a 'mouse over' or 'clicked' state.

that is, if i remember rightly.

this is all assuming is all your going for a 'minimum resources' type hack.

When i try to replace the bitmaps in win98 they show up the exact same as in winxp
meanin winxp has the same bitmaps as the 1s from win98
meaning it defeat the purpose of replacement.

right

in XP they're in shell32.dll

here these might help -
NEW-TOOLBARS.zip

Thanks miko. I thought I was crazy for a second.

nah, that would be me

I tryed replacing bitmaps and nothing seems to have change.

are you sure you replaced the 256 color ones and not the 16 color ones which come first in the resource list.
(these are only shown in low color screen modes) and your desktop should be in High or True color mode to see the new ones.

in browseui the first (of 4 256 color 'strips') you want to replace is number 265 (which is normally grey) i never used to bother with the 16 color 'strips' because i had no interntion of working in low color screen modes where they would be seen.

you have to replace the grey ones with new the colour ones as well for the full XP effect.
otherwise you new ones will only show up in 'mouse over' and 'clicked' states.

top page to save for reference -
http://www.virtualplastic.net/html/hacklist.html

Thanks again

I just replace the bitmaps in BROWSEUI.DLL
with the Winxp 1s and they are all broken up y is this.

If you want to change the toolbar icons in Windows Explorer as well as in Internet Explorer, and if you have also implemented the patch against freezing Explorer as I described here:

http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?s=&...st&p=452384

Then you need to patch both BROWSEUI.DLL.

For the one with version 5.50 in the %windir% you need to replace Bitmap 265 with the one from Bitmap 266, also Bitmap 276 with the one from Bitmap 277.

Whereas for the version 6.00 in the %windir%\System folder, you only need to replace Bitmap 265 (gray-scale) with the one from Bitmap 266 (color).

You certainly can replace those files under DOS, but I would prefer using SFC instead.

I want to replace the Win98SE bitmaps with the WinXP bitmaps
when i do that my icons in the toolbar and Windows Explorer are split in half.

It is in browseui.dll

The reason of the split is: Win98SE and WinXP are using different bitmap image sizes.
For example the toolbar icon of IE6 in Win98SE is Bitmap 265 and 266 in BROWSEUI.DLL, the size is 320x20 and it has 256 color depth.
Whereas the equivalent toolbar icon of IE6 in WinXP is Bitmap 204 and 205 in SHELL32.DLL, the size is 384x24, color depth 16M.

True you can resize the bitmap from 384x24 into 320x20 and change the color depth to 256, but the result will be very poor, like the Back and Forward buttons will not be so round anymore.

There must be a better way of doing it, i.e., to force IE6 in Win98SE to use 24x24 icon matrix instead of 20x20. Any clue to that sort of tweak?

Use Revolutions Pack Lite.

Not trying to deny that Revolutions Pack Lite is a great work, but it has also very broad spectrum.
For those people that just want to see XP toolbar icons in their IE6 under Win98SE, i.e., using icon matrix of 24x24, can you recommend something to achieve it Tihiy? It could be a small tweak or patch in the IEXPLORE.EXE maybe?