Desktop Customization

Windows 7: Use new 256 x 256 icons for folders

March 19, 2010 23:41 pm by Jal

Beginner Tip

Today I had a discussion with my friend about a troubleshooting session in which he wanted to change icons of some the folders. He wanted to use the native new Windows 7 icons which he could not find the new icons in its default location. Although he figured out after a while, I thought of sharing this small info.

So if you want to use the new 256×256 Windows 7 icon library, you might not get it in the default shell32.dll. Here’s what you need to do:

» Select the folder. ‘Right click’ on it > ‘Properties’.

» In the properties window, click the ‘Customize’ tab.

» Here, click the ‘Change Icon…’ button.

Change Icon...

» In the window that appears, you will find that the icons here are very old (from Windows 2000 and XP era). You just need to replace the location to C:\Windows\system32\imageres.dll (where C: is the Windows installation drive)

Replace ‘shell32.dll’ with ‘imageres.dll’ and you will be able to use new 256 x 256 Windows 7 icons. imageres.dll is the new icon library.

» Select your desired icon and click ‘OK’.

Enjoy new 256 x 256 icons !

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IE9 Teaser Wallpapers

March 19, 2010 0:43 am by Jal

Microsoft recently rolled out the IE 9 Platform Preview which has created a sort of anticipation within me. Not that I am a hardcore IE fan but being a Windows user since stone age, I love it when something new comes out of Redmond. So I thought of teasing the so-called winboys and made 12 high resolution (2560 x 1600) IE 9 Teaser Wallpapers.

IE9 teaser post_pic_main

6 of these wallpapers have a teaser line written on them; the rest are without it.

Preview:

IE9_teaser_2 IE9_teaser_3 IE9_teaser_4 IE9_teaser_5

Download IE9 Teaser Wallpapers / 10.8 MB

PS: Do not hotlink to the zipped file. The download link will change frequently so provide a link-back from your website/blog instead.

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Widescreen wallpapers: Abstract

March 7, 2010 12:45 pm by Jal

It’s a lazy weekend and the internet seems literally on strike. So I thought of slipping out a few abstract widescreen wallies. When it comes to abstract, I am little too choosy with the color schemes. Too light shades are not my types. So here goes the soothing dark ones. All the wallpapers are minimum 1900×1200.

Bokeh Starflight by Renecac

Bright Wind by Zastavski

Tentacles of Light by fukm

Jeans by lassekongo83

Black Grunge by Whatsamahoozit

Artists have been credited.

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Windows 7: Make your own Start Orb with Start Orb Creator

February 23, 2010 16:09 pm by Jal

Everyone loves customizability and that is why at TechExplorer we regularly include posts related to desktop customization. Today we’ll feature a small application called the ‘Start Orb Creator’ developed by a deviantArt user Blizo.

Start Orb Creator lets you use a custom image as your Start button image. The application is very intuitive and self explanatory. Just choose your image and set effects like outer glow and shadow for ‘hover’ and ‘pressed’ states.

Start Orb Creator

Download Start Orb Creator / 1.2 MB

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Widescreen wallpapers

January 29, 2010 12:04 pm by Jal

It’s been a while we had some visual treat. So I thought why not look around for some beautiful high quality widescreen wallpapers and serve you with some relishing awesomeness!? Click on the wallpapers and you will be redirected to the download page.

Something in Blue by blubbelOo

Apple Splash by Mota.ru

Summer Feelings by ggrrr

Sunshine by SocWall

Jellyfish by synthesys

Artists have been credited with links for you to find more works done by them. Enjoy!

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Glow Air theme for Windows 7

January 26, 2010 17:01 pm by Jal

Didn’t I tell you that the guys at deviantArt are crazy geniuses? Well, some of them are Winboys too. A deviantArt user kAtz93 made a superb Windows 7 theme called ‘Glow Air’ that caught my attention. Yes, it is a full fledge theme and not a themepack.

Glow Air is for those who seek slick¹ and edgy themes with some extra glare. Glow Air turns windows sharp edged and with extra faded and translucent borders. It flaunts a cool new ‘Start’ button too!

Glow Air theme for Windows 7

How to install Glow Air theme on Windows 7?

Installation of Glow Air is a bit tricky. Follow these steps:

1) Download Glow Air theme by clicking the link given below.

2) Extract the RAR file to a folder, let’s name it ‘GA’.

3) Now go to ‘GA’ > ‘uxtheme patch’. Here run the UXThemePatcher.exe. [There are two such files. One for Windows 7 x64 and the other for Windows 7 x86. So use it according to your Windows 7 architecture]. This will enable third party themes to be installed on your computer.

3) Now again go to ‘GA’ > ‘Theme’ folder and you will find a ‘Glow Air’ folder and Glow Air.theme file. Copy these two and paste them in ‘C:/Windows/Resources/Themes’.

4) Now go to ‘C:/Windows’. Here, you need to take ownership of ‘explorer.exe’ file. [Don’t know how to take ownership? Read this small tutorial]

5) Once you have taken the ownership of ‘explorer.exe’, rename it to ‘explorer.exe.old’ [This will be your back-up].

6) Now proceed further according to your Windows 7 architecture.

For Windows 7 – x86 (32 bit) users

Go to ‘C:/Windows/System32’, take ownership of ‘Explorerframe.dll’ and rename it to ‘Explorerframe.dll.old’.
Now in ‘GA’ folder, go to ‘System files’ > ‘Explorerframe (x86 Only)’ folder, copy the ‘Explorerframe.dll file and paste it in ‘C:/Windows/System32’.
Again, in ‘GA’ folder, go to ‘System files’ > ‘x86 (32-bit)’ folder, copy the ‘explorer.exe’ file and paste it in ‘C:/Windows/’.

For Windows 7 – x64 (64 bit) users

In ‘GA’ folder, go to ‘System files’ > ‘x64 (64-bit)’ folder, copy the ‘explorer.exe’ file and paste it in ‘C:/Windows/’.

7) Finally, go to ‘C:/Windows/Resources/Themes’ and double-click ‘Glow Air.theme’ to apply the theme.

If at all you find the Start button not properly displayed, restart your PC and hopefully everything will be fine.

Phew! Enjoy!

Download Glow Air theme for Windows 7 / 14 MB

¹ I am much into Alliteration these days.

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Animated Startmenu for Windows

January 8, 2010 20:37 pm by Jal

deviantART is full of crazy people doing all the awesomeness don’t know since when. One such deviantART user, oO-MrHigh-Oo made a small utility called ‘Startmenu Animation’ that gives a nice 3D animation to the Startmenu in Windows XP, Vista and 7. Basically that’s all it does. But it deserves a post because the way it seamlessly integrates with the system without hogging much resources is what appealed to me. Here’s what the startmenu looks like after running ‘Startmenu Animation’.