Replace Windows 7 Default Boot Screen Animation

There are plenty of options available in Windows 7 using which you can customize the appearance of your desktop and other icons but it is really difficult to customize the appearance of your Window 7 boot screen using inbuilt options. So for doing it, you can use a nifty tool named Windows 7 Boot Updater.

This tool is a freeware and allows you to change your Windows 7 boot screen animations and text. Using this tool, you can give a new look to your Windows while it boots up. This tool even doesn’t requires any installation and is portable i.e you can carry it on any portable device and then run on any PC. Windows 7 Boot Updater is written in C++/CLI and it requires .NET Framework 2.0 or higher and it will use the Windows WIM library.

This is the main window of this tool. You will need to run this tool as an admin else it won’t allow you to make changes. Now at the main window, two main options are given i.e Animation and Text. Now in Animation, this tool automatically Select bootress.dll file. The next option is to Select Animation. This option will let you choose any desires animation for your windows 7 boot screen.

There are plenty of animations available over web. You can try this Grayscale Animationwhich is given of this tool’s developer’s web page. So from next time when you boot up your system, you will see the new animation. You can even revert back to your original animation by downloading it from this link.

Now the next option available is Text. Here too, this tool automatically loads the Winload.exe file. Now below this option, two boxer are available with name Message and Copyright. You must have noticed this text when you boot up your system.

So you can change these two text by simply writing the new desired text in those two boxes. Once done with all these settings, click on Go to save this configuration and from the next boot up time, the changes will be reflected automatically. You can see an example below how your boot screen will appear when you apply the grey Windows 7 animation theme.

You can see these changes which I have applied using this tool. So in similar fashion, you can change animation and text.

The size of Windows 7 Boot Updater is just 294 Kb. This freeware is compatible with Windows 7 32 bit and 64 bit editions and has been tested successfully on Windows 7 Ultimate-32 bit edition.

Download Windows 7 Boot Updater

Quick Organize, Filter Start Menu All Programs Into Categories

Windows 7 has become so much popular because of its number of new and innovative features but one of the feature which have not changed is the start menu. The icons and folders in Windows 7 start menu are as usual quite messy and it do takes lots of time to locate the applications folders and icon in the long list.

So if you don’t want to waste your time in searching for items in your start menu and , then today we will be telling you about a tool named Handy Start Menu using which you can group all the installed application under specific categories. Handy Start Menu is a very simple tool and helps you to change the looks of your start menu and make it much more easier to locate items in start menu.

This will make your work so much simple that you won’t even require to add application’s shortcuts on your desktop. By default, your start menu in Windows 7 looks something as shown above. Now it is often very tedious to locate any application from long list of folders and if you forget the name of application, then it will even become more tougher.

So when you run this tool, you will see the following window.

There are two options available on the main window i.e Enable Improved Start Menu and Adjust Categories of Start Menu Items. First click on Adjust Categories of Start Menu items, to see how this tool is categorizing your all applications. When to click on this option, you will see the following window.

This tool automatically categorizes most of you applications under specific categories. You can see that it have added all my web browsers i.e Chrome, IE, Firefox and Google Talk under category Internet. Similarly it have done for other applications. But at top it will show the number of application which are uncategorized. To place them under any category, just click on that application.

Like I have clicked on AVG 8.5. Now on the right part of the tool, you can see the various categories which are available in this tool. Click on any category which you this is appropriate for that particular application and then that particular application will move to desired category. Similarly you can even change category of any item.

Once you are done with it, click on Ok and then from main window click on “Enable Improved Start Menu”. Then you Windows Explorer will restart in fractions of seconds and then open your Start Menu. You will find your start menu being categorized in respective groups and now it will be very easy and faster for you to locate any application.

You can anytime manage your items by simply clicking on Click to Manage the menu located in bottom of your start menu and then manage the items accordingly. This tool won’t affect the performance of you system. You can even revert back to your original menu anytime by simply click on this tool and then click on Return to Standard Start Menu.

The size of Handy Start Menu is 2.49 Mb and as usual it will create a desktop shortcut which can be used to access this freeware. This tool is compatible with all the editions of Windows 7 and has been tested successfully on Windows 7 Ultimate-32 bit edition.

Download Handy Start Menu

Replace, Modify Windows 7 Default Icons

Most of us usually get bored with the standard old look of the icons in windows. Especially, those who like to take so much care about the looks even if it is an icon of the operating system. These people like to personalize every single aspect in everything. Also, people who are tech-freak like to do the same with their computer looks.

Although, most of the users like to use custom tools available easily like CustoPack Toolsfor personalizing their windows but if you really want something differnet then, changing the icons manually is the best option.

So, there is a freeware called AdSevenIconChalenger for windows 7 users which will help them to change their default windows 7 icons easily with the use of few clicks.

AdSevenIconChalanger is a smart and compact application (of only 38kb). Also, most of us will not be knowing that windows by default stores the icons in dll files such as Shell32.dll, Imageres.dll, User32.dll, Powercpl.dll, which can be found in System32 folder. This tool allows us to choose the icons from these types of files and allow us to change the icon as per our desire.

The tool is portable so, needs no installation but when you will run it, run it as ‘administrator’ otherwise it might create some problems. The main window of the tool is like this. You can change the icons of many places like hard drive, desktop, recycle bin empty and many more with this application. First, you have to select the place from these options available.

After selecting the place, first go in the option ‘select icon’ where you can choose the icons from different types of files – Shell32.dll, Imageres.dll, ActionCenterCPL.dll, User32.dll and Powercpl.dll.

Now, you just have to select the icon which you want to change and click ‘change icon’ option in the main window. The icon preview will also be seen in the main window which you can remove it by just clicking on it.

The changes will apply only after restart or log off of the computer. AdSevenIconChanger also allows you to restore the original icon at any time.

Download AdSevenIconChanger

Also, read about similar tool on Change Windows 7 Default Icons In Taskbar and Start Menu