Changing Windows 7 start button icon has been mentioned several times in different website but without proper tutorial for normal users. Here at Computer Anthem we have put together all the steps needed to change Windows 7 start button icon. Make sure you understand these four things before you continue changing the icon.

• Orb
• Windows 7 Resource Editor
• Windows Explorer
• Taking Ownership of C:/windows

Orb: Orb is a icon that is situated in your start button. Default Windows 7 orb looks like as below

Windows 7 Resource Editor:Resource Editor is a software to edit your windows resources, you need this software to change your Windows 7 icon. There are lots of free resource editor, we are using Resource Hacker. Download free Resource Hacker

Windows Explorer: Your Windows 7 Windows Explorer, type windows explorer on your start search button and hit enter to access it.

Taking Ownership of C:/Windows : Windows 7 by default only has full ownership of C:\windows to trusted installer group. You have to take full ownership of C:/Windows before you continue with below steps, here is full tutorial on how you can do it.                         

                              Carefully follow following procedure to change the icon

Step I-Before we begin the tutorial make sure you backup file explorer.exe ( as we are tweaking system file, if something goes wrong we can restore from backup). Also make sure you take full ownership of C:/windows.

To backup explorer.exe, go to your local disk C: > Windows > Explorer. Copy explorer and save it to your USB drive or some other drive.

Step II - Download free Resource Editor of your choice, this is the one which we are using.

Step III - Now you need orb ( start button icon) of your choice, you can create one of yours or download from internet for free. For this tutorial we gone a use below orb ( start button icon)

 Step IV - Double Click exe file of Resource Editor of your choice and than go to File > Open.

Step V - Navigate it to C:\Windows\Explorer and click on Open.

Step VI - Uncollapse the folder Bitmap. We are only going to change the files in folder 6801, 6805 and 6809.

Step VII - Uncollapse 6801, right click on 1033 and click on Replace Resource.

 Step VIII - Click on Open file with new Bitmap as shown below.

Step VIX - Navigate to your new icon, highlight the icon (orb) and click on Open as shown below.

Step X - Click on Replace as shown below for your default start button icon to be replaced by the new icon of your choice.

Step XI - Repeat steps VII to X for folders 6805 and 6809.

 Steps XII - Once you complete steps VII to X for folders 6805 and 6809, Go to File > save as.

Step XIII -  Save file as explorer.exe on your desktop or on removeable drive.

Step XIV - Go back to your local disk C: > Windows > Explorer and rename explorer to explorer.exe.bak. And copy back exploer.exe previously saved on to your desktop and paste it over here.

Step XV -  Now Log off and Log on back to your PC to see the changes. Here is how start button icon looks like after the tweak.