This project is used to modify the start button logo of windows 10 computers.
The logos are precompiled into the binary, but the UI supports loading the images from files and then exporting a new dll / installer using the new configuration.
For more information, see Logo Images.
This tool was tested on Windows 10 21h1, but should work for any "new enough" version of Windows 10.
Currently, the installation can only be global for all the users in the computer, and requires administrative privileges.
Just slide the UI slider to install / uninstall. It may take a few seconds.
For a scripted deployment, you may do the same things as the UI manually:
- Put winlogo.dll in a globally available directory (such as
C:\Windows\System32) - In cmd, run
regsvr32.exe winlogo.dll
- In cmd, run
regsvr32.exe /u winlogo.dll - Restart explorer.exe
- Delete the dll
The tool is built using Visual Studio 2019 - just use it to open the .sln file and compile (you might have to install the nuget dependencies for the UI project).
The tool is a DLL (winlogo.dll) loaded into explorer. In order to get loaded, it is registered as an Icon Overlay (that's why it can only be registered globally for all users).
For more details about the registration process, see Registration.cpp.
WinLogo uses IAT hooking to hook several functions used by explorer while drawing the start button (See LogoHooks.cpp):
OpenThemeDataForDpi- When explorer loads the theme, the theme handle for "Taskbarpearl" is saved in order to later find out when explorer draws the start button.CloseThemeData- Unregisters the theme handle when it's closed.DrawThemeBackground- Skips the drawing of the start button. The next hook is responsible for the drawing. The function is only called when drawing a "disabled" logo, so it is used to mark which type of logo we should draw.EndBufferedPaint- Winlogo hijacks this function in order to draw the actual logo images.
The logo images are taken from resources compiled into the binary, named enabled.bmp and disabled.bmp.
Currently, there are several limitations regarding the images:
- They are compiled directly into winlogo.dll
- They must be BMP files
- Transparency is achieved by using a black background
- The size is used for the drawing - there is now stretching / resizing done by winlogo.
The UI supports changing the images in the dll - just click on one of the images and select an image file from your computer without any of these limitations. The file will be converted and stretched to achieve the requirements.
After changing the images, it is possible to export either the dll / a new installer using the Export menu.
The code uses the Guidelines Support Library, as taken from this repository, commit 10ce5b634f40d1a51c7ab92c362c77d4438c1d51.
The code for RestartManagerSession.cs was taken from the following gist: https://gist.github.com/falahati/34b23831733151460de1368c5fba8e93.