Replacing the Windows XP Start Button Background - Preparing the new graphic.
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As always, you can create a brand new graphic if you like, but it’s much easier to edit this one. It’s a 99x99 standard Windows bitmap. Ignore the pink color you see, we’ll get into that in just a moment.
Now fire up your favorite graphic editing program. If you’re following along with me, I’ll be using Photoshop CS but you can use any editor that you like.
Let’s take a closer look at this graphic. You’ll notice that there are actually three graphics in one. That’s because this is a tri-state button, meaning that a single graphic is used to display all three button states as follows.
From top to bottom you see the Normal state, Hover (moused over) state, and Active (clicked) state. You’ll notice that the default configuration uses a lighter color for the hover state and a darker color for the active state. This is the typical style of all Windows buttons.
You’ll also notice that the buttons use shadow effects to produce a 3D shape. This is very hard to replicate in a fashion that matches the rest of the task bar so it’s best not to change it if possible. That’s why I’ll be using a slightly different method to edit my graphic.
In Photoshop, choose Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation… or simply press Ctrl + U. Now adjust the sliders until you get the color that you like. By adjusting the Hue/Saturation level instead of re-coloring the image ourselves, we are able to colorize the image without losing the shadow look.
To get the grayish look that I’m using, set your Hue to -45, Saturation to -96, and Lightness to +16. Click Ok. Now we need to add our transparency.
This is a standard Windows bitmap so it uses the color Magenta (255,0,255) to define transparency. Select that color and then select the pencil tool. Along the right side of the image, fill in all of the extra pixels so that your start button has a nice curve again. You may need to zoom in to around 500% in order to see individual pixels.
Once you’ve added your transparency, save the new bitmap as custom_startbutton.bmp using the default settings.
Next: Preparing your system. >>
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