resize msconfig dialog box

J

Jazzer The Cat

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Hello, all :D

I was Googling around earlier today and found ***THIS*** wonderful thread on expanding the msconfig dialog box and worked wonderfully. I actually found out you can "drag" the dialog boxes via Resource Hacker and make it custom without editing the numbers directly... I digress

As you can see below, I had no trouble addressing the Startup tab (or any of those to the left, for that matter)...
msconfigStartuptab.jpg


But cannot figure out where the dialog box for Tools is located...
msconfigToolstab.jpg


I have completely scoured the msconfig.exe utility and is not there. I have also found my msconfig.exe from my other OS running XP SP2 and copied it to my current XP SP3. That msconfig opens and has NO Tools tab, so would appear that the msconfig in SP3 differs. I don't think it does, but rather the Tools tab is "linked" to another file or something. I have checked explorer.exe and several .dlls and had no luck

.... anyone have any idea where the dialog box for the Tools tab would be located?

Jazzer The Kitty is confused :)
 
Well, no one replied :( but I figured it out anyway :)

The "Tools" tab of msconfig of XP SP3 is located within the "spxp3res.dll" file in System32. I figured that since the SP2 msconfig would work just fine within SP3 (without the "Tools" tab, of course), this MUST be a change that occured without mofication to any other files and is a brand new one for the SP3 update.

This is kind of a message in a bottle thing as maybe someday, some poor lost soul that wanted to do the same thing as I, would stumble across this post and be brought back from the edge.... maybe not ;)

Jazzer :)
 
Didnt see this. :0
Gotta say, this could be helpful when trying to track down a rouge app.
 
Jazzer The Cat said:
Well, no one replied :( but I figured it out anyway :)

The "Tools" tab of msconfig of XP SP3 is located within the "spxp3res.dll" file in System32. I figured that since the SP2 msconfig would work just fine within SP3 (without the "Tools" tab, of course), this MUST be a change that occured without mofication to any other files and is a brand new one for the SP3 update.

This is kind of a message in a bottle thing as maybe someday, some poor lost soul that wanted to do the same thing as I, would stumble across this post and be brought back from the edge.... maybe not ;)

Jazzer :)
Click to expand...

Thanks Jazzer - it's incredibly helpful when someone reports back with findings like this :thumb:. I guess no-one was able to help the first time around, but I'm sure this will be very helpful when someone else tries it.

Welcome to the forums :).
 
Over the course of the last couple months or so, I have been tinkering around with some additional system files to make XP more user friendly. I found the comdlg32.dll file especially helpful so that the "Look-in" dialog box is now a reasonable size in which to work. There are some nice programs out there to allow one to "stretch" the dialog boxes, but must run at all times to remember settings and don't work within some programs. Resource Hacker is a good example of this and if you have ever used it to locate/edit a file in the System32 folder, you know what I mean :(


Here is a screenshot of the edited Comdlg32.dll file in the background while using the "Open file" dialog box within Resource Hacker. This dialog box was not able to be expanded with Lingo's OpenWide (best of those I could find for dialog box expansion programs)

OpenFiledialogbox.jpg


Resource Hacker is an absolutely amazing program and capable of addressing many tweaks within Windows for a custom look/feel :D

Jazzer... lookin' for that life I am sure I left behind somewhere :)
 
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