TGHI - 10 Nov. 2004 - 15:36:
Minimal Shell32 (W2K)
Hello all.
I've been working on my shell32 for some time now and I am trying to make it's file size as small as possible. Originally W2K's shell size is ~2.2MB and I have got it down to 1.89MB by removing icons, avis and slugging through strings to try and remove useless messages.
What's bothering me is that in the shell, there are several duplicate icon groups listed throughout...SO my question is: has anyone attempted to reference all the dialogues that use similar icons to one resource instead of using duplicates?
It's easy enough for me to do...though I don't want to go through all the trouble if it doesn't work!
Thanks.
10 Nov. 2004 - 22:11
beaker
TGHI, I don't think anyone's done it yet. Just to clarify, do you mean just the items in shell32.
dll or do you mean the icons in all the shell files (explorer.exe, shell32.dll, etc)?
11 Nov. 2004 - 16:24
TGHI
Just the items in shell32, though it would be nice if I could get all of the system icons in one place! For an example, there are a few dialogues which alert the user about the recycle bin (emptying, something's too big...etc); these dialogues sometimes have seperate icon resources containing the same icons (recycle box full/empty)...not only that, but the icon that is represented in the system (on the desktop, shellfolders) is a different resource, too.
It's only after one really digs into Windows that they learn how ass backwards some of their assembly is!
With that said, I think I'll give it a try tonight and I'll see how she goes.
11 Nov. 2004 - 19:03
beaker
Good luck and please report back. I like it when anyone looks to simplify and get their system running better/faster.
12 Nov. 2004 - 04:04
TGHI
It seems that so far I have gotten the recycle bin icons to all point to the same resource, thus allowing me to delete icon resources 142,143 and 144. Of course, you have to modify every dialogue in shell32 that uses these icons so that it points to the correct one. This includes 1005, 1006, 1011, 1012, 1013, 1021, 1022, 1023, 1025, 1026, and 1028 *phew*.
There is another duplicate recycle bin icon at 192 (? i think)...though I can't find it being used anywhere in the shell, so I am assuming that it may be used by another .
dll.
After clearing the icon cache and rebooting, everything works as expected...sweet! It's a small step, but now my shell is down to 1.84MB!
12 Nov. 2004 - 23:06
bond_bbs
TGHI > You thought my shell32 @ stock ~8mb was big, i had it at 13mb, and now 15mb..
thought you might just like that justin
13 Nov. 2004 - 18:58
TGHI
ha ha ha...you and your ever expanding winxp shell....of death!
20 Nov. 2004 - 22:33
ross
when i tried removing all of the icons in 98se's shell32, after i rebooted, my "folder" icon was now always the windows default instead of the custom folder icon i had set them to. am i doing something wrong?
20 Nov. 2004 - 23:23
TGHI
uhm...what do you mean by 'reomving' icons? If you remove them without proper consideration, yes, windows may revert back to it's original icons (provided any are left...). You also may just have to poke around, the 'folder' icon appears many times within the shell, and you have to replace all of them. That, and try clearing the icon cache.
25 Nov. 2004 - 07:11
ross
where else does it apprear in the shell (the folder icon)?
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