Getting rid of Vista's Start Orb?

S

stop!theradio

2[H]4U
Joined
Jul 13, 2007
Messages
3,523
Does anyone know how it can be done? I just want to remove the start orb completely. I still want the start menu to be there and everything, just invisible, I guess? I just want to take thw start orb image off of the taskbar. I'm using Vista Business x64.
 
Have you considered a theme manager or replacing your uxtheme.dll with a patched version?
 
Lol, I'm way past that. :p

I was just wanting to know if there's a way to remove the start button from Vista.
 
yes, and you want to retain the functionality of the start menu, just no orb. Sooo, patching your uxtheme.dll is going to be how you get there.
 
If you were truly "way past that" then you'd understand that to remove the Orb you need to patch the necessary files (it's not just one single file in Vista/Windows7 as it was in XP - it's more complicated but still possible) to allow you to modify the other files to remove the Orb. ;)

The answer is yes, it's possible. There's a subforum over at Neowin.net about customizing Vista (and the instructions should apply to Windows 7 also) as well as themes and styles that don't have the Start Orb in them at all. The answer(s) you seek are over there...
 
Are you guys not understanding what I'm saying? I've patched uxtheme and browseui dll's for the past, what, 8 years? I'm asking if anyone HERE (not Neowin) knows of a way to hide just the start orb, not how to apply a theme that has an invisible start button, because if I were trying to do that, it would be done already. Is there any sort of script that anyone knows about, or a registry tweak that makes the start orb invisible or fully opaque so that it seems like it's not there?
 
Ok, then the revised answer to your revised question is NO, there is no way to just "hide" the Orb or "turn it off" - it requires you to use a theme or style that doesn't have the actual code to display the Orb at all.

Does that help? After 8 years... you should know this stuff.
 
The thing is, technically, many of us probably know how to go about solving this problem, but.. You have a specific goal in mind, therefore you should be able to find the right method to obtain the results you desire.

The C# and C++ API's for theme development don't come with toggle (transparency) switches, you know. ;)
 
Joe Average said:
Ok, then the revised answer to your revised question is NO, there is no way to just "hide" the Orb or "turn it off" - it requires you to use a theme or style that doesn't have the actual code to display the Orb at all.

Does that help? After 8 years... you should know this stuff.
Click to expand...

You can stop acting like you know what you're talking about now. The start button image in whatever theme it is you choose to use is separate from the actual process that runs the start menu. If you get rid of that process, the image won't show on your taskbar, no matter what theme you use, weather it was coded to use the start menu or not. Your sly insults don't make you look any better, either. In any case, I've found a C# solution to get rid of the start button, and thanks to the person who linked to the startkiller app. :)

EDIT: Screw the C# stuff...startkiller works perfectly, only uses 1.8mb of memory. Quick and painless...thanks a lot for the link!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top