VirtuaGirl Logo for Internet Explorer

Hi all, VirtuaGirl addicts, in this tutorial I'll explain how to replace the standard Internet Explorer logo of the most popular browser in cyberspace by a nicer one. If you don't know exactly what I mean, just take a look at the screenshot. You can choose whatever logo you want of course, but since this site deals with the VirtuaGirl application, I'll take a VirtuaGirl related one. I've written this tutorial for Internet Explorer 6.0, but probably it works for earlier versions too. Removing the original logo using the Registry Editor To remove the original Internet Explorer logo, you have to start the registry editor in order to change your Windows registry, the heart of your computer system. It can be dangerous to change your Windows registry if you don't know what you're doing, but if you follow the instructions below, you won't get in trouble. Click on Start, Run..., type regedit and click on OK. You're now in the Windows registry editor. In the left part of the screen, go to the folder HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Sofware\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Toolbar and click on that Toolbar folder. In the right part, look for the string values BrandBitmap and SmBrandBitmap. If you don't see these values, just continue with this tutorial. If they are present, delete them first. Selecting and editing an animated gif with JASC Animation Shop Now comes the funny part. What image will we use? Well, there's a condition: it has to be a bitmap file (*.bmp). You can make your own image with whatever graphical application you like, even with a very simple one like Microsoft Paint. You're free to make your own animation, but for this tutorial I'll take an existing animated gif from the official VirtuaGirl2 site. Now we have to transform this animated gif into a bitmap (*.bmp) file. First of all we have to separate the gif file in its constituent parts. The program I used to do this was JASC Animation Shop v3.02 included in JASC Paint Shop Pro v7.02. In Animation Shop, click on File, Open... and select the animated gif you want to use. What we see now is a series of 6 images, one for each frame. Next In JASC Animation Shop, do the following: Edit, Select All and proceed with File, Save Frames As... and save the 6 frames as bitmap files. Creating a moving logo with Microsoft Paint We're ready to paste all frames together. Paste the frames together as shown on the image. Microsoft Paint is an easy to use program to do the job. Start Microsoft Paint, click the buttons Ctrl+E and change the bitmap width to 110 pixels and its height to 1100 pixels. Open a second Microsoft Paint window and open the first frame of the animated gif: File, Open (and open the 1st image), Edit, Select all..., Edit, Copy and return to the first Microsoft Paint window. Then Edit and Paste. Do exactly the same for the next five frames (append the 2nd to the 1st, append the 3rd to the 2nd, ...). Finish this copy and paste operation with the first 4 frames once again. The frame on top is the static image. Frame 2, 3 and 4 introduce the animation and the 5th frame is the one the animation is looping to when the last frame was displayed. Save the bitmap (the filename doesn't matter) and don't forget its location. Replacing the logo Start your registry editor once again and go to the same place in the registry (HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Sofware\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Toolbar). Now you must create two new string values: SmBrandBitmap and BrandBitmap. You don't need to create them once again if they already exist. In that case you only need to change their Value data. Right click on the toolbar folder to create a new string value and give it the name SmBrandBitmap. Then right click on SmBrandBitmap, select Modify and enter the location of the bitmap file in the Value data field. Do the same for BrandBitmap and start Internet Explorer to see the result. Nice, isn't it? Remark In order to keep the layout of the toolbar acceptable, don't exaggerate with the dimensions of the used image. 38x38 pixels is ideal, but as shown in the tutorial above, it's possible to use larger images.