i was wondering, which file is the one that (you guessed it.) handles all of the crap on the task bar in win98 se? im trying to make an updated port of the taskbar from chicago build 58s, and i tryed swaping explorer.exe w/cabinet.exe, but literally nothing happens...any ideas?

When you say you have tried swapping do you mean in system.ini or renaming them and copying into the same folder?

no, i rename cabinet.exe as explorer.exe, then copy it over, but that didn't work...

I thought it was cab32.exe

You could try the system.ini method, will update you on how to do it when I get home in about 4 hours. But it involves modifying system files, and if done wrong it can frightfully can tell you that you need to reinstall windows due to errors, however you can edit the files in DOS which should save you if it should fail.

It's about as scary as modifying the registry which is also stressed as dangerous but really isn't unless you're lingering over the delete key having selected the whole HKLM tree

Follow step 1:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/249191

Thanks TheWahbinator, one thing that id like to add is that you can also use paths (not just files in the same folder as explorer.exe)
eg. you can use



instead of just



but dont forget the quotes if your using a path.

Also if something does go wrong just reboot into DOS (F8 on boot ) and type at the prompt:



(edit.com might be in some other folder)

change your shell= line in the [boot] section so it reads



and it should be back to normal.

thanks guys, i got it going, but i opted for a safer of replacing the explorer from 95 with 98, once i feel a little braver, i'll swap out the 98 explorer with the one from chicago 58s