Hook99

Hook99 is an application addressed to those still using older Windows versions, such as 9X or 2K, offering them a pretty simple way to tweak the start button.
Although this isn’t quite the kind of job aimed at beginners, the program is actually impressively easy to use, not only thanks to its intuitive interface, but also because of the limited number of features.
It’s almost impossible to get lost in the main window, so the tabbed layout should guide you throughout the whole customization process.
If you wish to modify the start button, you can do so by choosing another icon to appear on the button, which has to be stored on the local disks in .ICO format. Additionally, you can change the text on the button with the one you want and customize the style and colors.
Last but not least, Hook99 also provides multiple effects, so you can create a flat start button or a dumb one, hide it completely, make the tray window and the taskbar flat.
Besides start button tweaks, Hook99 comprises just one more feature supposed to enable the transparent icon text background and change the font color.
As you can see, everything’s pretty basic, so there’s no problem that it doesn’t include a help manual as well.
Unfortunately, Hook99 only works on older versions of Windows, which means that you can’t use it on Windows XP, Vista or 7.
All in all, Hook99 is an interesting piece of software that comes however with a very limited number of features. It works okay, but a lot of improvements are clearly needed.