Changing a program's display name in Windows 7

I have tried some resource editors but they all sucked, then I managed to change the executable’s entry in the following registry key and it worked for me, without need for a resource editor at all:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\MuiCache

The executable description is pulled from the executable itself, from the Version resource, in the FileDescription field

You can use a Resource Editor to modify the executable and change the description. This is editing the notepad++ description from "Notepad++: a free (GNU) source code editor" to "Notepad++ Hum":

Here is the dialog afterwards:

The information seems to be aquired from the "version info" in the program itself, it is the file description. "Resource hacker" will show that. lets assume that you have the rights to alter it , you can just edit the text there, "compile script", then save the program back out.

Not done yet, because it is also stored in the MUI in the registry, so you can search for it in the registry, and remove it from the MUI, or do a MUI rip removing all of them.
If you change it just in the registry MUI it might stick for a while.

Observe the same information being provided via the explorer in the "baloon" when hovering over the program , or by setting the "file description" item as one of the columns.

Messing with a programs resources , using that method doesnt work for some things, and changing things can rarely make a program work different/worse. Resource hacker saves a file called filename.original , when you do a save over the original. That file is the backup.