Summary: Hiding XP / Booting to your Emulator / Optimizing boot

[Hiub1]

Wow, that program looks nice indeed. I will give it a shot when I go back home.

[JonnyBoy]

Yeah, I've downloaded it but haven't tried it, because I am not done setting up the software.

If you have any problems, be sure to report them at www.gameex.info.

Tom tries to keep things from being buggy, I'm sure he'll appreciate the feedback.

[Cananas]

Come on guys! First post, third line... it was here all the time...

[M3talhead]

Come on guys! First post, third line... it was here all the time...

*PFFFT*

You expect us to READ? Most of us here have enough trouble staying concious as it is....

[Level42]

What you say M3talhead, and also what cananas writes is not true !

This info was later added to the original post following my reply #22
It wasn't there all the time 

So you're all excused  

On a serious note: apart from the cursor thing I've hidden XP completely at start-up. Now how to hide xp when shutting down from Mamewah ?

[Taborious]

Well, the obvious answer is use Linux, that would solve the majority of the problems. But I'm sure most will use windows and I have no answer so this post is uselsss...

[Cananas]

What you say M3talhead, and also what cananas writes is not true !

This info was later added to the original post following my reply #22
It wasn't there all the time 

So you're all excused  

Thanks, but...

First post:

[Level42]

Hahahaha, good work inspector Clouseau !

Jonnyboy is not excused, all others are  

[Gaston77]

This is an excellent write-up and one that should be mandatory reading for everybody who wants to make the arcade authentic!

Great Stuff!   

[Chris]

One note on making Explorer your shell: Some programs that get started by Explorer won't run, like the Troubleshooter utility for Act-Labs guns and the Logitech button remapping utility. (There's probably a way to get MAMEWah to start them, now that I think about it, but I haven't really looked it at...)

[clhug]

Finally got around to setting this up on my MAME box and have a few comments and questions.

Thanks to M3talhead for the "War Games" intro idea!  I found an MP3 of it on the web and edited a couple phrases together.  On bootup mine now has WOPR saying "Greetings Professor.  Shall we play a game?"  I took out the "Falken" name so whoever was booting it up, it sounds like it's talking to that person.  I almost took out the "Professor" part too but just plain "Greetings" didn't flow as well into the "Shall we play a game?" line.

Now I'd like to find something like WOPR saying "Goodbye Professor" for shutdown.  Any other recommendataions for a good shut down sound for a MAME cabinet?  OH, wait!! (Just thought of this as I'm writing.)  If I can find it as an MP3, maybe the sound the PAC-Man game makes when Pac Man dies. <wait> Okay I just searched and found the sound as a .wav file, but it's too short for what I'd really like.  Any other suggestions for a shutdown sound still very welcome!

Bootskins doesn't work on my PC.  I get the BSOD.  I opted for the simple modifying boot.ini to include the /bootlogo /noguiboot switches.  I still borrowed the MAME boot screen from bootskins though for my boot screen.  I don't get the animated progress bar but I can live without that.  I like the MAME boot up screen so I'm not going to do the PCI card thing.  Also, when starting from a cold start (I have a Bits Ltd. SmartStrip) the monitor doesn't warm up until after the BIOS screen on the PC is already past so I don't have to worry about seeing the BIOS text either.

What I ended up doing for hiding the cursor was to make my background black and then make a black cursor, so you can't see the cursor on bootup but if I exit Mamewah I can still see the cursor to navigate around the task bar and start menu.  And if I right-click on the bare desktop to bring up the Desktop Settings dialog to change the background color, the black mouse pointer shows up over the dialog very easy.  Then of course I change the background color to something else to work on the PC.

Which brings me to my first question.  Even though I've set the task bar to "auto-hide" it still appears for a few seconds before Mamewah loads (just loading Mamewah from the Startup group).  I also tried leaving auto-hide off and just manually sizing the task bar down until you just see it as a thin line but it doesn't retain that small of a profile through a reboot.  Any way to mabye color the task bar black too?

Next question, to go along with my shutdown sound, is it possible to give Windows XP a shut down screen like you could in Win 98?  I'm thinking of maybe still using the same MAME boot screen from bootskins but change the text about "System Loading, Please Stand By..." to read "System Shutting Down" or just "Goodbye" or something.

[Tiger-Heli]

Which brings me to my first question.  Even though I've set the task bar to "auto-hide" it still appears for a few seconds before Mamewah loads (just loading Mamewah from the Startup group).  I also tried leaving auto-hide off and just manually sizing the task bar down until you just see it as a thin line but it doesn't retain that small of a profile through a reboot.  Any way to mabye color the task bar black too?

Using MAMEwah as a shell instead of Explorer should take care of this, but I haven't tried it, and I guess you probably weren't crazy about it since it was mentioned previously.

You can probably get a black taskbar with some of the WindowBlinds themes from StarDock, but I have never really liked their software.

Simpler solution - Couldn't you select Windows Classic Theme and then use the appearance tab to make the taskbar black?

[clhug]

Yeah, I didn't really want to mess with making Mamewah the shell.  Other than the task bar now, I've got everything else completely hidden on startup.

Good idea about using classic theme.  I just tried that and I was able to make the task bar black by changing to classic theme and then setting 3D objects to black.  But it affects ALL 3D dialog boxes which makes the system very hard to use.  So for now, I'll suffer with havin the task bar appear for a couple seconds on startup.

Also, I wanted to add another tip regarding adding the custom cursors (whether you do transparent, or the dot or black, or whatever) to the Default user profile to prevent the cursor from appearing on the login screen too.  For the manual method, instead of manually creating the HKEY_USERS\.Default\Control Panel\Cursors key and subkeys, just use Regedit to export the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Cursors key to a .reg file, then edit that file in notepad and change the [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Cursors] line to read [HKEY_USERS\.Default\Control Panel\Cursors], then reimport the .reg file.  Much quicker than creating all those keys manually.

Also, if you do still decide to create the .Default cursor registry keys manually, the only ones you really need to create are the ones for AppStarting, Arrow, and Wait.  It's highly unklikely any of the other cursor types would show up in the few seconds the default cursors are shown on bootup with the auto-login turned on.

Still looking for any good suggestions on a shut down sound.  I've gone with Pac Man dieing for now, but would like something better.

And if anybody knows how to create a shutdown screen in Windows XP...

So, now I've got the boot up sequence right.  Now I've just got to dig into Mamewah to get all the fancy stuff working like the preview movies and sound.  I've got a lot of reading to do.

Thanks again!

[Chris]

Good idea about using classic theme.  I just tried that and I was able to make the task bar black by changing to classic theme and then setting 3D objects to black.  But it affects ALL 3D dialog boxes which makes the system very hard to use.  So for now, I'll suffer with havin the task bar appear for a couple seconds on startup.

Here's an idea: make it grey, and set the background to be the grey-on-black grid that many arcade games flashed for a couple of seconds on startup.  The taskbar will get lost against the grid and it will give it a bit of arcade flavor.

--Chris

[Zeppo]

Yes, but generaly the idea is that Mamewah is configured to START explorer.exe upon exiting Mamewah. And that's not working.

Minwah where are you, we need your help !

HA!!  I've figured it out!!!  It's 7:00AM and I've been up all friggin night!!  But I got it to work!


mamewah_v161\ctrlr\default.ini

************
EXIT_WITH_CHOICE      
EXIT_TO_WINDOWS         "DIK_ESCAPE"
EXIT_AND_RUN_APP      
EXIT_AND_REBOOT         
EXIT_AND_SHUTDOWN      
************

guess where "DIK_ESCAPE" needs to be!  That's right...make it look like this:

************
EXIT_WITH_CHOICE      
EXIT_TO_WINDOWS         
EXIT_AND_RUN_APP      "DIK_ESCAPE"
EXIT_AND_REBOOT         
EXIT_AND_SHUTDOWN      
************

TADA!!!  I'm delirious!  I'm going to bed!!!   

Ok, I did all that, but my mamewah still doesn't run the explorer when it exits.
All I get is a black screen with the cursor.
I hit ctrl-alt-delete, and use that to run explorer.
Explorer will run, but then it goes back to mamewah for some reason.
Then when I exit mamewah the second time, it goes to the explorer.


Also, I can't get the MAME boot screen to come up using the Stardocks Bootskin.
I followed the directions, got it imported, hit apply, it says it is now using the mame skin, but when I reboot, the screen just stays black until it boots into mamewah.


Anyways, thanks for an awesome guide!

[Zeppo]

Ok, figured out that I needed to uncheck the box in msconfig for /noguiboot.
I must have just brain farted and didn't put 2 and 2 together when the first section said to disable the boot screen altogether, and the second section was how to make it look like something else.
But, that's a newb for ya. Not quite understanding things.

Anyways, still can't get mamewah to exit and run explorer yet.
Have tried everything I can think of.

[markb]

Not sure if this is really on topic but there are some easy ways of reducing the amount of hardrive space that XP takes up as well, this is especially useful if you have an old hardrive of under 10gb that you want to use.

The recycle bin
By default its set to 10%, either reduce it 2-3% or turn it off completely

Virtual Memory
Go Start-Settings-Control Panel-System-Advanced
Click on the settings box next to performance then advanced tab.
This will show the virtual memory used and there are several schools of thought on what size this should be however it defaults to a min of x1.5 installed ram and max of x3. I always set both to the lower value and have had no problems, however I suggest experimenting.

Internet Explorer
Internet explorer has a cache reserved for temporary files, open IE and go Tools-Internet Options-general, click on the settings tab next to temporary files then reduce the size to whatever you require.

System restore (Already covered)
System restore size can be reduced or turned off.
Go Start-Settings-Control Panel-System-System restore-Settings
You can move the slider to whatever size you wish, however make sure you have enough to run a restore in the event of a system failure.


By doing all these I estimate on a small harddrive of about 6gb you can save  1 - 1.5gb in space and thats one hell of a lot of games.

[loadman]

I just formatted my hard-drive for an exercise   
(Don't ask)
anyway ....... I  did have most of this info but not in any neat format. It consisted of highlighted bits from web printouts and mags.

Thanks for taking the time to collate this in a logical order 

[RTSDaddy2]

I haven't had an opportunity to try this yet, but this is truly well written.  Thanks for taking the time to do this for those of us who - more oft than not - tend to be a little clueless about how the "behind the scenes" stuff works.  Hooray!! 

[holdennut]

Zeppo, I had the same problem, had to edit mamewah.ini and set app_to_run_on_exit to c:\windows\explorer.exe. For some reason it needed the full path!

Hope this works for you.

[muzland]

Hi All,

I have managed to get GameEx under XP running as a shell. Apart from not configuring one thing correctly (what to do when you exit) it works like a charm.  I followed the instructions here and then used Tom's instant sheller tool.

One issue I have though is that my wireless network connection does not work so I cant use the internet radio or news feeds. Anyone got any ideas? I guess this is an XP thing rather than a GameEx thing hence I am posting here. Anyone else got the same problem Maybe I have to set an app/driver for this to run on startup or something. All help appreciated.

Cheers
Muz

[Justin]

I have a carputer as well as a MAME cab, and for my carputer I use this little app that hides your mouse cursos hassle free...  very useful because it is very easy to re-enable it momentarily for cab maintenance:

http://www.mp3car.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=61978

[Havok]

I have a carputer as well as a MAME cab, and for my carputer I use this little app that hides your mouse cursos hassle free...  very useful because it is very easy to re-enable it momentarily for cab maintenance:

http://www.mp3car.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=61978

Nice! I just tried this out, and it rocks! I love the one pixel mouse - perfect for hiding it, and being able to use it if need be. Plus, the fact you can bring back the normal mouse easily is a nice option...

[lordtodd75]

For everyone that is having problems seeing the invisible cursor, try turning cursor sonar (i think it is callesd that) on. Just make sure you turn it off before you boot back into your FE or it will show up in game every time you hit something mapped to your alt key.

[Tiger-Heli]

For everyone that is having problems seeing the invisible cursor, try turning cursor sonar (i think it is callesd that) on.

Start>Settings>Control Panel>Mouse>Pointer Options>"Show location of pointer when I press the CTRL Key"

[holdennut]

Here's another couple of things you might want to disable.

StickyKeys: Start - Control Panel - Accessability Options (that damb shift key catches me everytime!)

SoundScheme: Start - Control Panel - Sounds And Audio Devices - Sounds (I can't stand those Windows startup and shutdown sounds)

[loadman]

One issue I have though is that my wireless network connection does not work so I cant use the internet radio or news feeds. Anyone got any ideas? I guess this is an XP thing rather than a GameEx thing hence I am posting here. Anyone else got the same problem Maybe I have to set an app/driver for this to run on startup or something. All help appreciated.

Weird, Wireless works for me with my FE as a shell using XP.

Have you tried changing the shell back to explorer and making sure wireless works again then switching back to GameEx as your shell?

[Timoe]

After my Boot screen I get a Blue graphic that says "Gateway" in the bottom right corner this same screen also pops up right before shutdown.

Can anyone help me to remove it?

I have disabled the XP welcome screen as well as the XP logon screen.  I think I followed all the steps in this thread.  Is there something I am missing?

[theCoder]

After my Boot screen I get a Blue graphic that says "Gateway" in the bottom right corner this same screen also pops up right before shutdown.

Can anyone help me to remove it?

I have disabled the XP welcome screen as well as the XP logon screen.  I think I followed all the steps in this thread.  Is there something I am missing?

I've got the same thing going on.  I think it is in the bios or rom of the motherboard.  If you're using a desktop unit, I suspect the "use an old PCI card" trick described previously in this thread will at least hide it on boot.  I'm using a laptop and don't have that option.  Any ideas anyone?

[escher]

After my Boot screen I get a Blue graphic that says "Gateway" in the bottom right corner this same screen also pops up right before shutdown.

Can anyone help me to remove it?

I have disabled the XP welcome screen as well as the XP logon screen.  I think I followed all the steps in this thread.  Is there something I am missing?

I've got the same thing going on.  I think it is in the bios or rom of the motherboard.  If you're using a desktop unit, I suspect the "use an old PCI card" trick described previously in this thread will at least hide it on boot.  I'm using a laptop and don't have that option.  Any ideas anyone?

I have a feeling you're right about the BIOS.  You might be able to flash it to get rid of the proprietary Gateway parts.

[DrewKaree]

It is in the BIOS, but I'd be awful careful with flashing it.  Since I've kinda lost track of who this is at, know that I'm speaking to the laptop users.  Flash the wrong one and you've got yourself a thin doorstop as a laptop, if you're even able to find a BIOS for it.  I know I've had a ---smurfette--- of a time finding BIOS' for some PC's, I can't imagine they'll make it EASIER for laptop users.

[Zeppo]

EDIT:

Nevermind.

[Banacek]

Can this get stickied?

[DrewKaree]

Can this get stickied?

I think you meant to say "WIKI'd", and it is.

[Banacek]

Can this get stickied?

I think you meant to say "WIKI'd", and it is.

Ok, cool.

[topher0002]

One issue I have though is that my wireless network connection does not work so I cant use the internet radio or news feeds. Anyone got any ideas? I guess this is an XP thing rather than a GameEx thing hence I am posting here. Anyone else got the same problem Maybe I have to set an app/driver for this to run on startup or something. All help appreciated.

Weird, Wireless works for me with my FE as a shell using XP.

Have you tried changing the shell back to explorer and making sure wireless works again then switching back to GameEx as your shell?

along the lines of these two quotes, I have looked through the forums and cannot find a good answer....I have a similiar problem,  I have the guncon software in my startup, along with a little program called voumetray that allows me to use my joysticks to control windows volume.   When I use the sheller everthing is great except those programs in startup dont run,  is there a way to get these to run in the background along with  mamewah?

I do have a theory on the wireless problem though,  if you have third party wireless software running in startup instead of just having windows control your wireless,  that may be why its not working,  startup items dont actually startup because its shelling mamewah or gamex and thats it.    Thats just my opinion.

Anyone know a good answer to these questions,  THANKS A BUNCH!!!

[topher0002]

Stumbled across my own answer here.....use the tool called XYNTService at the bottom of this page:

http://wiki.arcadecontrols.com/wiki/Other_Software#Utilities

[G1zm0]

hi tryed this method on xp pro, did thet edit bootscreen, changed settings but no bootscreen was displayed, then came up something about windows settings changed and wanted to restore them, so i tryed again and nothing, even ticking  box twice check/uncheck, also the loggin, i didnt have login till did what it sayed to get rid of welcome screen, and it started asking for a password and i couldnt get rid of it, now ive locked myself out and ned to reinstall windows, what went wrong??

[Noelix]

I'm not sure if anybody mentioned this yet, but Tom from GameEx has a cool little program called Instant Sheller. It can be used with any frontend, and creates a bootscreen of your choice, hides the mouse within windows and all that jazz. You guys may want to check it out.

http://tomspeirs.com/gameex/shell.htm

I know this is an old topic but I just wanted to say thank you for this suggestion, this worked spectacularly.  I was looking all night about how to hide the mouse cursor easily on windows startup.

I visit this site on occasion as I'm in the process of setting up an arcade system on windows, but I used this software for a media center application (MediaPortal).

Anyways, the software worked great and even had some other options that could have saved me some time earlier.  They've continued to update it since you posted this long ago and it works great.  Thank you Thank you Thank you!

[rikprice]

EXCELLENT POST
YOU HAVE SAVED ME HOURS OF WORK

THANK YOU