Boot skin and start up issues

[Marky_1979]

Hi guys iv been looking around and seen a lot of mame machines that boot up into a fake loading screen and then straight into Mame making it look as if its not a pc using windows. I know that boot skin program is used and iv managed to get that working to a degree only problem is that when I turn on pc it goes to boot skin then to a windows welcome logo and then it loads up something for a few minutes all the time showing my desk top and mouse cursor therefore making the whole proccess pointless. Can you guys help speed up the process and remove my problem.

I placed my mame start up exe in the start up folder so that its the first thing to load up. The whole process takes a few minutes where on videos Iv seen it all boot up and happens in a matter of seconds.

Hope you guys can help me out with this one.

[urbecrisch]

I'm in the same boat.  Curious to what others do.

[tba]

ya i had that problem too, i replaced the bios boot screen and the windows start up screens but there was that nagging "windows welcome" screen.

the answer is simple, replace the windows GUI with a custom shell (i made all that up so it is probably nonsense sounding) anyways the answer to all your questions can be found on this page:

http://www.gameex.net/Community/InstantSheller/tabid/73/Default.aspx

good luck, i used the program and it worked great for me, no windows, just a slight flicker of a cursor for about .5 - 1 second... i can live with that.

[FrizzleFried]

I had issues shelling myself...so I went to the BYOAC wiki and looked up how to hide windows.  With some registry tweaks and changing my mouse cursor to a single pixel all I get ab boot up now is the blackified start "bar" for about 1 second...that is it.  I've tried turning off the bar,  no go...

Start here:

http://wiki.arcadecontrols.com/wiki/Hiding_Windows

[Fozzy The Bear]

I tried hiding windows on a Win98 setup. It works better with that than it does on WinXP.

To be honest I really don't much see the point for my own personal use. I already know there's a PC inside the cabinet. So does everybody else that comes round, because most of the time they're so curious about it that I end up opening the cabinet up so that they can see what makes it all work.

The only time I can see it being a real problem is in a commercial environment where you wouldn't want the public to be aware of it. That said, that would of course be illegal to do with Mame (Ahem Ahem Cough Cough).

The fact is that more and more real world arcade machines actually run under either Windows, or a derivative of Linux. Mostly because it's a very cheap way for commercial manufacturers to build an arcade machine. $1000 worth of case and components that they then charge arcade operators between $5000 and $25,000 for.  It also makes the hardware much more adaptable allowing the release of many games using the very same basic hardware.

Every day I see windows boot screens and Linux start-up command files, pop up on the machines in the arcade, before they boot into the actual game they're running.  So, personally for me anyway, seeing windows boot-up before the launcher doesn't look in any way to be wrong.  Personal choice I suppose.

Best Regards,
Julian (Fozzy The Bear)

[theCoder]

I had issues shelling myself...so I went to the BYOAC wiki and looked up how to hide windows.  With some registry tweaks and changing my mouse cursor to a single pixel all I get ab boot up now is the blackified start "bar" for about 1 second...that is it.  I've tried turning off the bar,  no go...

Start here:

http://wiki.arcadecontrols.com/wiki/Hiding_Windows

I just went through this process also and used that wiki as well.  The only evidence that remains is the start bar for about 1 second.  That too will go away when I replace explorer with my menu software.  Manufacturer logo gone, bios screen gone, cursor gone (on start and shutdown) Welcome screen gone, logon screen / password gone.  I started by Googling "XP boot optimize" (minus the quotes).

[kelemvor]

I tried using BootSkin but every time I tried to load up one of the Mame screens I found on the website, or the built in ones, I got an invalid Bootskin file and couldn't even test it out.  Don't know why as it was a fresh install and such but I figured oh well, no big deal I guess.

[Encryptor]

I use bootskin with no problems. I have 2 different MAME screens that have a progress bar that works.

To get rid of the Welcome screen in XP go into user accounts and uncheck the Use Welcome Screen box that is there. Then use TweakUIXP to autolog in the user.


Encryptor

[david656]

i followed the txt part of http://www.gameex.net/Community/InstantSheller/tabid/73/Default.aspx

but didn't bother to touch the cursor and used bootskin, that previously wouldn't work but after doing that walk through would ! and use the following method to make it automaticly login

Bypass The Windows XP Log On Screen
To make logon an unattended process:
Click [Start] [Run] and type
control userpasswords2
Click [OK]
The [User Accounts] Property Sheet displays.
On [Users] tab, clear the [Users must enter a user name and password to use this computer] check box.
Click [Apply].
Enter a user name and password that should be used to logon automatically in the dialog box that appears.
Click [OK].
Go to [Control Panel] [User Accounts] [Change the Way Users Log On and Off].
Uncheck [Use the Welcome Screen] and [Use Fast User Switching]

___________________

so now it flashes the bios at about hlaf a second then go's black and then shows 'mame system checks' ( a bootskin from wincustomise and go's black and then loads mamewah, its all very please and im quite happy

[Zeppo]

That wiki is a good link.
Also look at this thread:

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=53467.0


Good luck.

[kelemvor]

Has anyone used BootSKin on a Dell PC?  Not sure if they have their own funky Bios and such that would make it not work but that's what I was using getting my Corrupted or Invalid file or something like that.

[Marky_1979]

Thanks guys some great guides here. Iv followd them to the letter and managed to remove the welcome and boot screen (not A-BIT and Bios screen though) but as far as the bit where it loads into mamewah as a shell this doesnt work and it goes straight into desk top and a cursor and egg time which seems to load for an age I should time it but Id guess its a least 1.30 secs.

I cant see whats gone wrong here as I followed everything as stated I even managed to hide the desktop icons but for some reason no joy on loading FE instead of explorer. Can you guys suggest whats gone wrong have I missed something on the guide?

[Marky_1979]

Good news and bad news I decided to use the game ex shell thing as a final attempt to get this working and it worked a treat a black screen all the way up to Mamewah screen apart from slight cursor visibility issue just before mamewah screen. Only problem it worked almost too well as now when I escape from Mamewah I cant go into windows I thought I had set it all up with the mamewah ini file being altered to avoid whats now happened but guess not. Can you help with the following.

1. Can I get my computer to go into windows once iv finished playing with mamewah?
2. Can I remove the cursor icon that loads up for a few seconds prior to Mamewah starting
3. Once task 2 is done will the cursor be visible for windows applications if not is there a way it can be?

Thanks for your help so far guys it looks like im about there with this one just a few minor problems that can be rectified (I hope)

[kelemvor]

Can you just press Windows Key + E  to open Windows Explorer and go from there?  Of course you need an actual keyboard...

[FrizzleFried]

The only way I have found to remove the cursor icon (I assume you mean the ARROW?) is to change it...you can blank it out but then you are screwed in regular windows.  I went with a 3 pixel DOT.  1 pixel is too small IMHO.

[Marky_1979]

Can you just press Windows Key + E  to open Windows Explorer and go from there?  Of course you need an actual keyboard...

  Iv tried pressing the windows key and E but nothing happens  

This is my mamewah ini can you see any obvious problems?

### mamewah.ini (mamewah v1.61) ###

### (Global) Screen-Saver Options ###
delay                       300
slide_duration              3

### Audio Options ###
enable_sounds               1
sound_volume                100
music_path                 
enable_music                1
music_volume                100

### Movie Options ###
intro_movie_file            C:\MAMElogo.mpg
exit_movie_file             
keep_movie_preview_aspect   game_aspect
delay_before_movie_preview  2
music_movie_mix             mute_movies
movie_volume                100

### Misc Options ###
layout                      classic 640x288
ctrlr                       
wrap_list                   0
remember_current_game       1
keep_image_aspect           1
refresh_images              0
correct_orientations        horizontal
safe_mode                   0
show_cursor                 0
keyboard_led_states         -,-,-
winipac_file               
mamewah_ipc_file           
lcd_com_port                1
lcd_settings               
exit_action                 choice
app_to_run_on_exit          explorer.exe

### Settings used by MAMEWAH ###
current_emulator            mame
locked                      0
last_ipc                   

[pmc]

Anyone know where I can get an Instant Sheller or similar tools for W2K? Everything seems to be for XP and they are different enough that it matters.

-pmc

[tba]

Good news and bad news I decided to use the game ex shell thing as a final attempt to get this working and it worked a treat a black screen all the way up to Mamewah screen apart from slight cursor visibility issue just before mamewah screen. Only problem it worked almost too well as now when I escape from Mamewah I cant go into windows I thought I had set it all up with the mamewah ini file being altered to avoid whats now happened but guess not. Can you help with the following.

1. Can I get my computer to go into windows once iv finished playing with mamewah?
2. Can I remove the cursor icon that loads up for a few seconds prior to Mamewah starting
3. Once task 2 is done will the cursor be visible for windows applications if not is there a way it can be?

Thanks for your help so far guys it looks like im about there with this one just a few minor problems that can be rectified (I hope)

to get into explorer after exiting your shell program (frontend) ctrl-alt-del to get into task manager then select start a new task and type "explorer" (without the quotes)

[Marky_1979]

Cheers buddy tried this and worked a treat a bit of a pain everytime I wanna to load explorer but glad I can now do it. Was wondering why when I escape out of Mamewah it doesnt load explorer.exe is my mamewah ini wrong I followed the guide but its not working.

[Marky_1979]

Could someone who has got it working please help me out with this as ideally Id like to just press escape to come out of mamewah and straight into exporer

[fatfingers]

Perhaps you have to put the full path to explorer.exe in there?  I don't know because I haven't tried it (nor do I use MameWah), but it's worth a shot.

Good luck.

[Marky_1979]

Yes thats a good point ill try it with the full path C:/explorer.exe

maybe I should speak with the guy who made mamewah Im sure he uses the forums here

[Marky_1979]

It didn't work nice idea though thanks anyway mate

[AlexKidd]

What about using suspend to ram/standby? Do you unplug your arcade when you are not using it?

[Marky_1979]

Not sure what you mean by this I just shut down the pc after using arcade/ mame