Gun2Mouse + MaLa Front End As Shell - Help!

[the720k]

Hello.  I hope I'm posting this in the right place.  I have a slight problem with my arcade cabinet's setup.

First, though, here are my specs:

Intel P4 3.0 GHz CPU
768MB RAM
Windows XP Pro
MaLa 1.0.4.5 Running as Windows Shell replacement
EMS LCD TopGun using Gun2Mouse 3.2
MAME 1.06/Model 2 Emulator 0.6

Okay, here's the problem.  Since I am using MaLa as my shell replacement, the EMS TopGun software, Gun2Mouse, is not loaded into memory upon startup, since explorer has not been launched yet.  When I exit MaLa, I have it set to execute explorer.exe immediately, and then Gun2Mouse starts.  I'd rather not have to exit MaLa and restart it every time I start my machine.  Is there any way around this?  Perhaps running Gun2Mouse as a service?  I'm skeptical that that would work, since Gun2Mouse automatically minimizes as a system tray icon when it starts. 

Another thing is that when I exit MaLa and restart it to gain lightgun functionality, all of my games run very sluggishly.  I've done everything I can think of to slim down XP, and only have the vitals running. 

Any ideas?  Please help! 

EDIT: I just set up Gun2Mouse as a service by using Pirmasoft's RunAsSvc application, and it does load before the front end.  However, I do not have any gun function before MaLa exits, and I suspect this is because the system tray is not available.  Is there any way to emulate a system tray without actually launching explorer?  I'd really hate to muddy up the look of my MAME cabinet by letting Explorer run, not to mention the performance loss in my games.

[the720k]

I was able to find a solution.  I reinstalled DirectX 9.0c and the mysterious performance problems with MAME disappeared.  Unfortunately, I'm now stuck with running Explorer.exe as the shell again, so the desktop and taskbar show up for a second or two during startup, but I will find a way to hide them.  Gun games and the rest work like a dream now.