Mala and lnk shortcut apps

[juggle50]

Hello,

After years of using Mame32 I'm finally switching over to Mala and really like it so far.  I need to launch several outside apps through MALA using the shortcut/lnk method.  For the most part it works great.  However, I'm having some trouble with MESS.  I want to launch MESS as a separate .exe application because I have too many console/computer emulators and games to set up individually.

So when I launch the MESS GUI through MALA, everything works great.  When I load up a game, everything works great.  However, when I exit out of a game I have trouble getting back to the MESS GUI.  It seems like MALA is now running in the foreground and MESS GUI must be running in the background and everything gets kind of screwed up.  Anyway is there a way to get MALA to run in the background  when using the MESS GUI? 

I also (I'm embarassed to say) am using MALA to launch some versions of MAME32 for nostalgia's sake and because I find it easier to scroll through huge lists of games.  I'm having the same problem with the MAME32 GUI running in the background after I have exited a game.

Thank you for your help

[juggle50]

Bump

[loadman]

Sorry I don't use MESS

[headkaze]

I don't use MESS either but my guess is after you exit a game in MESS it closes the program MaLa is waiting for in the background. You need to figure out the process MaLa should wait on before it shows it's GUI.

[juggle50]

Cool,

Do you know how I would go about figuring out that "process?"  It also happens with Mame32 and MisfitMame32 as well.  However,  if I launch any of those programs through Mala's "Launch external application" hot buttons I don't have the same problem.  Do you know the differences in how Mala launches programs between the lnk shortcuts and the external application hot buttons?  I know it's kind of screwy to use a front end to launch a front end, but it makes sense on my system.   Thanks again for the help.

Kevin

[headkaze]

Cool,

Do you know how I would go about figuring out that "process?"  It also happens with Mame32 and MisfitMame32 as well.  However,  if I launch any of those programs through Mala's "Launch external application" hot buttons I don't have the same problem.  Do you know the differences in how Mala launches programs between the lnk shortcuts and the external application hot buttons?  I know it's kind of screwy to use a front end to launch a front end, but it makes sense on my system.   Thanks again for the help.

Kevin

I'm not a MaLa user so I can't really say the difference. The way to see what process is running and closing, get yourself a program called Process Explorer. First thing you should do is copy it into your Windows directory, then launch it and select Options->Replace Task Manager. Now you can call it up when you press CTRL-ALT-DEL. When MaLa launches an external program you will see it spawn underneath it's process.

I'm not sure how MaLa handles lnk's either but I wrote a little program a while ago called runwaitlnk which will launch a lnk and wait for it to finish. Not sure if it will be of any help.

USAGE: runwaitlnk.exe "<path_to_lnk>"

[juggle50]

Thanks Headkaze, I'll give it a shot.