booting directly to Mala bypassing windows logo's etc? (xp)

[hobsonschoice]

Hi Guys,
i've been lurking around this forum for a couple of weeks now in reparation of my first Bar Arcade Project and would like to get involved.
I  usuall y repair laptops as a hobby and have dozens of motherboards and screens around and would like to make use of them somehow.
The plan is to use an old Dell laptop C500 and also to use the lcd screen instead of a monitor. this should make the whole thing smaller and more compact not to mention very light. this will be my prototype before moving on to a higher spec laptop with Glossy screen.

The issues i am trying to resolve at present are which frontend to use, I have tried a few so far and really like the MalaFE setup.
Now, the questions i have are as follows.

If i load tinyxp on the laptop will i be able to configure it to load directly into the mala?
I have the laptop setup with win98se at present and Mala in the autostart menu. This works ok but it loads:
dell bios loading screen
windows 98 logo
desktop and toolbar
then the mala window in the middle of the page
then it loads mala game menu full screen.
Although this works i would like to hide the fact that windows is running.
 Also, how do i get it to boot directly into a game?



any advice would be really appreciated,
 please?
Dave

[loadman]

If i load tinyxp on the laptop will i be able to configure it to load directly into the mala?

You should be able to. Check the generic instructions on the wiki.
http://wiki.arcadecontrols.com/wiki/Hiding_Windows

Also, how do i get it to boot directly into a game

There is a setting in MaLa options in under MaLa start. Options are set/ random game or last played game.

[hobsonschoice]

Cheers Loadman,
Thats exactly the sort of guide i was looking for,
You're a hero, I don't care what anyone else says.