Problems running MALA as windows shell...

[severdhed]

hey guys, i'm kinda stumped here.

i upgraded the PC that was in my cabinet, so this is a new install of windows xp pro.  i went through the steps in the wiki under hiding windows, just like i did on the previous PC.

i went to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\IniFileMapping\system.ini\boot

and changed the first 3 letters of the shell entry value from SYS to USR

then i went to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon

i created an entry called Shell and set the value to c:\mala\mala.exe

when i reboot, the computer boots up and loads mala, but it also then loads explorer as well.  so i get the mala running, but then i see the task bar pop up and take focus, then i have to click in on mala to make it take focus. 

i'm just not sure why this is happening.  if i set the shell back to SYS and change it under HKLM, it loads mala and not explorer..but then whey i try to manually start explorer after exiting mala, it just loads the file manager window instead of the actual desktop. 

i dont know what is causing this...i did the same thing on my old PC and it worked beautifully.  the only real difference that i can see is that the new PC has service pack 3 installed.

have any of you run across this?  and if so, how did you fix it?

i even tried adding c:\mala to the path variable, and then setting the shell value to just mala.exe  but the problem still occured.  i dont know what is calling explorer to run. 

i have to go to be tonight...perhaps tomorrow i'll try removing sp3 and install sp2. 

[dkubarek]

I did mine with XP Pro (service pack 2) and it worked fine, but I doubt your updated version is it. I'm by no means an expert. I used followed the wiki. Here's what I would try: Either go step by step with the wiki and make sure you didn't miss anything. Or try total sheller. You can Google for it. I admit I have never used it, but many here have. It also features a one-button revert, so you theoretically won't lose anything if it fails. It's made to work on XP Pro, so you should be fine. You may have to find a bootscreen, etc. Not sure if you already did that.

[severdhed]

i'll look into that this evening.  i went through the steps several times..i'm not sure what is wrong.  and yeah, i already made a boot screen.

[severdhed]

well, i messed around for a while, and still no luck..then i started thinking back to when i set the last pc up...i remembered having a similar problem, but couldnt remember how i fixed it.  after a while of looking around on the PC..it hit me.  I am using a Dell USB wireless adaptor for network connectivity. (not my first choice, but i got it for free from a friend...).  when you download the driver for it, it is an exe file that installs a dell wireless utility, as well as the driver.  i told the PC to use windows to configure my wireless device, and i disabled the dell utility from starting using msconfig..but  as it turns out, it has to be completely uninstalled.  once i removed that dell wireless utility, my mala shell worked perfectly, without loading explorer.

[dkubarek]

um, that was going to be my next guess.  Glad you're up and running.