Help Hiding Windows.

[Mr. Dude]

Hey Guys,
I've added a new string/value to the registry in "HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Current Version\Run" to make Mamewah automatically start when Windows loads.  Well, it works but I still get a glimps of the desktop for several seconds while windows loads before Mamewah fires up.  Is there any way to get around this so that as soon as my logo.sys file is done displaying it goes directly to Mamewah with no indication of the Windows desktop displaying in between?  

[SpamMe]

You can run mamewah as a shell.
http://www.arcadecontrols.org/yabbse/index.php?board=3;action=display;threadid=11894;start=msg94451#msg94451

[Mr. Dude]

I've try to do so before... but there is no "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon" in my registry I only have

"HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows"

"HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows Media"
 
and "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows Script"

 

[Mr. Dude]

Well, I realized those instructions were for XP users.  I'm not running XP so is there a way to set it as a Shell on a Windows 9X based machine.  Forgive my ignorance but what are the main differences between having Mamewah setup as a Shell and having it auto launch at startup like I have it configured already?  Having it run as a Shell will solve my problem right?  Thanks and sorry for being a pain.

[SirPeale]

I believe if you edit 'system.ini' and change the line 'shell=explorer.exe' to whatever you want, that should do it.  Lemme know how it works, I just did a quick Google search for the answer.

[Jakobud]

You 'could' just find some software that hides the taskbar and then get rid of all dekstop icons and make the desktop background black...

[Mr. Dude]

Yeah, as of right now I have the background all black, the My Computer Icon hidden and all other desktop icons gone.  I also have hide the taskbar selected but it still pops up for a few seconds then hides... and the mouse pointer shows. So I guess I could find a way to hide the taskbar, better and just make a blank pointer.  Maybe I'm being to picky, but for all that I've put into this thing I want it to work like a charm.  

[SirPeale]

Did you try what I suggested?

[Mr. Dude]

Nope, not yet... I will have to give that I shot when I get home from work today.

[Mr. Dude]

Ok, gave it a shot.... It eliminated the task bar from showing but a brief period still exists where the pointer shows with the hour glass... oh well, I'll just try and edit the pointer or live with it I guess.

One problem now though, is there a way to change back my system.ini?  I wasn't quite finished setting up mamewah yet... now when I exit from mamewah to windows, explorer and all the other stuff aren't running so I can't do any further work.    

[Mr. Dude]

Nevermind... I copied a system.ini from my other computer.  After I get everything fully setup I'll then make the changes again.  Thanks Peale for the help!

[Howard_Casto]

Are you using xp or 98?

In xp you can have a different shell for each user.  I highly reccomend using it instead of 9X because of this.  If you screw your system up royaly you can just log in as another user and everything is back to normal.

[Mr. Dude]

That's a good point Howard, I will take note of that.  For now I will just keep a copy of my original system.ini so I can copy it back if things get too flakey.

[quarterback]

That's a good point Howard, I will take note of that.

[Minwah]

Yeah, as of right now I have the background all black, the My Computer Icon hidden and all other desktop icons gone.

[ften]

Ok, gave it a shot.... It eliminated the task bar from showing but a brief period still exists where the pointer shows with the hour glass... oh well, I'll just try and edit the pointer or live with it I guess.

One problem now though, is there a way to change back my system.ini?

[lucindrea]

i acctully maped an obscure game to run explorer ... it's one of those 100's of majong games that seem to be in any collection of roms , but only i know witch one it is and no one i know whould ever play it , so i'm safe ... i mainly did this because their is no del key maped on my control panel and if i MUST get to the desktop i just run that game , problem solved :-)

in theory you should be able to end explorer and go back into the front end because the front end is the shell , but becideds killing explorer in task manager i have yet to be able to work out a easy way to do it .. maby their is a program out their that will do a "end task explorer.exe" i can shortcut.