XP - Explorer.exe doesn't start everything it should

[SadGamerGeek]

Thanks to very helpful responses on this forum, I now have MAMEwah starting as a shell. It starts up quite a bit quicker this way, and I'm very pleased with it.

Especially while I'm still configuring everything, I need to get to Windows sometimes. I've mapped a key to exit to windows, but when I start Explorer.exe it just starts an explorer window (for folder navigation), but with no desktop or taskbar. Interestingly, if I start windows normally (with Explorer.exe shell), I can kill Explorer, then start it in the same way, and this restores desktop & taskbar properly.


Anyone know if I'm missing something (I'm running XP Pro SP2)?

Cheers in advance,

Richard

[jcrouse]

If it's of any consolation that's the way it works. It just starts an explore window. It doesn't initialize the normal desktop.

John

[SadGamerGeek]

I'm confused now.

Is there anything else I can run to create the taskbar & desktop?

Why does it start the taskbar & desktop when I run explorer.exe after having killed the process in a "normally started" session. Is the desktop & taskbar started by something else, but "activated" by explorer.exe?

Sorry for being thick on this.....,

Richard

[jcrouse]

I haven't got a clue. I'm curious though as to what types of tasks you would like to perform that you can't do with Explorer. You should have accewss to all your files and all your shortcuts for launching applications.

John

[SadGamerGeek]

You're right - there's no tasks I can't actually do with just the explorer window, I'm just used to doing lots of tasks via the Start bar.

I think it is only really a bit of a pain while I'm still configuring everything. Once it is up & running in a cab, it won't be a problem, so it isn't a massive concern to me - I just wondered if I'd missed something obvious.

Thanks for your help.

Richard

[DaemonCollector]

Try this, just run "explorer" don't run Explorer.exe.

[SadGamerGeek]

Thanks for the suggestion. Unfortunately this has the same effect.

[JB]

I believe explorer.exe has to be set as the shell to start the explorer shell when you run it.

Believe it or not, it actually beahves like this as a favor to people that use alternative shells. Otherwise every time you tried to bring up a file explorer window, the explorer shell would jump out.

[Truz]

What i did was just setup two different user profile. One user profile is running a shell of Mamewah. The other profile just boots into regular Windows Xp. The cab is set to boot up the first shell so Mamewah starts up and completely covers windows. But when i need to do some work on it in windows, i just break out the keyboard and hit ctrl+alt+del to allow me to log off and switch to a different user. Then i just switch to the profile in which it is just windows xp booted normally.

[DaemonCollector]

Well thats just weird...I have MameWAH set as shell, and when I quit out and run explorer it opens everything...*scratches head*..what method did you use to set MameWAH as shell in XP?

[SadGamerGeek]

So there must be a way to do what I want.....

I just set this registry key:

My Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\Shell


....to: c:\arcade\programs\mamewah\mamewah.exe

[DaemonCollector]

To change the Shell: Open regedit under the user you plan on changing the shell for. Be very carefull in the registry!. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\IniFileMapping\system.ini\boot and if there is a value Shell, change the first 3 letters which read SYS to USR. Then go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon and create a value for Shell and put the path to your new shell, in this case Mamewah

Thats what I did...quoted that from a post i made on how to hide windows.

[screaming]

Okay, please forgive me for asking the obvious question, but.. Why don't you wait until you're done setting MAMEWAH up before you set it as the shell?

-Steve

[jelwell]

That is so weird. I have MAMEWAH set as my shell and I have explorer.exe set as the app to run on exit and the whole "windows" environment launches when I quite MAMEWAH. It even launches the items in my "Startup" folder. If I go back into MAMEWAH and quit again then only a single explorer window opens - it doesn't relaunch the whole environment.

I'm running Windows XP Pro with Service Pack 2. I don't know if it matters, but I *always* quit MAMEWAH from the menu.

Here's the pertinent lines in mamewah.ini:
exit_action                 run_app
app_to_run_on_exit          c:\windows\explorer.exe

Joseph Elwell.

[SadGamerGeek]

DaemonCollector - cheers, I'll give that way a go.


screaming-

A

[jelwell]

Okay, please forgive me for asking the obvious question, but.. Why don't you wait until you're done setting MAMEWAH up before you set it as the shell?

-Steve

I like to use my cabinet as a Peer to Peer client and also a Web Terminal. So I want the cabinet to start right into MAMEWAH in case a friend resets it because it's frozen. But then I also want windows to start up when I exit MAMEWAH so that I can surf using my trackball without having to take the keyboard out of the cabinet in order to startup windows manually.
Joseph Elwell.

[SadGamerGeek]

That is so weird. I have MAMEWAH set as my shell and I have explorer.exe set as the app to run on exit and the whole "windows" environment launches when I quite MAMEWAH. It even launches the items in my "Startup" folder. If I go back into MAMEWAH and quit again then only a single explorer window opens - it doesn't relaunch the whole environment.

I'm running Windows XP Pro with Service Pack 2. I don't know if it matters, but I *always* quit MAMEWAH from the menu.

Here's the pertinent lines in mamewah.ini:
exit_action

[Chris]

I exit MAMEWah, which drops me to a blank screen.  I then ctrl-alt-del to bring up Task Manager, go to File | Run, and type "explorer", and the full environment comes up.  XP SP2 with MAMEWah 1.61 as shell.

--Chris

[SadGamerGeek]

Thanks for all the advice.

It seems that what I want to do is certainly possible, but strange that it doesn't work for me, even with the relevant settings the same as those for people's setups that work.

If I can ever suss out what's going on I'll update this.

Cheers,

Richard