Removing ALL Desktop Icons in Win98 w/o TweakUI

[IG-88]

After doing some searchin' on the web I found a quick and easy way to hide the desktop icons in WIN98 that are not deletable without using TweakUI. I haven't tried this in 2K or XP yet but I will. This is a registry hack so take it easy....

Go to Start > Run, type in "regedit" then

Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ Current Version \ Policies \ Explorer
From the menu select Edit > New > DWORD value
Name it NoDesktop

Double-click this entry and give it the value 1

Close the registry editor and reboot your computer

To restore the Icons on the desktop, you have to change the value of the NoDesktop Key to 0.

It worked like a champ and took about 2 minutes. This should help any of you that are using Mame32 & it's FE alone to hide some of that "Windows" look.

[IG-88]

Well, I just tried this on my 2k machine and it works fine. I'm guessing it will work on XP too but I'll check tomorrow.

I should also say that if you want some of your desktop icons available but not seen ( like "my computer" or the "recycle bin" ) you and just drag them onto/into the "Start" button before performing the reg hack.

[hsr]

Another Win98 option to hide the desktop is to not use it all.  In c:\windows, resides your system.ini file.

You can edit this file to have the line that reads:

shell=explorer.exe

to

shell=mame32.exe (or really any other executable).

In my case, the computer boots directly into Mala with shell=mala.exe.  I saved the modified system.ini as system.mla (for Mala) and retained a copy of the original un-modified system.ini as system.win

I made a bootable floppy, and copied system.win and system.mla to it.  Then made two batch files also stored on the floppy.

mala.bat (which contains)
copy system.mla c:\windows\system.ini

and

win.bat (which contains)
copy system.win c:\windows\system.ini

I put the floppy in the drive of the computer inside my cabinet.  Ran mala.bat from a: then reboot from the hard disc.  This launches directly into Mala.

If I need to do any maintenance, I can just boot from the floppy and run win.bat from a: then reboot from the hard disc.  This will boot me back in Windows98.

I'm going to play with your method IG-88 and see which I like better and/or which one leaves more RAM available.

Thanks for the tip.

[hsr]

You can edit this file to have the line that reads:

shell=explorer.exe

to

shell=mame32.exe (or really any other executable).

A quick note on this:  The executable and supporting files (like mame32.exe, etc) or a copy of, need to reside in windows directory for this to work.

[WareWolF]

Add mame to your path and it should run without having to be copied into you windows directory.

Just put

Path=%path%;c:\mame32

in your autoexec.bat

[IG-88]

Are you saying to put that exactly as you typed it? Does this boot directly into Mame then? How do you "undo" it and get back to windows if you have to?

[hsr]

Are you saying to put that exactly as you typed it? Does this boot directly into Mame then? How do you "undo" it and get back to windows if you have to?

I think WareWolf's comment was directed at my posts.  He was saying if you put the path to where the whatever.exe file is (in your case Mame32.exe) that the executable would not need to reside in the windows directory.

I agree with his statement.

If you simply put his string in your autoexec file, it will try to execute the command in DOS before ever getting to Windows.  I really don't think Mame32 will run from there.

[hsr]

Are you saying to put that exactly as you typed it? Does this boot directly into Mame then? How do you "undo" it and get back to windows if you have to?

If you were asking me, that is the purpose of the two system.ini (one for windows and one for the application) that I put on the floppy.  Just writing either of them back to the windows directory, which is handled by the two batch files listed above is what allows me to boot into the application or into Windows.

[IG-88]

I always forget to quote. I was asking WareWolf but thanks for the answer. So I shouldn't put that string in my autoexe.bat 'eh? 

I like your idea too it's just I've never delt with .bat files much so I am a little leary.

[hsr]

IG,

I don't think my method is going to work 100% with Mame32.  The included front end of Mame32 does not have (or at least I can't find one) a feature to automatically shut down the computer after you exit the emulator.

I set up one of my computers with the mame32.exe in the system.ini file at the shell= line.  After exiting Mame32, I'm left at a black dead screen.  I just pressed the power button to shut the computer off.  It ran scan disc when I rebooted.

Guess you could get around this if you built a single button press relay power strip like SpyStyle's.

Your solution (original post at the top of this thread) appears to be a really good method for Mame32 users.

I had already setup the computer in my cabinet with Mala and command line Mame because Mala will shutdown windows and the computer when I exit the front end.

Again, nice find and thanks for sharing the tip.