aldub516

RESOLUTION: I did a full clean install of windows to solve other problems that were bleeding into steam. Ive followed the suggestions and set the shortcut with the -silent command, and minus annoying auto updates and things i cant change, my problem is now fixed. Steam starts and stays in the tray, hiding it stupid little self. thanks! as you can see, im working through a lot of problems, and finding new ones a long the way. Im doing my best to seperate them. Im experience window focus issues when i set gameex as a startup program but thats in a different thread. I just realized a new problem..When steam is running in the backround, it steals the focus when i exit emulators in gameex. Example, if i go to play nes games, i can play for hours jumping back and forth between games, and other old console emulators. But as soon as i run pinballx, which i set to launch steam, i noticed once steam is launched in the backround, whenever i go back to my console emulators, when i exit them, i lose focus and control of gameex. Not only that, but steam is reading inputs while im playing games! when i launch pinballx and start navigating and pressing enter, it reacts in steam! i installed a steam game without even knowing it. After closing steam this problem goes away. So im trying to figure out a command or exe that will kill steam when activated. I somewhat learned about task kill which works great for other things like cabvol, which i set to close with gameex. But i cannot seem to figure out a way to kill steam when exiting pinball x. Along with that, ive experiences problems shutting down my pc. When steam is running , my pc someimes shuts down, but the fans and cpu keep running. Ive read shutdown problems are common with steam, and its more or less steams fault for all these problems as the coding sucks.. So, my current problem in short is, I already set steam to run when i start pinballx... Now, how can i completely kill it upon exiting pinballx or even gameex? Id use the built in steam in gameex, but it takes me forever to get back to gameex from when i exit a steam app...and is there any advice to minimize steam automatically? because having it read my buttons while im playing a game is not good

Which method did u go with

I can use gammex as a shell, which would be ideal but I need to find a way to then run explorer and all that for the network adapters and such. Maybe that will go well if I play with the app launcher plugin. I can set gameex as the shell And then use the launcher to launch explorer and steam and everything else. I'm just worried all those post processes will take over gameex again

My issue is, my PC boots super fast with the ssd. I'm in windows in just a few seconds. Gameex is set as a startup program, but takes anywhere from 20 seconds to over a minute to start. Every other process is already started and running even tho there aren't many. Just graphics, network adapter and that's about it. So delaying it won't really matter I don't think. I just don't get why "hide os" is putting a black screen over gamex and taking the focus

when the pc boots up, i see three windows when i alt-tab.. desktop, gameex, and gameex hide os. As soon as i hit alt-tab though gameex hide os closes itself, and i can tab to gameex. It seems that the hide os app is putting a black screen over gameex. As you can see in my ini, all my settings should be appropriate, and i havent changed them in a long time. Is there any log or ini type file of my pc that i can post to help? Maybe theres some resolution conflict or something going on? Im not all too well rounded on small technical things sometimes. This is currently my only problem, not being able to see gameex when i boot up.

Since I had no external apps setup, I simply set pinballx up to my satisfaction outside of gameex. Then under "external programs" in the gameex settings, just fill out the paths and exe location. I also went into the "text" screen in settings and changed "programs and multimedia" to "pinball"

thank you

so ive always had cabvol set to Launch On Startup dont wait in the tweaks section of gameex.. but now im trying to toy with steam and it seems i have to use that for steam to launch. Is there a symbol or something i can place between them to launch multiple apps or is it meant for just one? I tried ; and such

well i posted up my pinballx issues in the pinballx forum, but this problem/question more relates to gameex, as i am launching everything through gameex. I guess the pinballx forum would know more about what works with what, but i assumed this was more gameex based, as im trying to learn how gameex handles different things. Currently, i set up the pinball arcade as an external app, and i got it working both on and offline fine. Pinballfx2 seems to be a little more difficult. I will try to direct these questions over at the pinballx side, im just hoping someone can still suggest how to either cut out the time between switching apps with the steam function, or how to get pinballfx2 to run from external apps in gameex. Thanks for all the help so far though

So over in the gameex forum im dealing with a whole bunch of problems with interfacing steam pinball emulators (fx2 and pinball arcade). I dont want to mirror that post so ill ask a different question here. Is there a way to set up groups of folders in pinballx? Meaning, i have future pinball, visual pinball, and pinballfx2 and pinball arcade which are steam games. First off, all of my games for all 4 apps appear in one list on the main menu. The only way to distinguish them is by the details at the top which tell me what program runs the game. Id like to set it up where the main menu has VP, FP, Pinballarcade and pinballfx2, and then i can select one of those and go to the proper game list. Secondly, when i select a pinballfx2 game, it takes me to the actuall pinballfx2 program and main screen, as opposed to straight to the game. Is there any way to do that, or if not, can i just have a pinballfx2 menu item that i can select and take me to pinballfx2 app? I guess a workaround would be just naming 1 fx2 game "Pinballfx2" and when i select it it would take me to the app. Thats fine, but in that case id need a solution to the first question, how do i set up groups in pinball x. I played around with the game manager and groups but nothing really makes sense. Thank you for the help

so im making headway, but im kind of getting myself lost in different configurations. For instance. When i add the steam function to gameex, selecting steam takes a very very long time to switch over to steam/pinball arcade, and also when it returns to gameex. Its also giving me problems with the steam app starting in the backround, its just not working cleanly. Alternatively i realized i can add these apps to pinball x which some what worked. Pinballfx2 shows all of the games in pinballx, even the ones i didnt buy. And when i select any game, even the ones i own, it just takes me the pinballfx2 main game screen. I guess what im asking is that now that ive accepted certain pop ups and issues with being online i want to know the best way to interface these steam apps with gameex/pinballx. I can enable steam in gameex, or i can set steam to run as an external app, or i can set the actual pinballarcade.exe and pinballfx2.exe as external apps which still interface with steam, I can also set those as emulators instead of external apps, and finally i can do any of those options in pinballx. So ideally, which program (gameex or pinballx) should i be focusing on, and what is the proper or ideal method for launching these games.. For instance in the pinballfx2 setup in pinballx, it asks me the working path and the exe which is steam.exe, not pinballfx2, while the "Program to monitor" is pinballfx2. Im literally losing my mind juggling these programs, trying different configurations, remembering what im changing. Im just running in circles here as i dont know what programs are made best to interface with eachother. I literally just need pinball arcade and pinballfx2 running. Please advice me which programs i should be using together and how i should be launching them (external apps,emulators, main exes, or steam exe) im sad and insane.. ***EDIT** So it seems that launching steam through gameex isnt actually that bad now, but when i exit the steam app (pinballfx2 or pinball arcade) it takes about a 30 seconds- a minute to go back to gameex. Staring at a blue screen for those 30 seconds with my desktop showing kind of kills the flow. Is there a command i can add that might kill a process faster? Or is there a way to figure out what the hang up is betweeen exiting the steam app and returing to gameex? If i can cut this delay out, id be content with my steam setup for now.

^ very true words man. Just putting together this one build ive learned about everything from scripting to ahk just to make things work properly lol. Ive come to see a proper arcade start up system has about a million working parts

hmm. Being online just isnt really an option, atleast not permanently. I will try the suggestion of setting auto log in and not having gameex log me in and out. I assume i can just set the steam option to disabled in gameex, and go about setting auto login through steam itself? Set it to start with windows and just save my password i guess? its for my friend, so im sure he doesnt care about a click or seeing a desktop. Its the horrible perfectionist in me that wastes days on small details.

that was a perfect answer. Which leads me to a follow up. If gameex works with the plug and play aspect as you said, do i need the actual steam client installed on my computer?That is where i assume all of my notifications and such are coming from. Assuming i never really want or need to update pinball arcade besides add new tables, and dont need any social functions, can i uninstall steam from my pc now, and let gameex run it? Or does gameex need the steam client on the pc. And along with that, what would u suggest to get that "never see the client" look? Right now selecting pinball arcade from the steam menu in gameex is taking a VERY long time to load between apps as well as returning to gameex after exit and giving me quite a few login dialogues as well as showing me the desktop for a pretty long while. The cabinet will never be plugged into a network, unless i realllly need to, so i guess im wondering, can i get this steam and pinball emulators set up, cleanly, using only my control panel for navigation, while never connecting steam to the internet? When i set it to work offline it works fine, but that is not a default and it always asks me if i want to stay offline when i start the pc or load a game. edit also, unless i do find a way to get to steam through gameex cleanly, would you suggest just setting the executables as an emulator or external application? When i double click pinballarcade.exe for instance, it still connects to steam and asks me about offline etc, but i atleast avoid having to actually run steam as an outside program bouncing back and forth between itself and gameex.

Ok, so i downloaded the pinball arcade from steam, and ended up with the pinball arcade folder within the steam install folder.. I cut that folder and pasted it to my desktop. When i click pinballarcade.exe it runs fine with no problems. So my question here is, is steam basically just like an itunes for games and app downloading? Should i anticipate any problems running this game outside of steam, or furthermore, after i download pinball fx2 and pinball arcade, can i uninstall and delete steam from my pc and continue to run the games straight from the exe or will they try to communicate with steam at some point and cause a problem. If the folders/exe's i ended up with are the full app, then i guess im fine and i can just point gameex to these? Sorry for all the questions which were self answered by simply trying it myself, i just didnt want to jump into a whole other realm of steam when im just trying to finish my damn cabinet lol EDIT*** Im sorry if this is the wrong forum.. But im more trying to understand steam in gammex than i am the actuall pinball x process.. Ok heres where i stand. Ive set up both fx2 and pinball arcade, but i now know that both of these connect to steam for updates. Now, i know i can run steam in offline mode, BUTTT, upon start up it gives me a pop up asking to start in offline mode or to connect. This pop up would mess with my shelling and start processes. Is there a way to set steam to default offline, or a way to stop this pop up? I have other questions pertaining to a clean pinball setup with multiple emulators but i will swing over to the pinballx forum for that. Ive tried the steam function within gameex, but that gives me a lot of login screens, and desktop time, as well as taking very long to switch back and forth between apps. Is there a way to edit the app files to not search for steam? they seem to have everything they need in their own folders.. how can i disconnect them from steam association

right off the bat, any reason why downloading pinball fx2 and the pinball arcade take over an hour? Im hating this steam gimmick already, but my buddy is very excited to be able to play these pinball emulators on his cabinet

So i have a question pertaining to steam as ive never used it before. I want to install "the pinball arcade" on my pc, and be able to launch it through gamex. I now see that the pinball arcade is a steam game, and i need to download the steam desktop app to be able to use this game/program. My question is, how exactly does steam work? Is it a standalone program that opens and lets you play games such as a front end does? or can i simply launch a downloaded game through an executable. Basically what im saying is, if i want to be able to cleanly launch the pinball arcade from my gameex menu, am i going to have to launch steam through gameex? which will then bring me to the steam page, where i then select the game? It all seems kind of sloppy and complicated. Is there a way to get this steam game running out side of steam? Im going to download it all and see how it works. But generally i believe from what i read that im going to have to launch the steam app and then run the game, unless gameex's built in steam support bypasses that?

As of right now i can say this has been fixed. Running pinballx as admin is a must for me, on both pcs. While my office PC worked perfect with run as admin, my arcade PC would freeze! I found I had to set my arcade pcs pinball x to run in windows 8 compatibility and then run as admin. Regardless of the compatibility problem, running pinballx as admin was a must for both my pcs to properly exit out of a pinball table and back to pinballx without seeing the editor.

One thing I may add is that running pinballx in admin mode seems to be detrimental to it working correctly. I was unable to exit a table and go straight back into pinballx. I kept getting the exit menu "return to game, debug, return to editor" and can never get it to skip the editor and go right back to pinballx. I found that this was because it was not running as admin. Furthermore I had to set my system to run in windows 8 compatibility and admin to get it right. From my experience, Running pinballx as an admin is key

There shouldn't be much needed to turn your machine into a more powerful arcade on the new build. I'd assume just install a newest version of gameex, copy all of your configuration files or your gameex folder Minus the .exe over to the new PC and you should be good. You're gameex login should work from your new PC, there shouldn't be anything to transfer. You're basically just copying and pasting your files over to your new PC. If you want you can even just get A new hard drive, Clone the one you have now and pop it into the new build. Hopefully I understood your question correctly. You should just be mirroring your set up on the new pc

thanks for that little update. Again, flawless functionality within windows 8.1 Thanks man! I think the only reason i never used toms sheller was there was no confirmation that it would work with windows 8. This being a new app i felt safer.

id like to assume the hide cursor on display was implemented to tag along with the new shelling app put out? I tried the new sheller on 8.1 and it worked fine, but i noticed the damn pesky mouse icon for a quick second which annoyed me.. then tada! i see this update, with the hidden cursor. I wish every at home arcader knew the wonders and amazing support and consistency of gameex and you sick people that make it work so well

i can confirm for you that is 100% works as intended on windows 8.1. Just for education purposes, if i wanted to revert back as if i never used it, how or what reg key would i change? i saw the line posted above, but what exactly would i do or change.. Assuming that above reg key is the default for windows, i guess i would just copy that over where i find the shell starters reg? Or further more, if i used the app to set explorer back to the shell on boot, and then just deleted the app, would that set the reg keys back to default on its own? I like the shell app, but if i decide i dont need it id like to change the setting back to as original as possible To any one else, dont let this deter you in anyway. I technically have no reason to have to change this back, or not use the app. Its actually an incredible app and a great update to instant sheller. Easy clean setup, and just a click to start explorer back up and your right back to your pc. The anal part of me is what wants to know about keys