Ok, let me try two of these: Open KEGA outside of gameex and check under the options. Uncheck anything you do not want displayed. I believe you are talking about the time when you select a game in gameex and the game loading --->seeing the desktop. I don't think there is much you can do other than go to the display properties, select none for the background, black for the color and remove any desktop icons. That way when it shows the desktop you wouldn't see the transition. Or, hell make a big sign on your desktop that says GAMEEX IS NOW LOADING YOUR GAME to try and tie the whole thing together....just a thought. As for the joysticks, I use a usb to ps2 converter and have to use joy2key...I don't know about your joystick but if visual pinball won't read the inputs you might have to look at that for an option...unless somebody knows any different?