[APPLICATION] Launcher-X

[Adultery]

Aha! It's because I use Classic Shell.

Apparently for Windows 10 you have to tell it to use the Start Menu instead of the Start Screen or some of your startup apps aren't going to work:

To switch between the Start menu and the Start screen, navigate to the desktop (if required), right-click on a blank area of the taskbar and choose Properties from the pop-up menu that appears. The Taskbar and Start Menu Properties window appears. Click the Start Menu tab. Check the option titled "Use the Start menu instead of the Start screen." Then, click OK. You will be warned that you need to sign out before the change will occur.

Classic Shell uses a Windows 7 style Start Menu, which is why I never noticed this. Let me know how you get on.

 

I think I'm just going to add it into the registry via an app option and save everyone the hassle. Wanna test for me?

[Draco1962]

I run Classic Shell as well. But I am also running DisplayFusion. Sure, I'll be your Huckleberry!

[Adultery]

Well, I think I got it something.

So here's the thing. If I'm going to be adding a key to the registry, I need to have elevated permissions. Those permissions need to be set from the program's launch. The catch is if I do that, then you'd be prompted to elevate your permissions when you load the launcher. That's counter intuitive since the idea is to allow the launcher to operate without user interaction. Makes sense right?

So I had to do a little dancing. What I did was whip up a console app that takes care of that for you called "Launcher-X Enabler". This way, you're asked to elevate your permissions only when you launch the console app. What happens is you click it, allow it (or enter the admin password if you're not one) and follow the prompts. If it can't find Launcher-X (which needs to be in the same directory) it aborts. If you have it set to launch on startup, the app will ask if you want to disable that. I also added a button to the settings for Launcher-X so you can launch it from there too.

The registry entry is only for the current user, so if you only want it to work when a specific user logs on, you're set! I feel like this will solve your problem, and it also adds another level of easiness to the user experience. Try this method and see if it works better in your situation. If it's A-OK, I'll put it out there.

Thanks amigo!

[Draco1962]

Thanks! I will try it tonight and report back to you!

[the_greeze]

I'm happy to report that v1.0.2 works perfectly for me

Thanks again...

[Draco1962]

I tried it with the LauncherX Enabler and without and it still will not launch on startup. I can launch it with a batch file from startup so I don't know what is going on with my system that is preventing it. It shows in the startup programs in Task Manager as Enabled.

[Adultery]

Wait, you're not launching the enabler instead are you? That's a run one time thing and it's sole purpose is to write to your registry.

[Draco1962]

Correct. I am not launching the enabler. That would be silly.

[Draco1962]

Alrighty NOW! I got it to work. I had to remove Run as adminstrator in the Compatibility options from the LauncherX.exe. Upon restart the app loaded. So HOORAY for that! I am still running into the issue with Game Manager not loading (PinballX) or Run Last Game (GameEx). Not a show stopper as I have only kept PinballX on this machine for testing and run it primarily on the pincab. Same for the Run Last Game functionality as I will do this from GameEx and not the launcher.

[Adultery]

Awesome news! I can dig deeper into RunItGame.bat (I admittedly never tested that) but no idea why your game manager isn't launching...

[Draco1962]

So we need to put in the setup instructions to not set Run as admin and I would say to also include the Enabler and provide instructions for its use.

I will toy with Game Manager again tonight. Just ran out of time last night.

[Adultery]

Updated to 1.0.3:

• Added new Launcher-X Enabler app to add a value to the Windows registry to make it launch with Windows no matter where it's installed
• Remove the registry entry by running the enabler again
• Various bug fixes

[ClassicGMR]

Well now I hadn't seen this until today. Very nice update to the launcher! I'll be adding this to my arcade cabinet tonight.

Awesome work Adultery as usual.

And thanks yet again for doing the launcher in the first place!

[Draco1962]

@Adultery - has this been updated to allow the end-user to select GameEx AE or Evo? Or is it just a matter of pointing the path to the one they want to use? Could you modify to add additional apps for launch for some of us that have legacy GameEx, AE, and Evo installed?

[Adultery]

I don't think it's compatible, I don't remember exactly how the code looks though. I know for certain the supporting apps (setup wizard et al) won't work without some programming.

I'll dig into options, but there's some other stuff in the queue first... I'm working on adding achievement popups to my Twitch stream right now. But I'll get around to it.

[Draco1962]

I appreciate all you do, no rush. I will tinker with what we have and see if I can get it to work as-is.

[Draco1962]

I know that it has been a while since this was last updated. Hopefully I can request one more update and get it applied :

For setting up the GameEx side of Launcher X, allow the end-user to enter the .exe and exe path to launch either GameEx, GameEx Arcade Edition, or GameEx Evolution. I may be consolidating AE to my pincab and would like the option available upon machine startup to either load AE or PinballX.