Hiding Vista and Launching GameEx on startup

[shaunopp]

Just curious if anyone has had luck completely hiding Vista and auto-launching GameEx on startup?

Here's the experience I've had thus far:

1. Able to replace the boot screen with a custom screen although it still shows the Bios logo before and round Windows logo right after my custom screen.

2. I can hide the desktop manually by ending explorer.exe but haven't been able to do this automatically on startup.

3. When I add GameEx to my startup folder it causes problems. Seems like it tries to launch before the OS is completely launched and hangs.

Anyone else using Vista and GameEx out there? ... insert chirping cricket sound here...

[Brian Hoffman]

Just curious if anyone has had luck completely hiding Vista and auto-launching GameEx on startup?

Here's the experience I've had thus far:

1. Able to replace the boot screen with a custom screen although it still shows the Bios logo before and round Windows logo right after my custom screen.

2. I can hide the desktop manually by ending explorer.exe but haven't been able to do this automatically on startup.

3. When I add GameEx to my startup folder it causes problems. Seems like it tries to launch before the OS is completely launched and hangs.

Anyone else using Vista and GameEx out there? ... insert chirping cricket sound here...

Backup this regkey first. Then

Vista - Replacing default windows Shell

Modify the following registry key (This keys is the one that launches Explorer when the user logs onto an account)

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\winlogon\Shell

i.Original value: Explorer.exe

ii.New value: "c:\program files\gameex\gameex.exe"

Make sure you verify the path to your gameex install. And back up the original regkey in case you want to go back.

[shaunopp]

Backup this regkey first. Then

Vista - Replacing default windows Shell

Modify the following registry key (This keys is the one that launches Explorer when the user logs onto an account)

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\winlogon\Shell

i.Original value: Explorer.exe

ii.New value: "c:\program files\gameex\gameex.exe"

Make sure you verify the path to your gameex install. And back up the original regkey in case you want to go back.

Thanks Brian, that works great! Figured there was a registry change that would do it.

It's easy enough to change back also by going into the task manager and restarting explorer.exe or back into regedit and changing it back to explorer.exe. Not sure if I'll use it though, it's still not entirely seemless. The load order goes: Dell bios logo, my custom logo, round windows logo (and sound), Vista 'starting' screen. Also when GameEx starts my custom music stutters a bit as it loads. Like I said, not seemless but at least now I know how to get that far. Baby steps. Thanks again.

[Brian Hoffman]

Stardock makes software that will change your boot screens,logon etc. You may want to check into that.

http://www.wincustomize.com/skins.aspx?libid=32

[shaunopp]

Stardock makes software that will change your boot screens,logon etc. You may want to check into that.

http://www.wincustomize.com/skins.aspx?libid=32

Yeah, I checked out Bootskin initially but unfortunately it's XP only.