fun with explorer.exe

[twotone8]

ok. here's a tricky one.

i've been trying to find a way to get around a nasty 'rainbow color' glitch which occurs when attempting to run old windows95 games in windows 7. apparently, explorer.exe eventually nudges it's way into frame and changes all the color pallet of the game to horrible rainbow colors.

i heard (in windows 7) that if you right-click on the desktop and open the 'change resolution' button that it resolves this issue. i created some batch files and shortcuts to do just that, but found that it wasn't fool proof.

then i discovered that you can write your own batch file to completely disable explorer.exe while the game is running, and then run it once more automatically when the process closes. here's the batch file in question.

chdir /d "C:\GameEx\Roms\Windows\X-Wing\X-Wing\"

taskkill /f /IM explorer.exe

xwing95.exe

Start explorer.exe

now this was working flawlessly...when opened on its own by double clicking the batch file. however, when i use gameex to launch the same batch file, i'm left without a start bar once the game closes and have to manually re-start explorer.exe by ctrl-alt-deleting into the task manager, starting a new task, and typing in explorer.exe

i did some digging and found the 'debugging mode' apparently, according to runitgame.bat, gammex is also messing about with explorer.exe, although i'm not exactly sure how. here's the runitgame.bat

C:

CD "C:\GameEx\Roms\Windows"

@echo.

@echo

@echo.

@echo.

@echo "C:\GameEx\Roms\Windows\X-Wing\X-Wing.bat"

@echo.

@echo %windir%\explorer.exe

@echo.

PAUSE

"C:\GameEx\Roms\Windows\X-Wing\X-Wing.bat"

%windir%\explorer.exe

now...something is happening when you put these two batch files together that's preventing explorer.exe from opening once more once the game closes.

is there anything i can do about this?

is there a file in the gammeex directory that i can dig into and remove the "@echo %windir%\explorer.exe" sections of the run commands for said game? would that break things completely?

tricky question, i know, but i'm hoping you guys can help me figure this out.

edit:

EUREKA!!!!

after much digging, i found that the solution was much much simpler than i thought. i took my original batch file for running the game and simply replaced "start explorer.exe" with "%windir%\explorer.exe". it worked like a charm......i have no idea why....but it worked.

here's the new batch file.

chdir /d "C:\GameEx\Roms\Windows\X-Wing\X-Wing\"

taskkill /f /IM explorer.exe

xwing95.exe

%windir%\explorer.exe

edit 2: DAMMIT! i spoke too soon. apparently this new batch file prevents gameex from re-loading once the game closes, leaving it in task manager limbo. any hints on how i can resurrect this program? if i leave debugging mode on i can always manually close the cmd window. it's crude, but it works. any way to do it automatically?

the last line currently in the cmd window (debugging mode) is

"SUCCESS: The process "explorer.exe" with PID 3216 has been terminated.".......which is a bit ironic, since now i've at least managed to get explorer.exe back up and running.

edit 3: new bit of information. apparently gameex wasn't messing with explorer at all, but was just obeying my commands. i, at one point, set %windir%\explorer.exe as the 'launch after' option in hopes that it might re-enable explorer.exe automatically after the game launches. it doesn't, but at least it was worth a shot. i was confused.

i'm making progress i think.

all i need to know how to do is get the gameex runitgame.bat cmd window (invisible if debug mode is off) to close after it executes explorer.exe, but for some reason it just stays open. is there some dos command i can use to force an exit so that gameex knows to come back online?

as it stands, i just leave debug on and click the cmd window away manually, then all is well.

[headkaze]

Perhaps you need to set the GameEx option "Show Desktop" in your PC configuration.

[twotone8]

it's enabled already

[Robert]

I had a similar issue in a different context. I found a little freeware program that converts .bat files into .exe files. Do that and have GameEx run the executable instead of the batch file. That solved the problem for me, but it was in a different context so I'm not sure if it will work for you. Can't remember the program, but you can probably find something with a Google search. If not, I can check tonight.

[twotone8]

I had a similar issue in a different context. I found a little freeware program that converts .bat files into .exe files. Do that and have GameEx run the executable instead of the batch file. That solved the problem for me, but it was in a different context so I'm not sure if it will work for you. Can't remember the program, but you can probably find something with a Google search. If not, I can check tonight.

thanx for the help man, but i'm afraid no dice. now the .exe file stays open, even outside of gameex.

now, the batch files i'm creating close perfectly fine on their own when i simply double click their icon, but for some reason when being launched through gameex, the command windows never seem to close down on their own. i'm no expert, but i suspect that since explorer.exe was opened from the .bat file itself, that gameex is waiting for explorer.exe to close once again, thinking that it is a game or something.

i'd love to turn on an advanced config, but i still can't for the life of me figure out how to change the kill switch from the excape key (which i need for the pc game). i heard of some autoit scripts that can get the job done, and i've glanced at them for a moment ro two, but they honestly didn't make much sense to me.

also, i've attempted to put both "%windir%\explorer.exe" and "start explorer.exe" in the 'launch after' position in the gameex config, but still no dice.

edit: OK. I THINK I MIGHT HAVE SOLVED MY PROBLEM.

here's the batfile as it reads now.

@ECHO OFF

echo.

echo LOADING X-Wing.

"C:\Program Files (x86)\DAEMON Tools Lite\dtlite.exe" -mount 0,"C:\GameEx\Roms\Windows\X-Wing\XWING95.cue"

echo.

echo CD LOADED! HOLD YOUR HORSES BITCHES!!!

echo.

PING 1.1.1.1 -n 1 -w 6000 >NUL

chdir /d "C:\GameEx\Roms\Windows\X-Wing\X-Wing\"

taskkill /f /IM explorer.exe

xwing95.exe

start %windir%\explorer.exe

echo.

echo THANK YOU

@echo off

cls

exit

the only thing i changed was instead of "%windir%\explorer.exe" at the end. i put "START %windir%\explorer.exe"

AND NOW...IT SEEMS TO WORK.

alright. i think i might now have a viable solution for anyone else who's getting the 'rainbow' effect on old windows 95 games.