floodie Posted April 20, 2020 Share Posted April 20, 2020 hi Guys - I have Shelled win10 so it goes straight into Bigbox... I am using an iPac and shifted JoyUP and JoyDOWN to volume controls... Joy Left is Back and Joy Right is Pause.... both Joy Left and Right work, however Up and Down (Volume up and Down) doesnt... If i taskmanager > Explorer so my start bar etc all loads up then works... I assume something related to controling volume is stopped when i shelled to go straight to Bigbox.. How do i get bigbox AND whatever this volume program is to start? thank you Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
C-Beats Posted April 20, 2020 Share Posted April 20, 2020 Just leave Win10 start as normal and put Big Box in your startup folder. Then both explorer and Big Box run at PC start up an in the correct order for the volume automation to work. You may have a second or two that you see the desktop when doing it this way though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
floodie Posted April 20, 2020 Author Share Posted April 20, 2020 Hmm - ok, i was thinking thats probably my only way. If i do this, and because it is in an arcade cab I want no sign of windows at all.. So i guess i can easily hide taskbar, black the screen, hide the bin etc... Cheers mate Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
floodie Posted April 20, 2020 Author Share Posted April 20, 2020 only problem is how to make the Taskbar autohide when it starts. it starts visible then autohides after about 5 seconds.. Looks shoddy, any idea? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kondorito Posted April 20, 2020 Share Posted April 20, 2020 You can make Bigbox.exe be the actual shell for Windows, so it never loads the taskbar or any other thing. I have in my set a script as the shell, that launches Bigbox, and some other features/tools, and then if I close Bigbox (without restarting or turning off the machine) or switch to Launchbox, it launches explorer.exe automatically. If the above scenario helps you, let me know and I"ll share the lines with you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CoinTos Posted April 20, 2020 Share Posted April 20, 2020 Well, here's a not so perfect solution that may be better in your use case. You can compile into autohotkey exe or rename the autohotkey exe and script ahk to the same name. Use a script like this as your shell, you will still see the taskbar flash in my very quick tests but might be more to your liking and allow explorer active for volume control. #NoEnv #SingleInstance force SetWorkingDir %A_ScriptDir% ;Load Explorer Run, explorer.exe ; Load Blank GUI to cover taskbar loading Gui,Color,Black,000000 Gui, -Caption TempVar := A_ScreenHeight +100 Gui,Show, h%TempVar% w%A_ScreenWidth% ; Load Bigbox Run, <path to BigBox.exe> WinWaitActive, ahk_exe BigBox.exe ; Sleep for x ms before exiting script Sleep, 5000 ExitApp Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
floodie Posted April 20, 2020 Author Share Posted April 20, 2020 (edited) thanks Kondorito and Cointos, they sound like they would work nicely. however in the last hour i have i stumbled accross this : I did everything apart from the shell at the end due to the volume problem. However, something odd, if i dragged the Taskbar to the right of the screen it would never flash up for 5 seconds, it would stay hidden!.. Perfect.. I just put bigbox in my start up and its all good. The only sign of windows is when it briefly auto logs in but i have my logo as my avatar so its looking ok. Another thing which seems really handy is changing the power button to hibernate instead of power off. It boots up within seconds nicely. I have tried losing the power from the wall too and it keeps the last state nicely on the hard drive. Edited April 20, 2020 by floodie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kondorito Posted April 20, 2020 Share Posted April 20, 2020 Glad you sorted it out. My method does not involve the registry, but the Group Policy (gpedit.msc) and going to User Configuration \ Admin Templates \ System \ Custom User Interface. In regards of the volume control, I have a 3rd party tool that launches in the shell script that emulates Windows regular volume control and shortcuts, and it even has skins, so I set the retro one that goes along nicely. Take care! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
floodie Posted April 20, 2020 Author Share Posted April 20, 2020 could i take a look at your 3rd party volume tool please?. Are you saying it can work even if Explorer hasnt loaded? i.e: if i shell it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kondorito Posted April 20, 2020 Share Posted April 20, 2020 8 minutes ago, floodie said: could i take a look at your 3rd party volume tool please?. Are you saying it can work even if Explorer hasnt loaded? i.e: if i shell it Sure, it is called 3RVX, and yes, it works as intended without the need of an active explorer process. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
floodie Posted April 20, 2020 Author Share Posted April 20, 2020 Lovely. Thanks mate will see how it goes Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
floodie Posted April 20, 2020 Author Share Posted April 20, 2020 Not had a chance to check but looking at it on google, if i check the "start at windows start up" does this mean its started BEFORE explorer starts? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kondorito Posted April 20, 2020 Share Posted April 20, 2020 1 minute ago, floodie said: Not had a chance to check but looking at it on google, if i check the "start at windows start up" does this mean its started BEFORE explorer starts? No, because if I am not mistaken, the startup processes are triggered by explorer. You should check just in case, but I think that adding stuff in the Startup folder but not loading explorer as the shell will not do anything with it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
floodie Posted April 20, 2020 Author Share Posted April 20, 2020 (edited) Yes i thought so too. So, mine is pretty much working perfect now leaving explorer, hidden start bar and recycle bin, black desktop, all hidden... If i shelled it would there be an advantage? The only thing i can see is quicker loading?.. if thats not significant then ill just leave it the way it is. Edited April 20, 2020 by floodie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kondorito Posted April 20, 2020 Share Posted April 20, 2020 Depends on your hardware specs, but if your session loads at at a good time, and visually it does not bother you with stuff popping up before BB does, then I would not mess around with it and leave it as it is Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
floodie Posted April 20, 2020 Author Share Posted April 20, 2020 Ha yeh true. Well from turn on to being able to select a game its about 60 seconds. So not exactly fast, but its kinda ok.. main thing is power switch putting it into hibernation. That works amazing 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grocarlito Posted January 5 Share Posted January 5 On 4/20/2020 at 5:19 PM, Kondorito said: Glad you sorted it out. My method does not involve the registry, but the Group Policy (gpedit.msc) and going to User Configuration \ Admin Templates \ System \ Custom User Interface. In regards of the volume control, I have a 3rd party tool that launches in the shell script that emulates Windows regular volume control and shortcuts, and it even has skins, so I set the retro one that goes along nicely. Take care! Could you share your script please ? Would be glad to get rid of the taskbar ! Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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