Big Box System File Corrupt, now I cannot get back into windows

[NeonWolf]

I recently had a power outage.

I had my Big Box set to load on startup.

There is an error message that says "it appears that your LaunchBox\Settings.xml file is corrupt."

My controller won't work and my keyboard shortcuts are not working either.

When I go into Task Manager, the screen just goes blank.

I need to be able to get back into Windows to fix the settings file, but it's loading Big Box on every startup.

Someone please help!

[C-Beats]

Should be able to press "Windows+R" to bring up the run command, then type explorer and press enter to get the desktop to show again. If you can't do that, restart your computer in safe mode then try it there (Not sure if the shell option fires in safe mode or not honestly).

[NeonWolf]

The Shell option loaded in safe mode.

I tried finding command prompt lines to see if I could turn off the shell.  I couldn't find anything.

I forced restart 3 times to get into recovery mode.

I ended up having to restore to the most recent disk image.

Fortunately that worked and the only downside was having to redo everything I did after that date in launchbox and windows.

As far as the settings files, I just deleted them and started up Launchbox to create new ones and then had to remap my controllers.

It was a pain, but not as big of a problem as potentially having to reinstall windows and everything from scratch.

 

I'm currently trying to find some way to have a backup of the settings files and hoping there's a way that launchbox/Big Box can find those backups if this ever happens again.

Any advice or direction?

Thanks.

[Kiinkyfoxx]

I don't know if this will be any help, as I don't have BigBox as the shell, but instead a home made exe that loads a selection screen for BigBox, LaunchBox or Windows

But by using the following in a bat file I can make Explorer the shell that loads up instead of my exe the next time I run the computer, in theory would that also work by running as a command line - just tested the theory and I could change from my exe to explorer and back again via command line

reg add "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon" /v Shell /d explorer.exe /f

Now it might need some changing and all because it works for me doesn't mean it will for you and it is changing the registry so you might want to look into it a bit before just going along with it as there might be a better/easier/safer way

 

Also if I ever have an issue where my exe doesn't load by running Task Manager and starting explorer I could get it working, I have just realised that I could have just use "Window+R" this whole time as shown by @C-Beats

I have tagged C-Beats as I don't know if the above pathway is where BigBox sets itself as the shell and thought they would be able to make any necessary changes or just delete/remove this post if they thought it wasn't a good idea.

[drbfsmd]

I'm in the same boat now.  How did you restore the most recent disk image?  Not sure what you mean.

[Reckless_D]

This happened to me too, and can be a bit of a mare to sort.

I did the following:

Shut down 3 times to forced recovery menu

Select troubleshoot

Select advanced options

Select start up settings

Restart when prompted

Select option 6 for safe mode and command prompt

When in command prompt type explorer and then enter
 

Then do the usual unzip one of the back up folders and copy and replace into the data folder of launchbox to fix

Note I needed a wired keyboard and mouse as wireless wouldn't work for it

Thanks