XMBC and Windows 8

Must have been fixed in the Release Preview, because I just click the icon on the start menu and it runs!

(2012-05-15 11:07)ferd Wrote:  So how to make xbmc run automatically in win 8?

Here is a link that explains how to start Windows 8 to the desktop, without special third party software...

http://www.techspot.com/guides/551-bypass-metro/

Edit:
I forgot to mention, after you have completed the steps above, add a XBMC shortcut to the startup group.

Thanks for that link wileecoyote. having the same issue as IronChef with Win 8 Pro final, so will try this solution tonight.

windows 7 is so much simpler for choosing what starts up

my problem is I start xbmc with the desktop shortcut it works if I turn xbmc off and try to restart it a second time with the shortcut the application doesn't start I have to restart the computer to get it to work again any clue?

for those of you wanting to start xbmc automatically, here's what i did:

(warning: this involves registry changes, so you should at least have a clue what you are doing)

1. create a dedicated user to run xbmc and make windows login that user at startup
   (not sure how to do this in win 8, since i upgraded from 7 and this part was still functional afterwards. google is certainly glad to help out here...)
2. login with that user and go into the registry (run regedit.exe)
3. locate the key HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon
4. add a new string value, name it "Shell" (without the quotes)
5. change the value to let it point to your xbmc.exe
   (e.g. "C:\Program Files\XBMC\XBMC.exe", with quotes if you have blanks in your path, you can drop them if not)
6. close the registry editor and logoff
   

next time you login with that user, xbmc should come up directly, without going through metro or the desktop first. this saves time, memory, and looks nicer too

another useful tip:
when you start xbmc like this, and close it, you'll probably end up with a black screen of nothingness. the only way now is to ctrl-alt-del and logoff, or go into task manager and load explorer.exe manually (aka the default windows shell).
to get around this, i made a small .bat file to load xbmc, and do a shutdown /l (=logoff) afterwards. use this bat file instead of xbmc.exe as your shell. now, when you close xbmc, windows goes back to the welcome screen. this isn't perfect either, because the .bat gets loaded in an ugly black window, but it will have to do for now.


used this strategy on windows 7 for the past few months, without any problems. upgraded to windows 8 last weekend, didn't notice any problems since then.

Actually in Windows 8 it's very simple to make XBMC the shell at startup, without having to fiddle about in the registry. Scroll down in the link to the section marked "Set XBMC to Run at Startup in Windows 8"

http://cybernetnews.com/xbmc-run-boot-xb...windows-8/

bluesky2006, that is a really nice tutorial, didn't know there is a parameter in the group policy as well. yeah, having a GUI mostly beats manually changing the registry.

have you tried it? my guess is gpedit sets the very same registry value, so the result should be the same...

Ha, yeah it's probably tweaking a registry setting behind the scenes, but if you're intimidated by the regedit window (as I am) then it's a nicer way of doing it!

Is it possible to use the custom shell as a method of starting a number of programs/commands in order because for some weird reason my mapped hard drives (necessary for advanced launcher and emulators) are randomly dropped after restarting my htpc?