Clean install from scratch

(2012-08-20 15:05)baijuxavior Wrote:  

(2012-08-20 10:26)Skank Wrote:  I installed xbmclauncher, but im not able to switch between shells easily.. how do i do this?
When i press exit, i get a complete black screen

Did you check the option 'Start Windows explorer when XBMC is closed'?

yup its checked

(2012-08-20 10:42)Skank Wrote:  i want hd-audio

I have read in forums that HD audio will be implemented in next XBMC/Openelec versions...

(2012-08-11 17:29)Zygon Wrote:  Below is the instructions I followed to make windows boot directly into XBMC as a shell:

XBMC as the Default Shell
Windows 7

Overview
The document describes the process to boot windows directly into the XBMC interface. The steps in the sections below will provide all the needed information to setup XBMC as default shell and restore back to the original shell if needed.
This process requires small modifications to the windows 7 registry.
Pre-Setup (Optional)
Backup Registry
This is a safety measure, in case anything goes wrong.
1. Click on the Start button and type ‘regedit ‘ in the Search box
2. Under the Programs heading, regedit.exe shows up as a selection
3. Click on the regedit.exe selection. This will open up the Windows Registry Editor
4. In the pane on the left hand side, there is a tree with HKEY nodes
5. Right click on the node HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE and select Export

6. When prompted for a file name, type any name like reg_backup and hit Save
7. In case you want to restore, right click on the file you saved (it will have .reg extension) and select Merge

Steps to make XBMC the Default Shell
1. Click on the Start button and type ‘regedit’ in the Search box
2. Under the Programs heading, regedit.exe shows up as a selection
3. Click on the regedit.exe selection. This will open up the Windows Registry Editor
4. In the pane on the left hand side, there is a tree with HKEY nodes
5. Expand to the path HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon
6. Please note that you will have to expand one node after another to get to this path

7. At this point, the Winlogon key on the left should be selected
8. In right pane, select the key Shell, right click on it and select Rename

9. The key will become editable, rename the key to Old_Shell
10. Now right click in this pane in an empty area and select New -> String Value

11. The New Value #1 place holder will show up as editable entry. Rename it to Shell
12. Double click on this key named Shell. A name value dialog show up

13. In the text field Value data, type the full path to XBMC executable with the fullscreen command line arg. The value on a Windows 7 64-bit is "C:\Program Files (x86)\XBMC\XBMC.exe" –fs
14. Hit OK.
15. This is it! You now have set XBMC as the default Shell on your system.
16. Restart the computer and the Windows will boot directly to the XBMC

Steps to Restore Original Shell
1. Since you are now always in the XBMC interface, getting to registry editor is slightly different
2. While in XBMC, on the keyboard, press the key combination Ctrl+Shift+Esc
3. This will open up the Task Manager
4. In the bottom right portion, click on the New Task… button
5. Type regedit.exe and hit Enter. The Windows Registry Editor is now open
6. Follow the steps from the above section ‘Steps to make XBMC the Default Shell’ and get to the same path HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon
7. Right click on the key Shell which points to the XBMC executable and rename it to XBMC_Shell This will allow you to keep the key in case you want to use this as the default Shell again
8. Locate and right click on the key Old_Shell, which was the original key that we renamed in the section above
9. As you have guessed it, right click and rename it to Shell
10. You have successfully switched back to the original Windows Shell. Restart Windows to verify the change
11. You can rename the keys to select which Shell to use. Remember, windows will use value in the key named Shell to launch that as the default Shell

System Shutdown
1. From the XBMC interface, you can press the ‘s’ key and select system shutdown
2. You can also press the key combination Ctrl+Alt+Del and select Shutdown orRestart from the Shutdown Orb at the lower right part of the screen
Launching Programs from XBMC Shell
When you are booting directly to XBMC, you do not have access to the Windows Desktop. This can be inconvenient if you want to do something basic like copy files, map a drive or browse the internet. This can be remedied easily. Just follow the steps below.
1. When in XBMC Shell, hit Ctrl+Shift+Esc. This will bring up the Task Manager
2. In the bottom right part, click on the New Task… button
3. To start explorer, type explorer.exe and hit Enter
4. To start internet explorer, type iexplore.exe and hit Enter
5. You can also start any installed program like Firefox by typing the full path to the executable and hitting Enter

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If you are also looking to use AirPlay make sure you install Bonjour.

This information is incredibly useful, but I was thinking about taking it a step further.

In order for Windows 7 to boot the full desktop environment with taskbar and Aero features with the first instance of explorer.exe, the Shell entry in the registry MUST be pointing at explorer.exe - otherwise with EventGhost or XBMC set as default shell running the first instance of explorer.exe just opens a "My Computer" file browser window.

What I want to do is have a way for registry keys to be exchanged (or toggled, I guess) so by default XBMC (or EventGhost, which then launches XBMC) is run as Shell. Then upon exiting XBMC the Shell registry key is reverted to explorer.exe then explorer.exe is run to provide a full desktop environment. Then when explorer.exe is quit (and/or Windows is restarted) the script works in reverse, changing the Shell back to XBMC/EventGhost.

I managed to get an Apple TV 1 running Crystalbuntu to run a custom script which was a loop, whereby when XBMC was quit LXDE would load to provide a basic desktop, then when LXDE was quit XBMC would be loaded etc. It will be a little more involved to pull a registry key switcheroo but I'm hoping it is possible and someone knows how, because in order to keep audio/video perfectly in sync with Frodo on my Revo R3610 it's best if the full Windows desktop isn't running in the background. Plus XBMC runs nicer as an appliance when the Windows desktop doesn't get loaded.

(2013-02-28 21:41)zackpliskin Wrote:  This information is incredibly useful, but I was thinking about taking it a step further.

In order for Windows 7 to boot the full desktop environment with taskbar and Aero features with the first instance of explorer.exe, the Shell entry in the registry MUST be pointing at explorer.exe - otherwise with EventGhost or XBMC set as default shell running the first instance of explorer.exe just opens a "My Computer" file browser window.

Install XBMCLauncher and set XBMCLauncher as the shell. Enable the setting 'Start explorer when xbmc is closed'. This will show the desktop instead of the usual explorer window.

Good tip, but no need now - editing one of my "Kill XBMC" batch files worked. As EventGhost allows three main actions per button (single press, double tap, long press) I turned the long press into a "Kill XBMC, change the Shell to Explorer.exe, run Explorer.exe, change the Shell back to EventGhost for next reboot" option. I also edited the DialogButtonMenu.xml of the main skin I use (PM3.HD) to add an extra <onclick> that launches the exact same batch file if "Exit XBMC" is chosen from it. Based on the problems people have with XBMCLaunch having read some of the thread, this seemed the simpler way to go that wouldn't break my current config.