Windows HOW-TO make XBMC for Windows boot as a Shell in Full Screen (the easy way)

Wiki article: http://wiki.xbmc.org/?title=HOW-TO_make_...ull_Screen

Hi there! I would first like to congratulate the XBMC team with an excellent release for all platforms!

I basically use the XBMC as my primary multimediacenter and since I'm a Windows user & programmer I stick to that platform. Many of you know the Shell-function override does not handle params and therefor limit the startup of XBMC. Here is my solution to that problem:
1. Download SilentLaunch extract to C:\
2. Create a text-file on C:\ named SilentLaunch.cfg
3. Check the properties of your XBMC link and add the target information. For instance "C:\program files\XBMC\XBMC.exe" -fs -p
4. Start the SilentLaunch.exe and check if XBMC get started. (If not goto the end of the post)
5. Download InstantSheller set the "Application to shell" as C:\SilentLaunch.exe

Voila you got the XBMC started without showing anything else!



If nothing happens or an error accured
1. Start a commandprompt Start -> Run, enter "cmd.exe" -> OK
2. Write "C:\SilentLaunch.exe -v" this will verbose output to the screen
Typical error 2 is file-not-found, check your path.

It is pretty important with " at the start and ending of the xbmc-path if it contains spaces and the because the parameters is seperated by spaces. The verbose will tell you more on what went wrong.

The sourcecode & more information about the launch can be found here http://lars.werner.no/?p=117

I'm sorry if there is other cleaner solutions to this "problem" by today, but I could not find anything searching the forums.

Best regards
Lars Werner
http://lars.werner.no

Thanks for sharing! It works very well!
Just one question, how do I return back to explorer shell when I need to?
If I shut down XBMC or XBMC crash I have nothing but black screen.

Also how do I add some other programs to start with XBMC (need to start remote software)?

Guys!
main theme to start xbmc as shell was xbmc active application after sleep/hibernate
this way don`t do it.

Don`t provide to fool newbie.

I did a post earlier about how i run xbmc. with this method you can also run
more than just xbmc !

Okay this is a little trick i have tested. As i dont use my pc for anything else than xbmc i wanted to remove all crap that windows xp loads at startup. The ultimate way doing this is by disabling the explorer.exe shell itself. this will speed up logon time and save a lot of resources !!

WARNING !! Do this at your own risk !! this can seriously render your XP useless if you dont know your way around windows. !!! This is only tested with windows XP pro !

Here is the steps:
1.
Download tweakUI.exe from here
http://download.microsoft.com/downlo...ertoySetup.exe
Start the program and select autologon. Input your username and passsword. Now xp will logon automaticly.

2.
Load regedit. find this key
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon] - select the winlogon folder
then find the "shell" value. change from explorer.exe to C:\windows\go.exe

3.
Download the Go shell from here
http://shellcity.net/dl/go1-05full.zip
Copy all the files to c:\windows
then edit the startup.bat file. remove the clock.exe entry. Type in the location of your xbmc exe file. say C:\XBMC\xbmc.exe or where you got it.
save the file.

4.
reboot the box.

5.
you should see the login screen flashes and in a few seconds XBMC is on your screen.

I havent tested this for a long time but i havent found any problems so far. remote desktop works ! so if you need to do some stuff on your xbmc pc just remote to it and hit ctrl alt del to bring up the taskmanager then run say explorer to get a view of your folders etc.

Please give feedback about your new experience

More hints and tips on how to boot to XBMC for Windows (in full-screen) as the shell:
http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=34325
http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=34966

The-Boxhead:
The Instantsheller does exactly what you described! Only I use the silentlaunch insted of "go1-05".

igsolt:
I have Girder running in behind doing specific tasks based on my remote. If XBMC hangs I use a simple bat-script that kills the XBMC process & starts it again

Quote:@ECHO OFF
tskill xbmc
start %systemroot%\system32\userinit.exe

The Userinit.exe is the same as restarting the shell (this is actually started before the actually shell)

If you need explorer or other functions you can press CTRL-SHIFT-ESC for taskmanager. And then press File -> New task (run) type explorer.exe and there you go

I don't use XBMC to launch other applications (I only start girder and some other stuff with SilentLaunch). But I know there are plugins on this forum that will handle such a thing.
I suggest that you disable as much as services as you like by reading this document: http://techrepublic.com.com/i/tr/downloa...sabled.pdf
That way hibernation or simular is not needed since the box boots in around 20-30 seconds

would all this info warrant a page on the wiki?

well this failed miserably for me, i have a few changes i'm gonna try a few different things, but it might be that my windows install is terrible (it's heavily modded)

Freddo Wrote:would all this info warrant a page on the wiki?

http://wiki.xbmc.org/?title=HOW-TO_make_...ull_Screen

Feel free to add more information to that article