Running Explorer after using different Shell
 

I have a Windows 98 machine which I've set up to be dedicated to run a
single program every time it boots. To get the best startup and memory usage
performance from it I've modified SYSTEM.INI so that the shell entry points
to this program instead of Explorer.exe.

This all works perfectly and my program starts up fine.

On occasion, however, I do actually want to get into normal Explorer (to
copy files to/from the computer over the network, for example). The program
I'm running has the option to launch other programs, so I thought I'd simply
need to run Explorer.exe from here. However when I do this, I just get a
single Explorer window open instead of getting the whole Windows user
interface (so I'm not getting the Start button, task bar, desktop icons,
etc.).

Is there something I can do when I'm launching Explorer to make it launch
the whole shell? Or is the only way to do this to launch from SYSTEM.INI?

Thanks for any help anyone can offer,

--

(O)enone

I believe you will find that the shell has to be loaded at boot. Have you
noticed that many shell changes take a reboot before they will appear?

--
Regards

Ron Badour, MS MVP Windows 98
Tips: http://home.satx.rr.com/badour
Knowledge Base Info:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?pr=kbinfo

"Oenone" wrote in message
...
I have a Windows 98 machine which I've set up to be dedicated to run a
single program every time it boots. To get the best startup and memory
usage performance from it I've modified SYSTEM.INI so that the shell entry
points to this program instead of Explorer.exe.

This all works perfectly and my program starts up fine.

On occasion, however, I do actually want to get into normal Explorer (to
copy files to/from the computer over the network, for example). The
program I'm running has the option to launch other programs, so I thought
I'd simply need to run Explorer.exe from here. However when I do this, I
just get a single Explorer window open instead of getting the whole
Windows user interface (so I'm not getting the Start button, task bar,
desktop icons, etc.).

Is there something I can do when I'm launching Explorer to make it launch
the whole shell? Or is the only way to do this to launch from SYSTEM.INI?

Thanks for any help anyone can offer,

--

(O)enone

What about rundll32 user.exe,ExitWindowsExec and Restart Windows at a
command prompt or in a batch or script file? Would that work? I saw it
he http://www.ez-pc.org/bd/98/tips.asp

John

Ron Badour wrote:
I believe you will find that the shell has to be loaded at boot. Have you
noticed that many shell changes take a reboot before they will appear?

he http://www.ez-pc.org/bd/98/tips.asp

John

Hello John,
I was just perusing when I came across your reply.
I went to the site above then compared the Restart & ShutDown
with mine; I never realised it could be coded in different ways.
Here is a comparison of my Reboot with the sites reboot::::
(when I say 'mine' , I mean what I have as a shortcut on my d/top)

mine.. C:\WINDOWS\RUNDLL32.EXE SHELL32.DLL,SHExitWindowsEx 2
sites.. rundll32 user.exe,ExitWindowsExec

My Shutdown::::::

mine.. C:\WINDOWS\RUNDLL32.EXE SHELL32.DLL,SHExitWindowsEx 1
sites... rundll32 user.exe,exitwindows

My post is just a comment, learning curve etc.
So much to know so little time.

regards Jane

C:\WINDOWS\RUNDLL32.EXE and rundll32 are the same if C:\Windows is in your
path, which it is by default.

Both Shell32.dll and users.exe have exit functions, with different names.
The Shell32.DLL version has more options. You can see the options if you
scroll down that page to the auto reboot section. It's quite common for
options to be duplicated like this - when the programmers want to add some
new functionality they can't discard the old version because too many people
are already using it, so they just add a new one. In fact, it's quite
likely that the Shell32.DLL version actually uses the user.exe version, but
does some additional things.
--
Jeff Richards
MS MVP (Windows - Shell/User)
"jane" wrote in message
...

he http://www.ez-pc.org/bd/98/tips.asp

John

Hello John,
I was just perusing when I came across your reply.
I went to the site above then compared the Restart & ShutDown
with mine; I never realised it could be coded in different ways.
Here is a comparison of my Reboot with the sites reboot::::
(when I say 'mine' , I mean what I have as a shortcut on my d/top)

mine.. C:\WINDOWS\RUNDLL32.EXE SHELL32.DLL,SHExitWindowsEx 2
sites.. rundll32 user.exe,ExitWindowsExec

My Shutdown::::::

mine.. C:\WINDOWS\RUNDLL32.EXE SHELL32.DLL,SHExitWindowsEx 1
sites... rundll32 user.exe,exitwindows

My post is just a comment, learning curve etc.
So much to know so little time.

regards Jane