Windows Shell

[Spearball]

Is there a way to manually start the windows shell, including background, and context menus. I have disabled the shell from starting automatically by setting the /winlogon/Shell key to 0 in the registry, just because I like to have control over the system. Only starting explorer.exe once the system boots doesn't start the entire taskbar menus, background and context menus. It only start the file browser. What else is linked to the shell at startup?

Thanks


EDIT: Forgot to add, I'm on Windows 7 64 bit.

[MikeMoss]

Hi

I'm note sure if this will work in your situation, but you could try this.

Try opening "Task Manager", then go to Processes.

Next select Explorer.exe and from the right click drop down select "End Process" and say yes to end the process.

Task Manager will stay open.

Cilck on "File", "New Task"(Run).

Type in "explorer.exe and click OK.

See if that starts everything going again.

What is it that you don't want to run at startup?

CCleaner makes if very easy to monitor your startup items and disable what ever you want without removing anything.

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I have more then half the stuff that would normally start shut off.

Mike

[EzyStvy]

Originally Posted by Spearball just because I like to have control over the system.

If you "relaxed" your need for control on this one issue - wouldn't the problem go away Or is there some sort of benefit for doing it this way?

[Spearball]

Originally Posted by EzyStvy If you "relaxed" your need for control on this one issue - wouldn't the problem go away Or is there some sort of benefit for doing it this way?

Definitely! But I've looking into minimizing start up time and memory usage on initial boot up. The obvious that even if i did get explorer to start correctly it would be the same as never having done what i did in the first place, but then the fun is gone .


But actually if anyone is interested, I've just come to a solution that I haven't yet quite got started on. But it seems that in order for the windows graphical interface to fully start up at the execution of explorer.exe, that winlogon/Shell registry key must be set to explorer.exe while the explorer processes initializes. Or else it falls back to just opening a default file browser. A simple program that edits the key, starts explorer and then set that key back to 0 is all I need. I'll will try and post the code once I get it working.