CENTRAFUSE as the Shell

veetid · 06-23-2005, 02:51 AM

Has anyone gotten CENTRAFUSE to properly run as a shell replacement? I have read about some people having troubles and others that got it to work. If someone has gotten it to work I am curious what they had to change or how they set it up.

I need to rebuild my test machine and that is why I haven't tested it myself... I want to add supportto set CENTRAFUSE as the shell directly from setup...

david

SyNTaXer · 06-23-2005, 06:23 AM

yes, it would be very nice to get centrafuse running as shell. i've tried it a time ago but without success. i followed the description in a post from the centrafuse board where some parts of frodos work is used to get centrafuse running, but it didn't work for me. this is the right man ! bye

RPM_VR4 · 06-23-2005, 12:22 PM

That would be a totally awsome feature David. I havn't tried it because of reported problems and it sounds like a lot of work. A simple setup option would be totally sweet!

DaRacerz · 06-23-2005, 08:04 PM

I have Centrafuse running as the primary shell, well, sort of, not really, eh, just read.

Basically, I have a Launcher App/Bat File that is the Windows Shell and the first thing it does is call Centrafuse, then I make it wait 30 seconds at which it will load the Explorer shell so all my other operation can still execute on the system. I also have a Java Code that I wrote to do this, but the Bat seems to launch faster.

The souce code of the Bat File I use is Below.

Code:

cd "\Program Files\Fluxmedia\Centrafuse"
start centrafuse

sleep 30

explorer

You will need to get a sleep.exe, just go on google, its everywhere.

veetid · 06-23-2005, 08:10 PM

DaRacerz: Do some apps not run when explorer.exe isn't running? I planned on having an option to set CF as the shell, but also have a way to launch explorer.exe from utilities if it was needed... that way you wouldn't need to sleep 30 and load explorer in your bat file...

So if you simply call centrafuse from a bat file and set the bat file as the shell it works, but if you set centrafuse.exe directly as the shell it gives an error?

david

DaRacerz · 06-23-2005, 08:19 PM

Quote:

Do some apps not run when explorer.exe isn't running?

Correct, such as CPUIdle which I use to help keep my CPU cool during the summer months. Though, I could reroute this to System Startup.

As far as the Shell concept is concerned, here is what I would concider to be a perfect scenario:

Two Launch Folders.
One Folder to Configure the Launcher for your "Utilities" Option
Second folder that would mimic windows startup up folder. This startup folder applications would launch after Centrafuse is done thru its initialization sequence. This would get around the need for Loading Exporer.

Direct calling of Centrafuse? I'll have to get back to you on that, I don't remember trying to do that, I just went straight to the script method cause i wanted explorer launching.

justintime · 06-23-2005, 08:52 PM

David,

I went ahead and tried DaRacerz technique, with the bat file, but I removed the SLEEP and the Explorer piece...

Result: It worked.
The bad news is that unless Explorer loads, PowerStrip will not load

So I have a bad resolution. I'll try and add powerstrip to the bat file and see what happens.

justintime · 06-23-2005, 08:58 PM

OK, added Powerstrip to the beginning of the script and all works beautifully.

BigDan · 06-23-2005, 11:21 PM

I'm a software programmer and I have an idea on how you could do this :

Make centrafuse automatically generate a batch file (.BAT) with a kind of boot softwares selector allowing the user to select the softwares to load with the shell batch file. So if a user only want centrafuse he can, or if he want centrafuse and after powerstrip he can, if he also want explorer.exe he can.

You could also add an option to set pauses between the loading of some applications using sleep in the batch file.

When the user would press an "Apply" button centrafuse will only have to generate the batch file with all the softwares, pauses, and anything else you want to include.

Add an option in centrafuse like "Put centrafuse as shell" who replace to shell to the batch file (in the windows shell registry key) instead of explorer.exe if enabled and if disabled use explorer.exe as the shell (or you could also allow the user to select the shell but with explorer.exe as default)

dragonBTV · 06-24-2005, 08:36 PM

sounds good if you can surport!

an easy password protection best be added if end user can setup it back.
normally, as shell fuction should be actived by expert users....

veetid · 06-24-2005, 08:51 PM

good to hear... I can easily generate the bat file when "run CF as shell" is enabled... I am just curious if you can add centrafuse.exe directly in the registry or if you have to use the bat file... Don't see why it shouldn't also work, but I heard it didn't...

david

justintime · 06-24-2005, 09:59 PM

Veetid:

I tried directly putting exe in registry, and did not work. With BAT file, it does work.

RPM_VR4 · 06-25-2005, 04:25 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by justintime

Veetid:

I tried directly putting exe in registry, and did not work. With BAT file, it does work.

Strange. Does anyone have any clue why that would happen? It would definatly be cleaner to not need a .bat file.

TheKingPlaza · 06-25-2005, 06:44 AM

I found this at Lighttek Software - Talisman FAQ

Step by step procedure to start Windows NT/2000/XP if you uninstall Taalisman in shell mode of Talisman:

1) Start computer.
2) After logining press Ctrl-Alt-Del
3) Press "Task Manager".
4) Press "New Task".
5) Enter: "regedit.exe" and press "Ok".
6) Change the value of register key :
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\WindowsNT\
CurrentVersion\Winlogon\Shell
from "../talisman/talisman.exe" in "explorer.exe"
7) Change the value of register key :
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\WindowsNT\
CurrentVersion\Winlogon\Shell
from "../talisman/talisman.exe" in "explorer.exe"
8) Change the value of register key :
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\IniFileMapping\system.ini\boot\S hell
from "USR:Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon" to "SYS:Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon".
9) Change the value of register key :
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\
CurrentVersion\Explorer\ Advanced\Separate Process
from "1" to "0".
10) Close regedit.exe.
11) Press Ctrl-Alt-Del and Restart Windows.

Notes: All changes in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE must be made by user with administrator rights.
All changes in HKEY_CURRENT_USER must be made for all users who switched shells before.
After any changes in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE you must Restart computer (not only logoff!).

Should be possible the other way around.

DaRacerz · 06-25-2005, 08:24 AM

Well, I just got around and put centrafuse on a very very limited and Scalled down Nlited Win2000 box I had laying in Virtual PC for another project, and what I try to get Centrafuse to start as shell, the following error gets produced:

Quote:

Centrafuse.exe - Common Language Runtime Debugging Services
Application has generated an execptiosn that could not be handled.
Process id=0x3cc (972), Thread id=0xdb (984)

Not sure whats the cause here. Anyways, I'm pretty much at the conclusion right now, who cares? Since 1.3 is a complete rewrite David, wouldn't the shell deal by a whole new situation when you release this new version? Anyways, I'm gonna put a straight XP copy on the VM now and see what happens with it.