Custom shell

[Chris]

If I want to create a custom shell for XPe then should there be any
performance issues using VB6? Using a custom VB6 shell I have experienced
delays with 3rd party hardware that connects via a parallel port. This
delay doesn't happen with Explorer as the shell. The shell doesn't do
anything except start a 2nd executable that is the user interface and which
uses the 3rd party hardware.

Are there obvious issues using a custom VB6 shell? Would upgrading to
VB.Net be likely to help?

 

[Gordon Smith \(eMVP\)]

If I want to create a custom shell for XPe then should there be any
performance issues using VB6? Using a custom VB6 shell I have
experienced delays with 3rd party hardware that connects via a
parallel port. This delay doesn't happen with Explorer as the shell.
The shell doesn't do anything except start a 2nd executable that is
the user interface and which uses the 3rd party hardware.

Are there obvious issues using a custom VB6 shell? Would upgrading to
VB.Net be likely to help?

If your VB code doesn't do anything w/ the parallel port, then I'm not sure
why it would cause delays to another app. Have you tried making the 2nd
exectable be the custom shell instead - as a test?

 

[Richard]

Your custom shell can actually load and execute your second application
"Before" the OS is totally up and running. Explorer actually will mask this
somewhat because itself takes longer to load.

Search archives a week or two ago about shells, and the way to make it wait
until it's ready.

Richard

 

[Richard]

The following, provided by Slobodan, in a past post, will allow the shell to
wait until the OS is ready.
My shell actually does this, before it loads the custom application.


Use following in loop for 50-100 times
{
CMP_WaitNoPendingInstallEvents(INFINITE);
Sleep(10);
}

 

[Chris]

Thanks Gordon. I will try and make the 2nd EXE the shell. The current
shell monitors the 2nd EXE and, if it isn't running (because it crashed or
the user terminated it), then it is restarted using the Shell command. (I
presume I can get Windows to restart the shell automatically like it does
with Explorer.)

The problem hardware is an POS receipt printer. The application is user
driven and the problem doesn't happen during initialisation. My assumption
was that maybe VB6 had some limitations.