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[Guest]

What registry item would I edit in Windows 2000 to hide the Windows start
menu bar? I want to do this during a PowerPoint presenation Kiosk
presentation. When the Office assistant shows up (and I want it to), the
start toolbar also displays. The only way I can think of hiding it or
disableing it is to modify the registry item (thru code) when the
presentation starts.

Thank you.

 

[John John]

Just kill Explorer during the presentation then start it again after.
Use Task Manager and end Explorer then use Task Manager again to restart
Explorer.

John

 

[Guest]

Is there a way in code to kill Explorer and start it again?

 

[John John]

Well, easy enough to start it but if you try to kill it at a command it
thinks that you want to shut down the computer. I can killl it with
pskill but then Windows has a mini fit and restarts it within a few seconds.

I found this MS article but I'm not a programmer and I haven't got the
foggiest clue what to do with it! It might be of help for you:

How To Restart the Windows Shell Programmatically
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;137572

This might also be of help but don't ask me what the heck it means:
Hide the Desktop
http://www.ausdev.net/dotMag/art-HideDesktop.asp

Finally, I ran across this:
Hook99 - Start Button Properties
http://thunder.prohosting.com/~ladi/e_hook.html

I tried it and it works and it's easy to unload. Actually I had a few
chuckles using it as you can rename the start button to anything you
want including things like f**k Off. You can run it side by side with a
registry monitor like regmon to see what keys it changes. It might lead
to a solution for your problem.

Other than that one would have to figure out a taskmgr batch file of
some sort to kill it.

John

 

[Dave Patrick]

In this case it may be easier to just not start it at all for one user.
You can set the Reg_Sz string value of;
"Shell"="Explorer.exe"
to the full path of the program you wish to start by default. found at
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon

For example to start the command interpreter;
"Shell"="C:\winnt\system32\cmd.exe"

You may be able to define this per user at;
HKCU\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon

--
Regards,

Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
Microsoft Certified Professional
Microsoft MVP [Windows]
http://www.microsoft.com/protect

:
| Well, easy enough to start it but if you try to kill it at a command it
| thinks that you want to shut down the computer. I can killl it with
| pskill but then Windows has a mini fit and restarts it within a few
seconds.
|
| I found this MS article but I'm not a programmer and I haven't got the
| foggiest clue what to do with it! It might be of help for you:
|
| How To Restart the Windows Shell Programmatically
| http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;137572
|
| This might also be of help but don't ask me what the heck it means:
| Hide the Desktop
| http://www.ausdev.net/dotMag/art-HideDesktop.asp
|
| Finally, I ran across this:
| Hook99 - Start Button Properties
| http://thunder.prohosting.com/~ladi/e_hook.html
|
| I tried it and it works and it's easy to unload. Actually I had a few
| chuckles using it as you can rename the start button to anything you
| want including things like f**k Off. You can run it side by side with a
| registry monitor like regmon to see what keys it changes. It might lead
| to a solution for your problem.
|
| Other than that one would have to figure out a taskmgr batch file of
| some sort to kill it.
|
| John
|
| Wylie C wrote:
|
| > Is there a way in code to kill Explorer and start it again?
| >
| > "John John" wrote:
| >
| >
| >>Just kill Explorer during the presentation then start it again after.
| >>Use Task Manager and end Explorer then use Task Manager again to restart
| >>Explorer.
| >>
| >>John
| >>
| >>Wylie C wrote:
| >>
| >>
| >>>What registry item would I edit in Windows 2000 to hide the Windows
start
| >>>menu bar? I want to do this during a PowerPoint presenation Kiosk
| >>>presentation. When the Office assistant shows up (and I want it to),
the
| >>>start toolbar also displays. The only way I can think of hiding it or
| >>>disableing it is to modify the registry item (thru code) when the
| >>>presentation starts.
| >>>
| >>>Thank you.
| >>

 

[John John]

Now this thing is bugging me. Wouldn't that change require a reboot?
Not very graceful if you want to distribute the Power Point
presentation. Could one unload and reload the key so that when explorer
is killed it would start the new shell? I'm sorry but I've been to the
point of removing namespaces and I don't feel like rebooting. And I
don't feel like changing another reg key ... but it will gnaw at me
until I do,,, or someone else tells me.

John

 

[John John]

Can you tell us how to make start bitmap or .ico invisible?

John

 

[Dave Patrick]

Yes, no question about that.

--
Regards,

Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
Microsoft Certified Professional
Microsoft MVP [Windows]
http://www.microsoft.com/protect

:
<snip>
Wouldn't that change require a reboot?
<snip>

 

[John John]

Found it! Using the Resource Kit kill utility:

kill -f explorer

But... If you distribute the presentation and the users don't have rk
kill it won't work :-(.

John

 

[John John]

Of course you could always use the easy way and Auto hide the taskbar.
But the taskbar will show if you snap or move the mouse cursor to the
bottom.

John