hide taskbar

[Philipp Stampfl]

Hi all!

This was discussed here some weeks ago but with no working solution, so I
try again.

I want to run my application in autostart and I do not want to see the
windows cursor during startup and I don't want to see the taskbar at all.
There were tips to hide the cursor in the program which works but not until
the prog. starts. Another tip was to make the cursor invisible, which also
works but not during the startup, bevore the custom settings were loaded.
The next tip was to run the application as an alternate shell due to
registry hacks (replace explorer.exe with the custom application) which
actually ended up in a booted XPE with no taskbar an no custom program.
Simple tricks like autohiding the taskbar do not really work either as it
will first show and then slide down.

Any tips how to get a custom program started without showing the taskbar and
(if possible) the cursor during the startup (until customized settings are
loaded).

Thanks for any hint!

Phil

 

[KM]

Philipp,

There have been some working solutions to hide the taskabar but my guess they all will work *after* startup. That means you can
possible see the taskbar when Explorer is loaded.
A while ago a wrote a simple app to hide the Explorer taskbar, desktop, etc. But again, this works after the Explorer has been
loaded.

I guess the only cure for you would be removing the Explorer as a shell at all. Can you mention why couldn't you make your app the
shell?
Does it have dependencies on running Explorer?

Particularly, this statement is unclear: "The next tip was to run the application as an alternate shell due to registry hacks
(replace explorer.exe with the custom application) which actually ended up in a booted XPE with no taskbar an no custom program.".
Why it ended up with no custom program running?

 

[Philipp Stampfl]

Hi again!

Well, I changes the default shell for my user from explorer.exe to myapp.exe
which opens a config file at the startup. It also uses directX and a
touchscreen for the interface. When I did that change, I got a blank windows
background, no taskbar and no programm running, with no error message. The
application throws errors if it can not load the config file or can not
access direct sound but there was no error. The only way out was
CTRL+ALT+DEL to get the shutdown options.

I don't know why the app could not be loaded. Should I be able to use any
application as default shell? E.g. notepad.exe ?

Thanks for your help!

Philipp

Philipp,

There have been some working solutions to hide the taskabar but my guess

they all will work *after* startup. That means you can

possible see the taskbar when Explorer is loaded.
A while ago a wrote a simple app to hide the Explorer taskbar, desktop,

etc. But again, this works after the Explorer has been

loaded.

I guess the only cure for you would be removing the Explorer as a shell at

all. Can you mention why couldn't you make your app the

shell?
Does it have dependencies on running Explorer?

Particularly, this statement is unclear: "The next tip was to run the

application as an alternate shell due to registry hacks

(replace explorer.exe with the custom application) which actually ended up

in a booted XPE with no taskbar an no custom program.".

 

[Rick Thering]

Philipp,

do you have Task Manager on your image? If so try running your application
from the Task manager after you have gotten to this blank screen. If it
runs, you are probably running up against a required service that has not
started before your application comes up. What I did to get around this was
to fire my application from a VB Script with a wait loop. May not be the
best way, but it is simple and will prove the concept.

 

[KM]

Philipp,

I assume you have included all the dependencies of your app in to your image. If not run it through Dependency Walker.
I also assume you have properly set your app to be the shell. If not, search for Custom shell in the XPe docs.

You will need to "debug" your application to see what is going on when you launch it.
I am subscribing to Rick's suggestion. You better set CMD or Task Manager as your shell and launch your app from there.
Simultaneously you can run Regmon/Filemon tools to monitor the activities and to see possible errors.