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This Wikipage explains how to install software or modify your computer's settings. Build Your Own Arcade Controls Wiki recommends
reading the manuals or "readme" files of the software. If you are changing settings on your computer make sure you understand what you
are doing. In doubt let a more experienced user execute the steps for you.
Please note that the contents of this website is a collection of advise and experience of many hobbyists. None of the individual contributors
or operators of this website can take any responsibility for the results or consequences of any the information presented on this web site.
Contents
1 Introduction
2 Instant Sheller
3 Replacing Your BIOS Logo
4 Hiding Windows XP
4.1 Replacing Your Boot Screen
4.1.1 BootSkin
4.1.2 BootXP
4.1.3 Slimm Boot-Logo / The Microsoft Way
4.1.4 Making Your Own Bootskin for XP using Bootskin_Free
4.1.5 A Hardware Solution For Hiding BIOS & Boot Screens
4.2 Replacing Explorer With Your FE In XP
4.2.1 What to do if you removed the taskbar and want it back
4.2.2 Launching Programs/Utilities in the background
4.2.3 Alternate Method Without Messing With The Registry
4.3 Returning to Explorer once FE Quits
4.4 Getting rid of the "Loading settings" Popup screens
4.5 Hiding The Mouse Pointer While Logging Into Windows
4.5.1 Alternate Change Cursor Method (Without TweakUI)
4.5.2 Changing the Cursor Shape During the Logon Screen
4.6 Welcome/Startup/Shutdown/Background Color
4.7 Removing pop-up bubbles
4.8 Hide Desktop Icons
5 Hiding Windows 98
5.1 Replacing Your Boot Screen
5.1.1 Special concerns when using the ArcadeVGA
5.2 Hiding The Mouse Pointer While Logging Into Windows
5.3 Hiding The taskbar
5.4 See Also
Introduction
To create the illusion that your home arcade machine is a 'real' arcade machine, it would be nice to be
able to hide the familiar Windows PC look and feel. Nobody wants to see the Windows logo when your
cabinet is turned on; it's kind of like being caught with your pants down. There are several ways of
achieving this, let's have a look at your options...
note: this article deals with hiding various parts of the operating system when the computer is in startup phase. To hide the windows user interface and select games take a look at the front-end software
article.
Instant Sheller
Some modern BIOSes support changing the logo that is the very first thing displayed when your
computer turns on. It should be noted that theres not too much to be gained from doing this as most
computers are so fast that the image is only momentarily flashed and your display device normally
wont have got up to operating specifications before the BIOS screen disappears. If yours can be
changed, there will be an utility to do this on the motherboard manufacturers website.
Some (but not all) ASUS brand motherboards support this feature. Support for this feature in other
brands is unknown.
Hiding Windows XP
The boot screen is the Windows XP logo on a black background with a little blue progress bar
underneath it. Before making any changes, be sure to create a System Restore point before attempting
these methods. While not a "Get Out Of Jail Free" card, it can save you from yourself. This way, in case
something goes wrong, restarting your computer, pressing and holding F8 until the Operating System
menu appears and selecting Last Known Good Configuration should get you back to your previous
state in most cases.
You can modify your boot screen in these ways:
BootSkin
This product inserts a driver file into the XP startup sequence that displays an image instead of
actually loading a driver.
Pros:
Cons:
BootXP
This alters resources and some other bits in a file called ntoskrnl.exe.
Pros:
You can customize both the screen and the progress bar.
Cons:
If something goes wrong, you will need an original Windows XP CD to put it right
and knowledge of how to use the recovery console.
It accesses and patches a critical operating system file.
You get really ugly and slow nag screens every time you want to change your boot
screen if you dont pay for it.
You can also set this switch manually. Go to My Computer >Properties >Advanced
>Startup and Recovery >Settings. Select Edit startup options file. Add /bootlogo
/noguiboot to your default operating system (there must be a space between each
switch) and add a 16-color 640 x 480 pixel BMP file called "boot.bmp to your
Windows directory.
Pros:
Simple, safe, simply asks the operating system to use a custom boot screen.
No illegal or unrecommended patching of any file.
Least chance of anything going wrong (your changed settings can be checked before
you reboot. After performing the change, go to My Computer >Properties >Advanced
>Startup and Recovery >Settings. If you still have Microsoft Windows XP in the
combo box at the top, everything should work fine next time you boot.
Cons:
If something goes wrong: You need to rebuild the boot.ini file using the
instructions in this knowledge base article
(http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;330184)
This may work for other "skinning" softwares but I have only used Bootskin.
This is a description of how to make your own Bootskin for win XP.
The bootskin is composed of 3 parts. The main image, the progress bar,
and a little script (for lack of a beter term) to tie the two together.
These are then placed into a folder and zipped.
Start by making a folder for your bootskin.
Rename it to Whateveryoulike.bootskin
I use Photoshop to make my images, but you can use any program that will allow you to change color
modes and save a profile of an indexed color palet.
Next you will need to open notepad and make a description for the bootskin program to know how to
put your bootskin together.
Here is a description of what needs to be inside.
[BOOTSKIN] = what it is
Type = (I do not know what this is for. When I read about this it said to use 0 and it works)
Name = title of Bootskin (inside quotes)
Author = You (inside quotes)
Description = Description (inside quotes)
Progressbar = the name of the progress bar file +.bpm
Progressbarx (y)= X & Y Coordinates (in pixles) for where the progress bar is on the screen
Progressbarwidth = How wide (in pixles) do you want your progress bar to be.
Screen = The name main image + .bmp
Here is the last one that I did. You can use it to get yourself on track.
Open notepad and copy - paste the script below.
[BootSkin]
Type= 0
Name = "Blackout"
Author = "MYX"
Description = "Blackout Theme based skin"
ProgressBar= BO_Progress.bmp
ProgressBarX = 140
ProgressBarY = 400
ProgressBarWidth = 360
Screen= Blackout_Bootskin.bmp
Once you have finished filling out your tweaks, save it as bootskin.ini
You will have to type the .ini.
This changes it from a txt document into a configuration document.
Make sure all 3 parts are in your Your.bootskin folder.
Then you have to zip the folder.
Now that your bootskin is zipped you can put it into the bootskin program.
In Bootskin, I have found that when I navigate to where the folder is many times the bootskin folder
does not show up. In the name box, if you start to type the name of the bootskin folder, it will appear
and then you can select it. Not sure why this is.
Clear as mud? Good.
1. You must be using an AGP video card in your PC. Add a PCI video card to your system
(use the cheapest model you can find - it may not even have to work, so you may be able to
find a free card!)
2. Go into the BIOS setup screen of your PC, and find the "Video Card" setting. Change it to
"PCI" instead of AGP.
3. Reboot your PC
The BIOS messages and boot screen should now be output only to the PCI card. The monitor, still
plugged into the AGP card, should stay blank until Windows starts. If any BIOS changes are
needed, you'll have to plug the monitor into the PCI card, so ensure your PC's BIOS settings are
configured prior to attempting this step.
To almost completely bypass Windows and its trimmings, you may want to set up your front end as a
shell.
Note: To do this automagically during startup in XP your computer may be a part of a
workgroup, but it CAN'T be part of a domain.
Here is the process to follow in order to set up your front end as a shell:
you dont do this it will never even look for the shell value in the current user key, meaning the
next part wont ever be seen.
Now (still in regedit) open these registry folders as follows:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon
If you can't find Shell create a string entry and name it Shell.
Set the string entry to the name and directory location of your front end, for example
C:\arcade\mamewah.exe
You can achieve a similar affect as the above (although not as "complete", and may or may not be
If you would like the Explorer shell to start up after you quit your frontend, this is possible. Here
is how to do it using Mamewah as an example. Keep in mind, that this is only possible if the
frontend that you use supports launching an application on exit. Also, the location of the option to
do this won't be in the same place everytime, Mamewah is just used as an example.
1. Go to your Mamewah folder and edit your mamewah.ini file
2. Near the bottom of the list of options is app_to_run_on_exit enter explorer.exe next to it and save
the file.
Now, everytime you quit Mamewah, it will exit back to the Explorer shell.
EXIT_TO_WINDOWS "DIK_ESCAPE"
EXIT_AND_RUN_APP
EXIT_AND_REBOOT
EXIT_AND_SHUTDOWN
guess where "DIK_ESCAPE" needs to be! That's right...make it look like this:
EXIT_WITH_CHOICE
EXIT_TO_WINDOWS
EXIT_AND_RUN_APP "DIK_ESCAPE"
EXIT_AND_REBOOT
EXIT_AND_SHUTDOWN
The following will hide the dialog box that appears that the beggining of Windows startup
informing you that the system is "Loading Settings".
If there is no entry, right-mouse click the "System" word, and select New->DWORD value, and
enter "DisableStatusMessages", right-mouse to edit the value of it, and enter 1 (the digit one).
After having everything else stripped out of Windows, seeing the cursor briefly while Windows
boots up is a real experience killer. Here is how to get rid of it! Please make sure you read this
thoroughly before you start, as you might get stuck with an invisible pointer, and that won't be fun
to get back to normal!
1. Download this version of TweakUI, it has a special option that we are going to need.
http://www.systemsmedic.com/DownloadFiles/TweakUIXP.exe (dead link -- company closed
October, 2007)
2. Once this is installed, go to Control Panel>Mouse>Pointers and change all of your cursors to a
cursor file that is invisible, and save this to a scheme of your choice, Ex. "Mame cursors". See TIP
at the bottom for some extra info on the cursor.
3. Save the scheme, but don't apply it yet, as it will be hard to navigate Windows with an invisible
pointer.
4. The last thing to do is to apply the settings to make the cursors invisible. Go back to the cursor
screen in the Windows Control Panel, load your scheme and hit apply. It'll be hard, if not
impossible to see your cursor, depending on which type of cursor you made, which is why this is
the last step. Squint your way into your start menu and open TweakUI. If you can't see the cursor,
just hit the Windows key on your keyboard to bring up the start menu. (If your keyboard doesn't
have a "Windows key", you can alternatively get the start menu by pressing Ctrl + Esc.) Go to the
LOGON option, and somewhere there is the option to copy your wall paper etc. across to the
Logon Screen. Check that, and hit apply or press Alt+A.
If you have made an invisible cursor and you can't seem to get around Windows once you exit
your FE, you can just log out of the current user and log into the computer as an administrator and
all those settings should be untouched. To do this without a mouse, just hit Win+L and it will
bring up the login menu (Win is the windows key on the keyboard, right between Ctrl and Alt.
Another useful hotkey is Win+R which brings up the Run menu.
TIP: When you download Mamewah, the zip contains an invisible cursor, so you can use that one if
you'd like. Also, you can make a cursor that is just a dot, so that it is almost invisible but it can be used
to navigate if needed.
3. Here you can change the assigned mouse cursor files for your the current user. You can change them
all but in my experience the following three do the job for cursor concealment:
"AppStarting"
"Arrow"
"Wait"
NOTE: At this point it is a good idea to backup this branch in case you change your mind.
4. Change the values you wish to replace with the name of the cursor you wish to have instead. Write it
using a FULL PATH, for example: "c:\temp\my_special_cursor.cur"
Make sure what you writing is correct and prefer changing spaces to something else if your cursor file is
using them.
5. Close regedit.exe and reboot your machine.
If the "Cursors" key does not exist then create it yourself. At the "(Default)" value type a title for the
cursor scheme (e.g. "My Special Cursors"). Create REG_EXPAND_SZ entries for the cursor types you
wish to change. Use the values mentioned in the previous section as a guide. Reboot your machine for
changes to take effect.
Welcome/Startup/Shutdown/Background Color
To hide the Welcome Screen (where you'd normally log in) you'll need to change from the default
windows XP welcome screen to the other style by going to Control Panels >User Accounts
>Change the way users logon or off. Deselect the Use Welcome Screen checkbox.
To change the login background color from blue to black (to better hide it), use regedit again and
navigate to
HKEY_USERS\DEFAULT\Control Panel\Colors\Background
If this causes the "Classic" login screen to appear that prompts for a password, the login can be
automated as follows:
1. Click start >run >type
control userpasswords2
2. Highlight the user you want to log into automatically, then deselect the Users must enter a
username and password... checkbox.
3. Click Apply and you'll be asked to verify the username and password to log in automatically
4. Click OK again and the next time you restart your computer, you'll automatically be logged in
without having the classic prompt or Welcome Screen.
In Windows XP, you occasionaly get pop-up bubbles with all kinds of useful (or less useful)
information. In the application of running an arcade machine, we use low resolutions, like
640x480 or even 640x288. In these resolutions Windows XP tries to be helpful and lets you know
via a pop-up bubble that your resolution setting is not ideal for this videocard. (Another bubble
that can come up because of the low resolution is from the Start menu indicating it cannot show
all items on the Start menu because of the low resolution.
We need to live with this, so there is no point in these bubbles coming up everytime.)
To turn ALL (!) bubbles off follow these steps:
1. Click Start, click Run, type regedit, and then press ENTER.
2. Navigate to the following subkey:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced
3. Right-click the right pane, create a new DWORD value, and then name it EnableBalloonTips.
These steps disable all Notification Area balloon tips for this user. There is no way to disable balloon
tips for specific programs only.
Hiding Windows 98
Create a black picture with in BMP format, RGB encoded, 320x400 resolution, 256 colors in MS
Paint or another paint application
Do NOT try to save pictures in 16bit or 32bit colors or such, because it may crash Windows.
Replace logo.sys, logow.sys and logos.sys with your new picture (these are actually bmp files,
which were renamed to sys).
Here is more in-depth info about replacing: Replace the Ugly Startup and Shutdown Screens
(http://www.annoyances.org/exec/show/article02-011) .
Here is a post with lots of good links to logos and free editing tools: Animated/static Win9x/ME logos
and free tools to create/edit/manage animated/static logos (http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?
showtopic=38262&st=0&p=314806&#entry314806) .
When using a custom boot screen logo with the ArcadeVGA video card, the boot resolution is 320x200.
This results in only the top half of the image being visible. However, Windows still requires an image
that is the full 320x400 pixels. A simple way to handle this is to make a standard sized boot screen
image, resize it vertically 50%, then paste two copies (stacked vertically) into a new 320x400 BMP
image.
See Also
Software