Hyperspin as Shell: Easy Exit to Windows

[redtapemedia]

I've created a wrapper for those who run (or wish to run) HyperSpin as a Shell. Tested under XP, working fine on my machine.

It actually fixed my Black Screen issue too, which would occur if I just tried to run HS as shell by itself. Your mileage may vary.

It enables you to run HyperSpin as a shell whilst still having a quick and easy way to quit to Windows should you wish. Also shuts down the PC if you quit Hyperspin in the regular manner. By default the key to quit to windows is F12 but you can change it by editing the INI file. The Steps to get it working are as follows:

1. Copy the files to your HyperSpin directory. For me this is "C:\HyperSpin"

2. Edit the HSShell.ini file if you wish to use a key other than F12

3. Click The Start Menu, run, then type "regedit"

4. Navigate to Key: "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\Shell" and change the value from "Explorer.exe" to "C:\HyperSpin\HSShell.exe"

** 5. Edit: It might be an idea to leave step this until you know HyperSpin runs correctly as a shell...

Now edit the "C:\HyperSpin\Settings\Settings.ini" and find the heading "[Exit Program]". Change the line underneath so it reads "Executable = C:\HyperSpin\Shutdown.exe"

6. Reboot & Hopefully it works!

There are many other tweaks you can make to your system to hide Windows further. I will probably post on a few of these methods later, but for now if someone feels brave if they could test this out and let me know how they go.

IMPORTANT: If Hyperspin doesn't load, press control-alt-delete, select Task Manager, Then "New Task" and type in "explorer.exe" to get back to Windows. MAKE SURE YOU KNOW WHAT REGISTRY CHANGES WERE MADE SO YOU CAN CHANGE IT BACK IF IT DOESN'T WORK!

Let me know how you go.

Updated 2012:

NEW LINK:

MediaFire

NOTE: This is from years ago. I've never tested with Windows 7 or Vista, only XP.

[Marke]

No go for me. Boot up to HyperSpin and as soon as it went to show the game list, it shut straight back down again. Lol.

[redtapemedia]

No go for me. Boot up to HyperSpin and as soon as it went to show the game list, it shut straight back down again. Lol.

So the instructions worked, just HyperSpin quit early? I'm assuming that's what happened as HyperSpin executes shutdown.exe on exit.

As I said above it may not work on everyone's system, so If you can give me any more information we might be able to figure it out.

[Marke]

Ok I changed the regedit back to explorer.exe. I left your files in the HyperSpin folder and left the shutdown info still in the ini file and it still boots into hyper then shuts pc down.

[EVEGames]

Haven't tried it yet, Redtape, but bookmarking this thread for future reference. Your solution (assuming other people can duplicate your success, Marke makes it 0 for 1 ) is the missing piece of the puzzle for those looking to hide Windows and shell directly into HS. You still need the option to get at Windows! For example, when Visual Pinball expires

Thanks given!

[brian_hoffman]

I shelled HS a while back and had good sucess. I too made a loader. I can share it by the weekend and works with instant sheller and includes a HS boot logo. I want to do more testing and do a write up.

[redtapemedia]

Haven't tried it yet, Redtape, but bookmarking this thread for future reference. Your solution (assuming other people can duplicate your success, Marke makes it 0 for 1 ) is the missing piece of the puzzle for those looking to hide Windows and shell directly into HS. You still need the option to get at Windows! For example, when Visual Pinball expires

Thanks given!

It's actually 1 for 2 cause mine's working I'm assuming that Marke's issue is to do with HyperSpin itself because HyperSpin is running the Shutdown exe. Marke, have you tried setting the shell exe to the HyperSpin.exe? Does it still do the same thing? I'm just trying to establish if it's a problem with my EXE or an incompatibility with HS?

[Goalies Rule]

I've been looking to do this, but I can't try it yet. 1 of my memory sticks went bad in my main cpu, so I swiped the memory out of my cab in the meantime.

I'll be trying this as soon as I get it back up and running!

[redtapemedia]

I've been looking to do this, but I can't try it yet. 1 of my memory sticks went bad in my main cpu, so I swiped the memory out of my cab in the meantime.

I'll be trying this as soon as I get it back up and running!

Awesome, be sure to let me know how you go! Thanks.

[EVEGames]

I shelled HS a while back and had good sucess. I too made a loader. I can share it by the weekend and works with instant sheller and includes a HS boot logo. I want to do more testing and do a write up.

BH, please do share. The more options available, the better. Thanks!

[Marke]

I got it to work but when it loads, it loads into windowed mode instead of full screen. Checked all my settings and it is set for full screen. I went back to just placing the hyperspin shortcut into the startup, which is a pain cause you still have to use the keyboard to exit. Thanks though.

[Goalies Rule]

Hey Red,

I got everything to work. the only part I had trouble with is my path isnt set to c:\hyperspin. So I had to decompile you exe, but I tad bit of extra work got me where I need to be. So you might wat to share your .ahk file just incase someone else runs into the same problem.

Thanks given!

[redtapemedia]

I'm away on holidays at the moment (typing this on my iPhone) but when I get back in a couple of days I'll post the source script. I'll also post a version where you can change the HS install path in the INI file.

[SophT]

bh - your sheller script ever get released? (mostly i'm interested in the boot logo...) but the sheller would be sweet too!

[brian_hoffman]

Ill upload my boot logo later today.. Forgot all about that!

[Goalies Rule]

Sweet! Looking forward to that

[zaktallica]

I would like the sheller the windows xp look is messing up the arcade expierance

[brian_hoffman]

Boot.bmp

boot.zip

[ArcadeAddict77]

Brian,

Thanks very much! That is exactly what I was just asking for on another thread. Perhaps you could put that into the downloads section so it is really easy to find?

Thanks again,

Jeremy.

[dpar]

Thx for the logo Brian. I now have everything set up perfectly. Only issue I had was xpadder not running properly but fixed that by making a small exe to run it before hyperspin.

[SophT]

this is awesome dude, I only have 1 problem with it though dude, and maybe there's an easy fix:

using your shell.exe since explorer.exe doesn't start, none of my startup programs start, so no cpwizard and no daemon tools. Is there an easy way for me to add these (via registry) or do you have an ahk script so I can add them in?

[brian_hoffman]

Well an easy solution would be to use HS built in launch on start feature of the settings.ini.

Id create a AHK script that runs

Run, C:\program files\cpwizard\.........

Run, blah blah blah........

Then compile it to EXE...

However doesnt Deamon tools get invoked when running the emulator itself.. I know we intergrated it in HL....

[SophT]

yeah that's what I was thinking of, but I was trying to avoid having to boot, start HS and then call a bunch of executables, but I guess that's what's gonna have to do, no big deal

and yeah I don't know what I was thinking about daemon tools - it just gets called via command line. I guess I could even add cpwizard to the else if{} in my mame / neogeo sections of hyperlaunch...

thanks.

[brian_hoffman]

Well you can always create your own shell EXE and call them in there.

My shell.exe has only one line in it.

Run, Hyperspin.exe

I suppose you can just create your own and add the other apps.

[dpar]

You can just do what I did Sopht, which was my problem with xpadder. Just create a batch file to run as many exe's as you want, then compile that into exe, and then use instantsheller and point it to your exe. That way you can have everything startup before hyperspin on startup without issues, works great.