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Streamlining Windows 7 for a Cab


tonycrew

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Whats the best way to streamline Win7 for a cab,

 

I know how to change Windows Loading screen to whatever i want, And i would like to boot straight into HS which i know how to do, But was wondering if there was any other things i can disable so that i don't see nothing Windows based showing/loading. And Disable anything not needed.

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I removed the windows boot screen for an awesome Pac-Man animation. Then replaced the following startup screen with another Pac-Man image, but haven't been able to figure out how to remove the "windows 7" text from the bottom of that screen. I also replaced the windows boot musical chime with the Pac-Man start game song and replaced all other windows sounds with pac-man sounds. Made the desktop black with matching background, black task bar that stays hidden, no icons etc... I also replace all the mouse pointers with Pac-Man pointers, ghosts etc... for example instead of showing an hourglass it shows a blue blinking animated ghost etc...

Except for that damn Windows text you wouldn't even know it was a PC turning on.

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Man, taking pictures off a super bright monitor is hard so I warn you these pics are terrible. I had to reduce the resolution, turn color nearly off, brightness almost off to even get a pic. This does nothing to show how bright and sharp this all looks in person.

This is the initial boot screen immediately at power on. Everything Windows removed. Pac man/Ghosts are bright and animated below it Says "Firing Up" and along the bottom in bright yellow it says Pac-Man Battle Royale Arcade Party Showdown (the name of the cabinet/marquee)

https://onedrive.live.com/embed?cid=89AA8553BBC3A335&resid=89aa8553bbc3a335!17087&authkey=AFdqNUhX3WgtW7o

This is the second boot/splash screen that still shows the windows text at the bottom and the spinning"load" windows icon. This same screen shows when it shuts down when I hit the power button (and plays the Pac-Man death tune as the cabinet powers off)

https://onedrive.live.com/embed?cid=89AA8553BBC3A335&resid=89aa8553bbc3a335!17086&authkey=AJW1ItPGnQ6Gvs4

This is all the desktop shows. It's to blurry to tell, but the mouse pointer currently is just a red ghost which means "loading". Normal mouse pointer is Pac-Man chomping.As the desktop comes up is when it plays the Pac-Man 1 player start music. A couple seconds after this it auto-boots into Hyperspin and also loads Steam in the background.

https://onedrive.live.com/embed?cid=89AA8553BBC3A335&resid=89aa8553bbc3a335!17085&authkey=AIA-NI0Ct5DYijc

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Easiest way to do/undo this is Instant Sheller found here: http://www.gameex.com/instant-sheller-and-shelling-guide/

 

I did not change the shell on my arcade cabinet because it did not play well with some of my games, however, I did use it to remove or change the boot screen, turn the cursor into a 1pixel black dot, and so on.  Easiest way to use it: Extract the program to "C:/IS/"  setup the program the way you want and reboot.  If you want to undo the changes, press "Ctrl, Shift, Esc", press "alt + F", choose "Run New Task",  and type "C:/is/instantsheller.exe" and hit enter (or choose it from the list if done more than once)

 

EDIT: you may also be able to press "Windows Key + R" to get strait to the run command and type "C:/is/instantsheller.exe" 

 

Hope this helps!

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I use Windows 7 Boot Updater to change Starting Windows Screen, With this you can Remove/Change the text

 

www.coderforlife.com/projects/win7boot/

 

 

P.S. How are you shutting your PC Down...? Do you have a Button set that shutsdown your PC properly..?

Sorry if this is a noob question never built a cab before. :)

That looks like the program I used too. Works good on the boot screen, but isn't able to change text on the second splash screen.

I have a normal happ/cherry switch arcade button hidden on top of my cabinet. I wired it directly to the power button section on the motherboard at the bottom of the cab. In windows I set the power button to close programs and shut down the system.

So from any screen or program it is just a one-button press, it closes all programs and shuts the PC down, followed by the monitor and finally the marquee LED's power down. (Same way they power up.)

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Easiest way to do/undo this is Instant Sheller found here: http://www.gameex.com/instant-sheller-and-shelling-guide/

 

I did not change the shell on my arcade cabinet because it did not play well with some of my games, however, I did use it to remove or change the boot screen, turn the cursor into a 1pixel black dot, and so on.  Easiest way to use it: Extract the program to "C:/IS/"  setup the program the way you want and reboot.  If you want to undo the changes, press "Ctrl, Shift, Esc", press "alt + F", choose "Run New Task",  and type "C:/is/instantsheller.exe" and hit enter (or choose it from the list if done more than once)

 

EDIT: you may also be able to press "Windows Key + R" to get strait to the run command and type "C:/is/instantsheller.exe" 

 

Hope this helps!

Interesting thanks. This might do the trick, but I wonder if I can run it and only have it delete the welcome/shutdown/windows text and nothing else without having it overwrite all the other changes I've made.

I guess I'll just have to make a restore point, give it a try and hope it doesn't ruin my entire setup.

EDIT: Actually this might be the better way to do it. From your link:

Now we’re going to disable the startup\shutdown screens.

Change from the default windows XP welcome screen to the older style by going to Control Panels>User Accounts>Change the way users logon or off. Deselect the “Use Welcome Screen” checkbox.

To get rid of the startup and shutdown messages, enter regedit (Start>Run>Type “regedit” without the quotes.). Using the tree on the left, browse through to the following entry:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE >Software>Microsoft >Windows>CurrentVersion> Policies>System

If there’s a DisableStatusMessages dword there, change it to 1, otherwise add it (right click, add dword) and change it to 1.

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Try instant sheller, it has worked on every machine I have used it on so far.  2 Win7 machines and 1 xp machine.  It will remove everything if you like.  Try one setting at a time, then undo it and try more.  I personally did not shell either of my Win7 machines (one arcade, one pinball) as I have focus issues.  It will get rid of most everything!

 

Here are some other resources that helped me...

 

Intro Video Randomiser: http://www.hyperspin-fe.com/topic/5023-play-multiple-intro-videos-randomizer/?hl=randomiser#entry98730

Change XP Boot Screen: http://www.jakeludington.com/windows_xp/20060219_change_xp_boot_screen.html

Hiding Windows 7  Completely: http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,113896.0.html  (this one helped remove welcome screen and shutting down screen items)

Hiding Windows (BYOAC): http://wiki.arcadecontrols.com/wiki/Hiding_Windows

 

My arcade shows bios (if the screen wakes fast enough) then black screen for 2 seconds (SSD Boot Drive), Welcome flashes up (Removed the donut animation and windows branding, only blackscreen with welcome), and then starts hyperspin...

 

Hope this helps

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  • 3 months later...

OK, I couldn't seem to attach anything in a PM so I'm just attaching it here for you (and anyone else).

My system is obviously Pac-Man themed.

Use these programs at your own risk. I didn't make any of them just found them through hours upon hours of google/forum searches and they worked for me, but I won't be able to help with them as it's been months since I've messed with them at all. It's possible that the "instant sheller" app here in the downloads section does all this. I don't know as I never tried that one. Good luck

These are what I use for my Startup, shutdown and desktop screens.

This is my Startup animation of Pac and the Ghosts (I think)

Pac cursors

Program I used to change logon/shutdown backgrounds:

Program I used to add Boot text and the above startup animation:

Program I used to replace my startup sounds

I believe my normal system sounds I replaced just through the normal Windows sound customization settings

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  • 4 months later...

Hello,

 

Would you be so kind to share again your pac-man startup/shutdown/desktop screens as well as boot animation and animated cursor ?

 

Above links are no longer valid.

 

Thanks in advance !!

Greetings from snowy french Alps

I just cleared all that stuff a couple days ago. I don't think I even have them anymore, but I'll check.

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 3 weeks later...

If you have windows 7 pro (so you and RDP in to it from another box) you can use a custom DLL to allow concurrent logins. Ergo you can have it booted in to Hyperspin on the cab itself and then RDP in form another computer at the same time in order to make changes in the backend FTP new roms etc.   

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My hyperspin fails to start sometimes when explorer isn't running.

I use ledblinky, hypersearch, cabvol, hyper marquee and probably a few i am forgetting.

If i start explorer.exe when HS fails to load it continues and starts.

Has anyone else had a similiar problem? How did you solve it?

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