[Oreo Collas]

Hey, I had a friend help me set up my computer, and while messing around with my regedit I messed something up. We had it set up so when my computer boots up it starts taskman as the shell and starts up a game that I like to play. Well, I accidentally changed dit so the game no longer starts up on its own and I can't figure out how to get it to start on its own again. Being the bright person that I am I forgot to create a back up of my regedit settings. Can someone tell me haw to have my game start up from the regedit without having explorer as the shell? I'm well aware of the risks of changing regedit settings and I am fine with it. I know enough to change the shell, but not the start up programs. Once someone tells me how though I'll be good. I thought I knew how, but it does not seem to start.

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try system restore...go back before you started playing with the settings

[happyrock]

try system restore...go back before you started playing with the settings

[Oreo Collas]

I don't have any restore points. I just reformated the computer and it's only been up for a couple weeks since then.

[happyrock]

try launching restore...the system automatically creates restore points when you update or add programs..

[Oreo Collas]

Well, I reformated my computer, ran all the updates, then my friend configured it that way for me. I have not run any updates since and have mostly been playing my game and playing with the reg edit so I can figure out more about it. My friend set it up so it is running taskman.exe as the shell instead of explorer.exe. Without explorer.exe as the shell nothing in the start up folder starts up as explorer.exe starts all that up. He also set it up so my game starts up on its own. While playing around on my computer I noticed that he did not set it up to start up my fire wall so I tried to reconfigure reg edit to start up the fire wall. At forse I created a new entry next to the entry that starts the game and set them up identical except the new entry lead to start up the fire wall. My fire wall still would not come up so I deleated the new entry and redirected the old entry to the firewall to see if that would, but did not. I then deleated the entry that my friend set up for me forgetting that I should have redirected it back to the game. There have been no restore points made since my friend set it up for me and I have no regedit settings saved (I can't belive I did not make a back up ) I'm sure that I just need to figure out how to resetup the settings that he had set for me or have him come over and set it again. I need to set it up for both my fire wall and my game. I can still start them both by hitting ctrl + alt + del and starting a new task and start them from there, but it would be so much better if I could set it up to do it on its own. After all, why should I do it my self if I can get the computer to do it for me.

[anzenketh]

May I ask why you are trying to run the game without explore.exe?

I know there are some registry entries for startup items. However I am not sure if they require the shell to start first or not.

[Oreo Collas]

Well, it's a sad sad story, but long story short, my computer died when I moved to my new house. I could barely get it running and almost threw it out. The only way the game will run now is without all the Microsoft stuff taking up resources. Thus is why I removed explorer. Also because I don't want to use that computer for anything but the game and my firewall to protect it. I have another computer for everything else.

[usasma]

You can change the shell to taskman in the registry (it's defined in the winlogon key). I think it's located at HKLM\Software\Microsoft\WindowsNT\Winlogon.
You can launch applications at startup using one of the run keys (buried inside of HKLM or HKCU). I think it's located at HKLM or HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run.

More specifics are needed to identify exactly what you're trying to do.
We'll need the path to your taskman file (most likely in the Windows directory)
We'll need the path and filename to the game that you're trying to run.
You should backup your registry prior to this, and be prepared to restore it if you can't get back into Windows to change it.

[Oreo Collas]

Sure thing. I can do that. The taskman is in the windows directory, but I don't need help changing the shell to taskman as I have already done that. I just need to start up two programs on boot. One being C:\Program Files\SecondLifeReleaseCandidate\SecondLifeReleaseCandidate.exe, the other one being C:\Program Files\Zone Labs\ZoneAlarm\zlclient.exe.

[anzenketh]

Be Sure to include "" around those.

[usasma]

Step 1 - Backup your registry

Step 2 -
Using the Registry Editor, navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
Right click on an empty space in the right hand pane and select "New", then select "String Value"
A new key will be created. Name the key something familiar (such as ZoneAlarm)
Right click on the new key and select "Modify" and then insert the following into the Value Data box (quotes included):

"C:\Program Files\Zone Labs\ZoneAlarm\zlclient.exe"

Click "OK" to save the changes


Step 3 -
Right click on an empty space in the right hand pane again and select "New", then select "String Value"
A new key will be created. Name the key something familiar (such as Second Life)
Right click on the new key and select "Modify" and then insert the following into the Value Data box (quotes included):

"C:\Program Files\SecondLifeReleaseCandidate\SecondLifeReleaseCandidate.exe"

Click "OK" to save the changes


Step 4 - Reboot, then login to your account and see if it works.

Good luck! Please post back to let us know if it worked correctly.

Edited by usasma, 12 April 2009 - 06:14 AM.

[Oreo Collas]

That did not work. I tried to set it up in both HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run and in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run. I also tried useing quotes and tried without the quotes cause I saw some strings that did not have quotes. None of the four methods worked.

[usasma]

The quotes are usually necessary when anything in the path exceeds the old 8.3 naming conventions. Things like "SecondLifeReleaseCandidate.exe" will be seen by Windows as "Second~1.exe" when using that convention.

I'd suggest setting the shell back to explorer.exe and then seeing what error messages are generated (either on the screen or in the Event Viewer).

Just FYI - I haven't used TaskMan as the shell since the days of WFW 3.11

Edited by usasma, 12 April 2009 - 08:21 AM.

[Oreo Collas]

I changed my virus protection to Anti-Vir and that starts up automatically so I'm good there. I just need to get SL to start up. I am at work now and I will see what errors I can pull up when I get off work.

[Oreo Collas]

Well, I retried your sugestion and it still did not work. I then changed the shell to explorer and got no errors. Instead my game started up just fine after some spybot S&D pop ups showed up asking if I wanted to allow a couple changes. I allowed the changes then tried changing the shell back to taskman and again, no game.