Utitlity for turning Live into your Windows Shell
Posted: Thu Jan 12, 2006 7:27 am
***************** WARNING - Alpha version of this.. only been tested on my setup (Win XP Home) ********************
Hi all,
Due to popular demand I sat down and wrote this utility today (couldnt find my backup)... but it's for replacing the Windows Explorer shell with Ableton Live.
I need a couple of people to test this out, so if you have a computer where u will be doing a show with in the next few weeks then it's probably not a good idea to try this yet.
http://www.fridge.net.au/utilities/registry.exe
Basically when you run the program it will have 3 buttons
- Choose Shell
This will make a dialog box. You will use this to choose the program (in the case of most people here ..Live) that will replace the windows shell. I didn't hardcode the Live folder so you can choose the version of Live you have installed if you have more than one. Also make sure you choose the EXE.. in my case I selected c:\Program Files\Ableton\Live 5.0.3\Program\Live 5.0.3.exe
- On / Off
With this you can choose if my utulity is active or if the default windows shell is what comes up when you start windows. It will automatically detect what state your config is in and present you with an option.. click "off" to restore windows shell .. click "on" to make this utility active. If you have clicked "on" and you have not yet chosen a shell program, when you start up it will simply open up an instance of Windows Explorer .. but it won't be the full shell as that needs to occur on startup.
- Exit
.. self explanatory
The way it works is, if my utility is turned on and you restart your computer, my program will become the default shell and then it will launch whatever program you chose in the "Choose shell" function and by default it goes to the background so you can turn my utility off after a Live session and go back to normal Windows after a reboot.
If for any reason any problems occur on reboot and you get no shell, you can press ctrl + shift + esc which will bring up the task manager... click file> New Task(Run) and type Regedit in there.. when regedit opens go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\Shell and change the value to "explorer.exe" and use the same task manager to restart your computer (Shut Down menu).
I've only run this on my computer which has windows XP home, so if any of you have XP pro and are savvy and can bail yourself out of any Shell-loss which may incur, I would be keen to see how this works on XP Pro.
******************* SECOND WARNING ******************
I DO NOT TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR ANY FUCK UPS THAT MAY OCCUR BY USING THIS PROGRAM.. YOU WILL RUN THIS PROGRAM AT YOUR OWN RISK. ANY TECHNICAL PROBLEMS THAT MAY OCCUR AS A RESULT OF USING THIS PROGRAM ARE THE SOLE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE USER AND NOT ME **************************************************
.... sorry but due to the fact that this messes with some intrensic registry keys I had to mention that...
cheers,
SJ
Hi all,
Due to popular demand I sat down and wrote this utility today (couldnt find my backup)... but it's for replacing the Windows Explorer shell with Ableton Live.
I need a couple of people to test this out, so if you have a computer where u will be doing a show with in the next few weeks then it's probably not a good idea to try this yet.
http://www.fridge.net.au/utilities/registry.exe
Basically when you run the program it will have 3 buttons
- Choose Shell
This will make a dialog box. You will use this to choose the program (in the case of most people here ..Live) that will replace the windows shell. I didn't hardcode the Live folder so you can choose the version of Live you have installed if you have more than one. Also make sure you choose the EXE.. in my case I selected c:\Program Files\Ableton\Live 5.0.3\Program\Live 5.0.3.exe
- On / Off
With this you can choose if my utulity is active or if the default windows shell is what comes up when you start windows. It will automatically detect what state your config is in and present you with an option.. click "off" to restore windows shell .. click "on" to make this utility active. If you have clicked "on" and you have not yet chosen a shell program, when you start up it will simply open up an instance of Windows Explorer .. but it won't be the full shell as that needs to occur on startup.
- Exit
.. self explanatory
The way it works is, if my utility is turned on and you restart your computer, my program will become the default shell and then it will launch whatever program you chose in the "Choose shell" function and by default it goes to the background so you can turn my utility off after a Live session and go back to normal Windows after a reboot.
If for any reason any problems occur on reboot and you get no shell, you can press ctrl + shift + esc which will bring up the task manager... click file> New Task(Run) and type Regedit in there.. when regedit opens go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\Shell and change the value to "explorer.exe" and use the same task manager to restart your computer (Shut Down menu).
I've only run this on my computer which has windows XP home, so if any of you have XP pro and are savvy and can bail yourself out of any Shell-loss which may incur, I would be keen to see how this works on XP Pro.
******************* SECOND WARNING ******************
I DO NOT TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR ANY FUCK UPS THAT MAY OCCUR BY USING THIS PROGRAM.. YOU WILL RUN THIS PROGRAM AT YOUR OWN RISK. ANY TECHNICAL PROBLEMS THAT MAY OCCUR AS A RESULT OF USING THIS PROGRAM ARE THE SOLE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE USER AND NOT ME **************************************************
.... sorry but due to the fact that this messes with some intrensic registry keys I had to mention that...
cheers,
SJ
