Archive:HOW-TO:Make Windows boot directly to Kodi (as a shell)

If you going to use XBMC for Windows as your primary media center, you probably want your HTPC to boot directly to XBMC with as little distraction as possible.

The more your XBMC Media Center functions like an "appliance", the more seamless your home theater experience will be.

One of the most effective was to accomplish this is to replace the default Windows "shell", which is "explorer.exe", with a program that will directly launch XBMC in full-screen.

A problem with this approach is that the program that launches the shell can not accept parameters (such as the -fs parameter to make XBMC full-screen).

In addition, many people need to load other special software, such as audio mixers, remote control drivers, or EventGhost.

This guide will help overcome these problems.

Using EventGhost Method

The program "EventGhost" is a very powerful way to manage remote controls, auto-starting of programs, and other macros.

You can use EventGhost to load the plugin for your favorite remote, load the XBMC EventClient plugin, then load XBMC itself.

Setting up EventGhost

INSTALLING EVENTGHOST

1. Download and install the latest EventGhost Beta.
2. Right-click and disable any plugins in the right-hand pane that you aren't using (Winamp, etc.)
3. Install the plugin for the remote receiver you wish to use
   • (click "add plugin" and select your Remote from the list of "Remote Receivers")
4. Install the XBMC EventClient plugin
   • (click "add plugin" and select "XBMC" from the "Program Control" section.

CONFIGURE YOUR REMOTE IN EVENTGHOST

1. Press a key on your remote that you would like to cause an action in XBMC.
2. Drag the event that shows up in the left-hand pane of EventGhost to the XBMC action that you want in the right-hand pane.
3. Repeat for each button that you want to use with XBMC

SET XBMC TO AUTOSTART IN EVENTGHOST

1. Under "AutoStart" click "Add Action"
2. Under "System", click "Start Application"
   • Filepath to executable should be:
     • C:\Program Files\XBMC\XBMC.exe
       (unless you've changed it)
   • Command line options are:
     • -fs -p
       (for full-screen)
   • Working Directory is:
     • C:\Program Files\XBMC

Preparing your Desktop Background (optional)

You may safely ignore this section if you don't care what color your screen is when Windows boots up.

CHANGE YOUR DESKTOP BACKGROUND TO BLACK

1. right-click on your desktop, and click properties.
2. click the "desktop" tab, and set background to "none"
3. click the "appearance" tab, click "advanced", select the item "desktop" and set the color to black.

CHANGE YOUR LOGOFF SCREEN BACKGROUND TO BLACK

1. click "Start -> Run" and type "regedit"
2. Navigate to the following key:
   • HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Colors
3. In the right pane, double-click "Background"
4. In the Edit String dialog box, type "0 0 0" without the quotes ("0 0 0" is RGB for "Black)
5. Click OK

Set Windows to AutoLogin

1. Click Start -> Run, and type:
   • control userpasswords2
2. Uncheck the "Users must enter a username and password to use this computer" check box.
3. Click Apply.
4. Enter the user name and password you want to be automatically logged-on, and then click OK.
5. Click OK again and you're all done.

• Note: I'm unsure if this works in Vista

Set your "Shell" to EventGhost

1. click "Start -> Run" and type "regedit"
2. Navigate to the following key:
   • HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon
   1. right-click on "Shell" and rename to "FakeShell" or something similar (so you can restore it later if you wish to)
   2. right-click in the right-hand pane and select New -> String Value
   3. name it "Shell"
   4. double-click Shell and paste the following value (with quotation marks):
      • "C:\Program Files\EventGhost\EventGhost.exe"
   5. close regedit

• A shortcut to this step is to use InstantSheller as described below.

Notes on EventGhost Method

You can now restart your computer; it should appear to immediately run XBMC and nothing else.

If you need to run other programs, close XBMC and press ctrl-shift-esc to run the task manager. Go to File -> New Task (Run...) and type the name of what you want to run.

ie. cmd for the command prompt
regedit to undo the changes we made earlier
firefox to run firefox etc..

Using SilentLaunch Method (by Lars Werner)

1. Download SilentLaunch and extract to C:\
2. Create a text-file on C:\ named SilentLaunch.cfg
3. Check the properties of your XBMC link and add the target information. For instance, the default is:
   • "C:\program files\XBMC\XBMC.exe" -fs -p
4. Start the SilentLaunch.exe and check if XBMC get started. (If not goto the end of the post)
5. Download InstantSheller and set the "Application to shell" as C:\SilentLaunch.exe

Troubleshooting SilentLaunch

If nothing happens or an error occurred

1. Start a command prompt: Start -> Run, enter
   cmd.exe
   -> OK
2. Type
   cd \
3. Type
   C:\SilentLaunch.exe -v

...this will enable verbose output to the screen. Typical error: error 2 is file-not-found, check your path.

It is important to enclose the xbmc-path in quotation marks (") if it contains spaces. The verbose will tell you more on what went wrong.

SilentLaunch Source Code

The source code & more information about the program can be found here http://lars.werner.no/?p=117

See Also

Community Forum discussion threads on the topic:

• http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?t=37492
• http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?t=34325
• http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?t=34966