Article ID: 142905
Article Last Modified on 10/31/2006
APPLIES TO
- Microsoft Windows NT Server 4.0 Standard Edition
- Microsoft Windows NT Workstation 4.0 Developer Edition
This article was previously published under Q142905
SUMMARY
This article explains how to avoid interaction between a program and the standard shell by running the program before the shell starts.
MORE INFORMATION
When you log on, the registry key
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlog
describes the actions made by WinLogon.
The Userinit value describes the program launched by WinLogon.
Userinit: REG_SZ
Default value: USERINIT,NDDEAGNT.EXE
The first entry (USERINIT) is responsible for executing the shell program. To start your program before the shell, you may replace this entry with your own program. If you do so, your application is responsible for launching the shell (Explorer.exe in Windows NT 4.0).
Explorer.exe is the standard shell in Windows NT 4.0. It can operate in two modes:
- Browser mode (similar to File Manager)
- Shell mode (to manage the desktop, taskbar, and Start button)
When you launch Explorer.exe, the following conditions are checked by Explorer.exe to work in shell mode:
- No instances of Explorer.exe are running
- It is the standard shell for the system (see shell registry value under
WinLogon key)
If you launch Explorer.exe from your own "userinit" initialization program, be sure that the shell value always references Explorer.exe, otherwise Explorer.exe will operate in browser mode instead of shell mode.
Additional query words: prodnt
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