Runonceex Background Image

[Maelstorm]

Is there a way to set a background image while RunOnceEx executes? I want to have something a little more spiffy than the default blue. Even a peice of software would work.

Thanks.

[EDIT]

Basically, a Windows equivilent of the Unix XV would be great. If you don't know what XV is then go here.

Any info, links, or leads will be GREATLY appriciated.

Thanks

[/EDIT]

[Maelstorm]

After much googling, I beleive that I found something. Something called IrfanView. It hosts a whole lot of command line options. The ones that I'm interested in is this format:

i_view32.exe "WallPaper to show" /wall /killmesoftly

As an added bonus, it supports a number of file formats. And it works *WITHOUT* explorer.exe running.

Download Link

All I did was just copy the contents of the program directory over to another computer and run it there. No registry settings and other BS required to run, so far. I need to burn a DVD to try it out and see how it works.

Later.

[EDIT]

After some experimitation, I have discovered that this program is self-contained. All you need is the .exe file. It does create a .ini file though for it's settings in the same directory, so maybe it would be a good idea to move the program to a writable medium such as a harddisk. More experimentation is warrented. I'll continue to post here as needed.

[Gobelz]

Ok i think it's a good tool and it's better then a blue screen!!!

Where ya at the command to start it... I want to know that... TIA

[Maelstorm]

If I under stand your question, you wanted to know if I was at the command line when I started it?

And the answer is...

Yes, I was. As in the SECOND post above, this is the command line to use:

i_view32.exe "WallPaper to show" /wall /killmesoftly

I haven't burned a DVD yet, so I haven't tried it from the unattended install. I'm going to tonight once I get the install scripts for the applications finalized. I'll let you know then.

[Gobelz]

Hmmz ok, but i got some pics with that app and i get that looped...

When i save that i get one .exe wich i can start and i get then the slideshow...

But i want to know where i get the line started with my .exe

in the cmdlines.txt? runonceex.cmd?? TIA

[Orus]

Hmmz ok, but i got some pics with that app and i get that looped...

When i save that i get one .exe wich i can start and i get then the slideshow...

But i want to know where i get the line started with my .exe

in the cmdlines.txt? runonceex.cmd?? TIA

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Good question

[FeTT!]

remove by me

[Orus]

[shell] 

CustomDefaultThemeFile = "%WinDir%\Resources\Themes\MyTheme.theme"

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Would this work with a .msstyle file instad? I'm trying to get the xyz.msstyle installed and running at WinXP first start. I want the whole style to be applied, not just the wallpaper.

[shell]

CustomDefaultThemeFile = "%WinDir%\Resources\Themes\xyz.msstyle"

TNX

[Alanoll]

Is there a way to set a background image while RunOnceEx executes?  I want to have something a little more spiffy than the default blue.  Even a peice of software would work.

Thanks.

[EDIT]

Basically, a Windows equivilent of the Unix XV would be great.  If you don't know what XV is then go here.

Any info, links, or leads will be GREATLY appriciated.

Thanks

[/EDIT]

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Any reason you didn't edit the .Default registry hive?

[Maelstorm]

With the help of another member, I figured out how to get the screen resolution for i_view32.exe resize option. If anyone is interested, that thread is here. Attached below is a zip file that contains the vbscript utility to get the screen resolution and the batch file that rotates the images. My batch scripts use 2 parameters, the cd-rom drive and the basedir. So it looks like this:

basedir=%cdrom%\install
system-imagerotate.cmd %cdrom% %basedir%

So for the RegOnceEx, I use the following:

REG ADD %KEY%\002 /VE /D "Fork Image Rotator" /f
REG ADD %KEY%\002 /V /1 /D "START CMD.EXE /C %SCRIPTSDIR%\SYSTEM-IMAGEROTATE.CMD %CDROM% %BASEDIR%"

Notice that my start command does not have the /wait option. This allows the process to fork so that RunOnceEx continues while the batch runs in the background.

I currently have it set to rotate in 300 second intervals (5-min) on the repeat and 60 seconds for the initial, but this script should be easy to modify.

Oh, and one other thing, to allow the script to run, it checks to see if a file exists. That file is %SYSTEMDRIVE%\tmp\FLAG.TXT I used %SYSTEMDRIVE%\tmp because a software package that I'm installing requires it. If that file does not exist, then the script will exit without doing much of anything. I inputed this mechanisim so during the clean up, this file is removed and it causes the process to stop rotating images and terminate before explorer.exe loads.

Enjoy.

Image_Rotate.zip

[Incroyable HULK]

So if I get it right, you are able to apply a background image while the RunOnceEx Process is running... not the background of the RunOnceEx Windows.

Can you post a screenshot?

[Maelstorm]

So if I get it right, you are able to apply a background image while the RunOnceEx Process is running... not the background of the RunOnceEx Windows.

Can you post a screenshot?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Nope. I'm running it live on another machine from a DVD-RW.

Anyways, for some reason, it could not find start, which is a little weird because it's used elsewhere. I opened a command prompt from RegOnceEx and tried it manualy, and i_view32.exe aborted saying that it does not recongize the file header: Unknown file type. But, it works if I run it from the HD, even without explorer loaded, which is also strange.

I have to wonder if during RegOnceEx that certian DLLs that are involved with processing the image are not being loaded but are loaded later on by explorer, but that makes no sense since it works without explorer running.

Go figure.

I'm going to do some more troubleshooting and see if I can figure out what the problem with the software is. Is it calling a DLL resource that is not being loaded or what?

[EDIT]

Something else that I just discovered...

If I open a command prompt during regonceex and type the filename of one of the image files directly, Windows brings up the Picture and Fax viewer Furthermore, if I tell it to set it as the background from Picture and Fax viewer, it will set it as the background during the rest of RegOnceEx. I'm beginning to wonder if the problem is with i_view32.exe itself.

[EDIT]

Ok, it's definately a problem with i_view32.exe. From a command line during regonceex, it will not open the image because it says that it does not recongize the header... But, if I open the program normally and then open the same file, it accepts it and loads the imge just fine. It will even set the background image.

I'm going to see if I can locate a different program to do this. I'll post back to this thread when I have something.

[EDIT]

I have found another command line wallpaper changer, but it only works on BMPs. It was written by some guy over at Microsoft. It does seem to work, so I'll test it.

Oh, and that start not being found issue...It seems that start is an internal command to cmd.exe, so the command line now reads like this:

REG ADD %KEY%\002 /VE /D "Fork Image Rotator" /f
REG ADD %KEY%\002 /V /1 /D "%SYSTEMROOT%\System32\CMD.EXE /C START CMD.EXE /C %SCRIPTSDIR%\SYSTEM-IMAGEROTATE.CMD %CDROM% %BASEDIR%"

Yeah, I know it's redundant, but I want to make sure that the process forks off and detaches itself into the background so that runonceex can continue.

Something else. When I ran the DVD, after Java 1.50-01 installed, it rebooted the system? the command line that I was using is this:

START /WAIT MSIEXEC.EXE /passive /norestart /I %APPLICATIONDIR%\JAVA\JAVA15001.msi

I take it that there is some kind of problem as it seems that a number of people are having issues. I'm going to try this command line when I burn a new DVD:

START /WAIT MSIEXEC.EXE /passive /norestart /I %APPLICATIONDIR%\JAVA\JAVA15001.msi REBOOT=Suppress

It seems to work running off the DVD without explorer.exe running (no user interface, just a command window).

[EDIT]

Ok, the other command line utility does work, but only for bitmaps. I have yet to find a program that will work correctly on jpegs. For now, the only thing that I can do is use bitmaps. I'll try compressing the images into cab files and uncompressing them at runtime. The command line program is called setdesk.exe and it can be found here.

[poster]

[shell] 

CustomDefaultThemeFile = "%WinDir%\Resources\Themes\MyTheme.theme"

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Would this work with a .msstyle file instad? I'm trying to get the xyz.msstyle installed and running at WinXP first start. I want the whole style to be applied, not just the wallpaper.

[shell]

CustomDefaultThemeFile = "%WinDir%\Resources\Themes\xyz.msstyle"

TNX

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

i think it doesn't work but you can copy the luna theme, rename it and edit it. you will find where to change the msstyles thing

[Maelstorm]

Is there a way to set a background image while RunOnceEx executes?  I want to have something a little more spiffy than the default blue.  Even a peice of software would work.

Thanks.

[EDIT]

Basically, a Windows equivilent of the Unix XV would be great.  If you don't know what XV is then go here.

Any info, links, or leads will be GREATLY appriciated.

Thanks

[/EDIT]

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Any reason you didn't edit the .Default registry hive?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Because I want the images displayed during RunOnceEx setup. Editing the registry, to my knowledge, has no effect in this matter until after explorer starts up. Furthermore, the image files are jpg which requires a program to set the wallpaper.