What is the Windows xp shell?

The term shell reffers to the graphical user interface (gui) i.e the desktop and the task bar, basically explorer.exe (the default windows shell).

Where can I find a replacment shell?

The best place to start is with some shell information sites, I would recommend Shell-Shocked,

Try these:

Litestep
Xoblite (Blackbox)
Geoshell

I would personally recommend Litestep.

now you have a shell heres how to manually set the default shell in windows xp

Changing the default shell (all users):

1) open regedit (start menu > run, and type in regedit)
2) go to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon.
3) Change Shell from explorer.exe to the new shell path e.g C:\Litestep\litestep.exe
4) log out and log back in.

Changing the default shell (only current user):

1) open regedit (start menu > run, and type in regedit).
2) go to: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon.
3) add a new string value (Edit > New > String Value) called shell. and set the value to the path of the new shell e.g C:\Litestep\litestep.exe.
4) log out and log back in.

Just one question: Why do you have the title as How To Change The Windows Xp Shell. and then you have the path in the regedit as: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon? I just think this might confuse some people just have HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\WinXP or whatever it is, i didnt look it up.

Those replacement shells don't look very stable, and I don't personally like the look of any of them really... While there is definately much wrong with Windows XP, there is nothing wrong with the shell

The path is set to:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon

because that is the correct path to the shell value in windows xp.

That's pretty nice, good job, I like it...

The Aston shell was around for a long time too (www.astonshell.com), and deserves to be mentioned here.



Personally, I don't use replacement shells, because (as CrashCore said) they are usually instable. Of course, for all those newbies out there that aren't happy with the default look of Windows XP should definitely try Stardock's WindowsBlinds (www.windowblinds.net), and eventually use it together with ObjectDesktop, if they want extra stylish menus.

there is a more stable and more widely skinnable way of doing this aswell, it is located at www.wincustomize.com, they have skins for the windows logon, the boot screen, the shell, and a whole lot more, most of the programs are free and the ones that arent usually can be used too, just less featured, i am using logonstudio, bootskin, and windowblinds right now on all my computers.

Have you tried using Remote Desktop as a shell to prevent a user from being able to do anything other than an RDP session?

Using mstsc.exe & additional command line options in the shell value is fine & using a restricted user to auto admin logon to the domain to fire this off is fine too. The user is only able to log on to the terminal server without running any other apps locally BUT when they end the RDP session the PC just sits there with a clear background - the user needs to ctrl-alt-del & reboot to get back to a logon prompt.

I have tried the restart shell registry value too but this has no effect.

Anybody got any other ideas how this can be achieved?

Thanks
Eddie

great tutorial mate, could have used this a while back when I used the vista transformation pack then wanted to uninstall, totally screwed up my shell and I had to do a total hard drive reformat >.<