Configuring the Thin Client Startup Behavior (Windows CE 5.0)

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By default, Windows Thin Client uses the Thin Client shell and bypasses the Thin Client wizards, providing a default connection. When this default connection is used, the user is prompted for a server. For information about how to change this default behavior, see Changing the Shell in Thin Client.

You can configure the shell to start applications automatically prior to launching the user interface (UI). Use this functionality for applications that require a UI, such as the Windows Thin Client Setup Wizard, and that must run before the shell UI is started. Applications that do not require a UI must start as part of the Windows CE initialization process.

For each application that you want to start automatically, you must create a unique key in the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \Software\Microsoft\WBT\Shell\Startup key.

The key name is converted to an integer by the shell, and should therefore be a name that is converted easily; for example, 1, 10, or 20. Each Startup key represents an index that specifies the order in which an application must be started. The key name can represent an integer of 1 or greater; indexes are not required to be sequential. The shell first starts the application that has the lowest index value, and works its way up to the application that has the highest index value.

The following is an example of some application Startup keys.

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \Software\Microsoft\WBT\Shell\Startup\10]
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \Software\Microsoft\WBT\Shell\Startup\20]
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \Software\Microsoft\WBT\Shell\Startup\21]

The following table shows the entries that you must add to each Startup key.

Note   If the required values are either not set or are not valid, then the shell ignores the value and no error is posted to the user.

Value Description
Application: REG_SZ No default setting. This value specifies the executable file to start automatically.

This value is required.

CmdLine: REG_SZ No default setting. This value specifies the command-line arguments to pass to the application that is specified by Application.

This value is optional.

WaitOnProcess: REG_DWORD No default setting. The following list shows the possible values:
  • A value of 1 or greater indicates that the shell will wait for the application to end before continuing.
  • A value of zero (0) indicates that the shell will start the process and continue. Do not enter a value of zero (0) for applications that have a UI.

This value is required.

See Also

Customizing a Thin Client | How to Develop a Thin Client

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