help with windows logon and application

[drummerpunk10]

Sorry if this is off topic, I haven't really used this forum a lot so I don't know where to put it. Anyways I have a game application that runs off a list games and users on a file, that I built in Visual C#. I'm running Windows XP Pro and I use the classic startup screen with CAD enabled. I was wondering if it is possible to start that application before the windows logon screen appears and then as soon as the application is done with its business or if theres an error it will load the logon screen.

I've been reading a lot of how to run services on system start up, but I can't find any on how to run user interfaced programs. I know one way of loading an application on the logon screen, and that is to change the logon.scr value to another application, and then that application will run when the screen saver starts. I've tested it out with an application I also built in C#. In that application running as the "screen saver" I could still access file on a drive because I ran notepad.exe from the application. Thats the kind of the thing I'm wanting my game application to be able to do, which I think would run fine since I was able to still access files through notepad.exe that I ran from the "screen saver" application.

To sum it up I guess, I need my game application to run before windows logon runs. Does anyone know how to do this?

Thanks in advance,

Michael

[sicarie]

Just out of curiosity, why do you need for your "game" to run before the OS itself is ready to run?

Are these computers added to a domain?

[sicarie]

Ah, sorry, I thought you were speaking of the splash screen, though I'm still wondering why you would need this to run before the user can do anything.

Did you look into putting it in the 'startup' folder, or something like the program to make an exe run as a service? I don't remember it off the top of my head - I think it's a Winternals application, but I may be wrong.

[drummerpunk10]

I wanted the application to run without having to log on to windows but still be able to access files. But now thinking about it and reading some info on msgina I'm sure this would probably be impossible because of a security threat. I guess I would have to make my own gina or something.

and no, this is just a local computer. theres no domain.

[sicarie]

Hmmm, you could put the authentication in your program, disable the local logon on your computer, and then have it authenticate to LDAP or something.

[drummerpunk10]

ok, thanks for the fast reply. i'll look into it and see if i can find some stuff.