How to launch windows desktop

Hi!

I need help on how to launch the normal windows desktop. I have a TCP Client/Server application where the client should start before any other application starts. To do this, I replaced explorer.exe with my application file path in the registry. What I want to do is the client minimizes when it receives a command from the server, and start windows as normal.

What registry key are you changing?

Hi kebo!
I replaced the shell value with the following code;

My.Computer.Registry.SetValue("HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon", "Shell", My.Application.Info.DirectoryPath & "\CafeClient.exe")

My.Computer.Registry.SetValue("HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon", "Shell", My.Application.Info.DirectoryPath & "\CafeClient.exe")

I tried a shell command to launch the explorer.exe but it only opens the windows explorer and nothing happens to the desktop.

The only way I have been able to do this is to change the reg key back to "c:\windows\explorer.exe", then kill the current shell app (CafeClient.exe in your case), then launch the explorer.

It seems that Explorer.exe will check to see if the current shell app is running and if it is not, it will look to see if the shell app is the explorer. If the shell app is the explorer, it will start as the shell application with the task bar, otherwise it will only display the file explorer. Please note that this is all based on a Windows XP system, windows 7 may be different.
HTH
kevin

Problem is solved!!!

Thank you very much kebo!