Can I make WinUAE auto-launch an .adf?

[lesta_smsc]

Originally Posted by Photon

Not sure what everyone means. I thought I was clear. Let's go again.

I am asking how to

1. Right-click a file (Yes! Check! We still have the power to do this!)
2. Open With WinUAE (Now THIS may or may not work depending on what day Windows is having, it must be forced by app.)
3. The config that I have set as default somehow via the UI (or perhaps by copying a file and renaming it? I certainly don't want whatever is the default config after install...) loads the Amiga and Host config thus selected with the file inserted into DF0 as if I had done all those clicks and path navigation manually.

E.g. _after_ associating all files under Pri & Extensions, double-clicking an ADF opens the standard dialog where nothing works. You click Other Programs, Browse, choose WinUAE.exe, and the bog standard Amiga and host config opens an A500 1.3 and shows the disk hand. No boot.

(I would prefer right-click because double-clicking an Amiga file mistakenly provided with an .exe suffix obviously cannot do what an Amiga emu user wants.)

As for the right click and run with WinUAE - what you want is to add a SHELL command in the Windows Registry. I do this for DOSBOX so I can run executable files from DOS programs/games quickly and easily.

If this is what you are after (and if needed you can put the command line set up etc in the actual command line anyhow below) then this might help:

Edit and save the following as a .reg file then open it add it registry (bear in mind this is my set up for DOSBox so just amend to your requirements and yes there is a double backslash otherwise it doesn't work). The "%1\ at the end basically inserts the selected file at the end of the command so in your case it would be an adf. I believe you change the "exefile" to "adffile" (I assume) it might let you have this shell specifically for the adf file, but unsure as I've only done this with .exe:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\exefile\shell\DOSBox]

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\exefile\shell\DOSBox\command]
@="D:\\Games\\DOS\\DOSBox-0.74\\dosbox.exe "%1""

[Saghalie]

Originally Posted by lesta_smsc

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\exefile\shell\DOSBox]

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\exefile\shell\DOSBox\command]
@="D:\\Games\\DOS\\DOSBox-0.74\\dosbox.exe "%1""

Thanks for this! I never knew about being able to do this and I
have a lot of GOG games as well as a bunch of Amiga games!
I have another project for my late night TV addiction.

Thanks again!

[lesta_smsc]

Originally Posted by Saghalie

Thanks for this! I never knew about being able to do this and I
have a lot of GOG games as well as a bunch of Amiga games!
I have another project for my late night TV addiction.

Thanks again!

You're welcome. Please let me know how you get on. I currently use Windows 7 (yes, I refuse to change lol) so I am not sure if the registry is different for anything newer such as Windows 8/10/11 (there wasn't a 9?)

[TCD]

Originally Posted by lesta_smsc

...(there wasn't a 9?)

Nope, some 'clever' Windows programs checked for the version of Windows to start with 9 to determine if it was Windows 95 or 98. That's why there's no Windows 9.

[malko]

Originally Posted by lesta_smsc

You're welcome. Please let me know how you get on. I currently use Windows 7 (yes, I refuse to change lol) so I am not sure if the registry is different for anything newer such as Windows 8/10/11 (there wasn't a 9?)

I am trying W10 on an old laptop for a month now. Will format it and reinstall W7 as soon as possible. W10 is a mammoth of slowness compared to W7 (up to date with security updates). MS is his own enemy with all the bullshits running "by default" on their OS (but can we still call them OS with all these preinstalled and irrelevant applications ?...). IMO, at the end I see on usage Win10 as bulk as WinME.

[Photon]

These are definitely neat solutions.

But I guess I have to be a bit nice to Toni, so he sees this as a feature-request that he might spend time on.

Not that it has to do with me at all, it's for all users of UAE - though the reason for the question is that I personally would like WinUAE to get the same ease of use of as other emulators.

My request/suggestion works out logically like this:

I (now) tout real Amiga before emulation anytime. I've spent time and money to have 4 different Amiga models renewed and online, but not everyone is there (yet!) and this wasn't the case for me when I came back to Amiga. None of my Amigas were working, and I had to use emulation. Then it wasn't exact, now it's accurate, with many great features added.

Since not all can have a real Amiga, if users have to roll their own solution, it then follows that Amiga emulation will fade in popularity, and the desire to get and use a real Amiga, even more.

Meanwhile, other emulators are a double-click away from enticing users to come back both to emulation and to the real platform. It would be great to see such a development for UAE!

[TCD]

Pretty sure this falls on deaf ears, but here we go: The 'Amiga' will never be 'a double-click' emulation experience except for frontends. It's the nature of the machine and its emulation. Quickstart is a pretty good compromise for that 'problem'.

No matter how clever you design the solution you'll always end up with a) still requiring the user to choose or b) a specific set of files that work. I don't think either will really improve the experience for people who haven't used an Amiga before. A short, to the point video explaining how to use WinUAE using quickstart would be much more helpful I'd say.

Edit: Also worth having a look at how FS-UAE does it in connection with its database.

[Toni Wilen]

WinUAE is not a user friendly front end that decides the config and never will be (Except Quickstart which works with >90% of disk based programs). It also won't try to prevent wrong choices because wrong choices are possible in real world too.

This has been discussed many times already. Use a front end if you want user friendly UI that hides all the interesting details. I won't do UIs or documentation.

"Other" emulators generally can do it easily because there are no dozens of different configurations that all existed in real world.

EDIT: if there is public database that can be used to map image checksum to config, it can be implemented (like virus check is done using Amiga Bootblock Reader if data file is included) because it won't require any extra nice GUIs.

[Photon]

Thx Toni.

Well first of all I'm the last person to need a nice GUI. In other words, I'm the opposite of one with 10000+ very old uncategorized already released pieces of software and wanting to setup a nice graphical menu. I shouldn't have to say this, because what I want (to make WinUAE powerful see below) is in my first post.

For WinUAE (and std. A500 Quickstart (apart from DF1 enabled)-compatible files (.adf, .dms, .exe) only 2 changes are required,

1. A500 Quickstart (sans df1, or perhaps better a config with a magical name e.g. "UAE default configuration" that you could modify) and an autostart toggle flag in Miscellaneous perhaps?

The alternative is config name as command line argument, but may be incompatible with 2.

2. When using the Installer, register a Context Menu entry allowing any file to be opened with WinUAE (and e.g. WinUAE rejecting it if extension is not one of the above or file size is > 50MB). I.e. no file type association needed and no reading of the file necessary beyond what is in WinUAE now.

I just think this is a good idea. Download new game or demo, right-click and check it out. Is this a bad idea?

@lesta_smsc Yeah I could do it just for myself but then nobody else would be helped. It could be very powerful. (And you're not missing out as I think you know. Win7===Win11. Nothing has happened. M$ forces .NET updates for their own plans, a console release changed nothing really from DX11, and two half-hearted HDR attempts but not done yet. Win8+ brought two major dealbreakers in place of these attempts at refresh. Please take Win version as a side note, we use it to emulate another OS after all. )

[john4p]

I find WinUAE's GUI with all its options pretty user-friendly.

To me RetroArch is much more of a hassle to configure. But maybe that's because I've been using WinUAE for 20 years.

[malko]

Originally Posted by Toni Wilen

[..] "Other" emulators generally can do it easily because there are no dozens of different configurations that all existed in real world. [...]

Originally Posted by john4p

I find WinUAE's GUI with all its options pretty user-friendly. [...]

I would add : well organised, easy to find and logically placed .

[john4p]

Originally Posted by malko

I would add : well organised, easy to find and logically placed .

Exactly, I don't feel a need to put another GUI on top of this (though it's great of course there is FS-UAE for people who don't need that many options).

[A500+]

Originally Posted by Photon

Thx Toni.
The alternative is config name as command line argument.

This is already possible with WinUAE. You just use the -f switch followed by the config you want to load. E.g:

winuae.exe -f "path\to\configs\exampleconfig.uae"

(No need for " marks if there are no spaces in your path or config name)

I know this isn't the baked-in, context menu solution you're asking for but you could use it to roll your own solution and I'm fairly sure it's what most front-ends utilise.

[jbl007]

Originally Posted by Toni Wilen

if there is public database that can be used to map image checksum to config, it can be implemented (like virus check is done using Amiga Bootblock Reader if data file is included) because it won't require any extra nice GUIs.

Information could be easily extracted from openretro db. Is there any interest in this? How should the xml look like?

[Toni Wilen]

Originally Posted by jbl007

Information could be easily extracted from openretro db. Is there any interest in this? How should the xml look like?

I don't know, I haven't checked and it isn't interesting enough for me. I'll need more information

Main requirement is to match it with quickstart config + optional extra adjustments (like specific memory config or KS version if it needs something uncommon)

But I think xml file is not good choice if it has thousands of entries (very slow to parse). Some database with indexing is much better choide, like sqlite.

[Photon]

Originally Posted by john4p

Exactly, I don't feel a need to put another GUI on top of this (though it's great of course there is FS-UAE for people who don't need that many options).

Agree, and this topic is not about a "Front-end" even though many have mentioned it in the thread.

Originally Posted by A500+

This is already possible with WinUAE. You just use the -f switch followed by the config you want to load. E.g:

winuae.exe -f "path\to\configs\exampleconfig.uae"

(No need for " marks if there are no spaces in your path or config name)

I know this isn't the baked-in, context menu solution you're asking for but you could use it to roll your own solution and I'm fairly sure it's what most front-ends utilise.

All right!

So
1. Some .uae file with a standard name to be added to the install and zip, e.g. Quickstart.uae (because there is none now, which I was suprised to find, and it must be linked to a Host config (also .uae and it's not linked now, it works in mysterious ways) so it reads the correct keyboard and joystick etc or it will start and you have to interrupt and load correct Host config, bah)

2. <path>winuae.exe -f <path>Configurations\Quickstart.uae added as a Context menu entry on install.

This will do it?

[paraj]

Probably unsupported, but I just noticed that it's possible to specify quickstart configuration on the command line e.g.

winuae -cfgparam=quickstart=A500,0

. Relying on the value after the comma is likely not Toni-friendly, but the idea of being able to do quickstarts like this is useful to me.

[Photon]

Originally Posted by paraj

Probably unsupported, but I just noticed that it's possible to specify quickstart configuration on the command line e.g.

winuae -cfgparam=quickstart=A500,0

. Relying on the value after the comma is likely not Toni-friendly, but the idea of being able to do quickstarts like this is useful to me.

Useful to know, all depends on how Host Configurations tie into this, obviously you often want some adaptations to this or better:

1) Windowed (and not tiny default size) or Full-screen with sync settings not staggering on the monitor you have, so you can see
2) Sound settings to not give conflicts or sound lag, so you can hear
3) Inputs mapped to your keyboard/mouse/controller so you can use

This would be solved with a parameter for Host config too. I'm pretty sure a Host config is not loaded from an Amiga config. Granted, the Amiga config is more important, but without Host config it will be just a Quickstart test to run non interactive software. I mean more of a general solution like in some other emus. I think it would be great and make running Amiga stuff Mama Mia, so easy.