Change Windows Shell Quickly with Instant Sheller

On a Windows PC, one thing that is loaded as soon as you log into the operating system is the Windows Shell. By default the shell is set to be explorer.exe which loads the Windows Desktop, taskbar and more. But we can change this shell to be something else so that that Windows PC can be used for special things – such as a kiosk PC at a bank or at a library etc.

We can change the shell to be a program that will be launched and displayed on your screen instead of the Windows desktop. For example, we can set it to an arcade games launcher such as MAME and turn the PC into a dedicated arcade gaming station.

But how do we change the Windows Shell? For this, we can either edit the Windows Registry ourselves or we can use a special software like Instant Sheller. This portable program is designed for setting GameEx as the default shell, but it can be used to change the default shell to anything that can be used as shell.

Instant Sheller

Using Instant Sheller is very easy. All we have to do is launch Instant Sheller, choose an application to shell and click on the I am ready! Do it! button. Other than this, you can also choose a number of other options such as replacement of the cursors with dots, turning off Windows Events sounds, hiding of the startup/shutdown screens, settings of the background wallpaper, disabling Windows animations, make it automatically login to the current Windows user account and more.

After making the changes, you have to reboot your PC and this time your PC will use a custom shell as determined by the Instant Sheller configuration. Because some malware use the shell replacement method to launch their own malicious programs at Windows logon, some of the antivirus products might flag this activity as suspicious.

You can download Instant Sheller from https://forums.gameex.com/forums/files/file/2465-instant-sheller/.