Startup Options

This dialog lets you customize how PinballY gets launched, and gives you some options for what happens each time the program starts running.

How to start PinballY

Manually: Select this option if you want to start the program manually from the Windows desktop each time.

Automatically: Select this to make the program start automatically each time you log in to Windows. Pin cab users will usually want to select this option, since it launches PinballY as soon as you boot up your system, so that you never have to interact with the normal Windows desktop during a gaming session.

Automatic Administrator mode: Like the previous option, this setting launches PinballY automatically when you log in, but in this case the program is launched with Administrator privileges. This allows PinballY to launch games in Admin mode without any Windows UAC (User Access Control) warnings. That makes for a smoother playing experience if you have any games that in fact require Admin privileges.

Even if you're accustomed to having to use Administrator mode with PinballX or other systems, you might not have to do this with PinballY. I'd strongly recommend trying normal user mode first. PinballY has special awareness of the privilege modes required by the game programs it launches, so it should be able to tell you if you run anything actually requiring Admin mode. It's better to run in normal user mode unless PinballY explicitly tells you that Admin mode is required for a particular program. The big reason to avoid Admin mode is that it creates a lot of complications for all of your other programs, because Windows restricts a lot of the normal program-to-program interactions when an Admin program is running.

After logon, pause before starting PinballY: If you wish, you can delay the automatic launch at logon by a specified time in seconds. This value is only used if you select one of the Automatic modes. A startup delay can be useful to clear up conflicts with other programs that you're also launching at Windows startup. Some example of when this could be helpful:

Wait for monitors

This group of options lets you tell PinballY to wait for all of your monitors to come online before launching.

This is useful in pin cabs that have multiple monitors (which is most pin cabs!), since it lets you ensure that Windows has a chance to restore your full normal desktop area before PinballY attempts to position any of its windows. In a multi-monitor setup, Windows will sometimes boot up faster than the TVs, so there can be a brief period during system startup where Windows is running but hasn't fully restored your normal desktop area. This sorts itself out in due course, since Windows adds each TV to the desktop as it comes online, but it can be problematic for a program like PinballY that you launch automatically at system startup. The snag is that Windows might launch PinballY during this interval when the desktop area is still incomplete. If your window layout uses any of that missing area, PinballY might not be able to restore the full layout properly.

So what you really want to do is tell Windows: "launch this program at system startup, but not until all of the monitors are ready." That's exactly what the "wait for monitors" setting does. It makes PinballY deliberately stop and wait until all of your monitors are online.

To use this feature, check the "Wait for monitors" box, then adjust the parameters:

Initial window positioning

The checkbox Make sure all windows are positioned within the visible desktop area lets you control the way PinballY sets up the initial window locations during program startup.

PinballY always saves and restores the positions of all of your open windows between session. That lets it restore the same window layout each time you start a new session. This box tells PinballY what to do when a saved window position is outside of the bounds of the current display area.

If this box is checked (which is the default), PinballY checks the position for each saved window to make sure that it's within the visible area of your desktop, meaning it's within the bounds of one of your display monitors. If so, great, PinballY just restores the saved window position, so you get the same layout as during the last session. If the window isn't within the bounds of any active monitor, though, PinballY repositions the window to place it within the monitor that's closest to the saved location.

If this box is un-checked, PinballY skips the extra scrutiny and simply restores the window at the exact saved position. If the window is outside the visible display area, so be it.

Why you might want to leave this option enabled: This option is enabled by default because it compensates for any changes you've made to your desktop layout since the last PinballY session. Changes to the desktop layout can result in a saved window position placing the window outside of the visible screen area. It's difficult to work with a window that's outside of the desktop bounds, because you can't move the mouse there to grab the window's title bar and reposition it.

Why you might want to disable this option: The automatic window fixup at startup can be problematic if you have to make special changes to your desktop layout when running other programs. For example, some games don't work correctly unless you rotate a monitor, change the display resolution, or change the ordering of the monitors on the desktop before running it. As a result, some people use tools that change the desktop layout each time they run a certain program. In that situation, if the layout change happens at the wrong time, it can make PinballY think it needs to rearrange its windows even though that's not actually necessary, leaving your PinballY windows in the wrong locations. This can also happen if you use a remote-access program, since those programs often create a virtual monitor area while running, which has the side effect of changing the screen layout.

Note that disabling this option only works with windows that aren't in Full Screen mode. Full-screen windows are always set up so that they fill the nearest monitor to the saved position, so they'll end up within a visible monitor in any case. If you have problems with full-screen windows moving to unwanted monitors at startup, try taking them out of full-screen mode and instead using "borderless" mode (which you can select via the right-click menu within the window), simply sizing the window to the screen area you want it to take.

How to find a window that's fallen off the edge of the world: As long as the main playfield window is still visible, you can easily bring any of the other windows back into view by right-clicking on the playfield window and selecting "Show whichever window" from the context menu. If that window is off in some unreachable location, PinballY will move it back into the visible area. If the playfield window itself is missing, and any other window is visible, right-click in one of the other windows and select "Show Main Window" from the menu. If none of the windows are visible, your best bet is probably to quit out of PinballY, open the options file (Settings.txt) in Notepad, and delete the line that starts with PlayfieldWindow.Position =. That will remove the

Splash screen

The program normally displays a "splash screen" for a few seconds each time you launch it, showing the program name and version number. Un-check this box to skip the splash screen.

Run command at startup/exit

These boxes let you enter commands that PinballY will run when it starts up, and just before it exits, respectively.

Use the normal Windows command line syntax here, as though you were typing a command into the Windows+R "Run" box. A few tips: