OK. Thanks again for all of the input. Been off somewhere and busy chasing out a few bugs from another system (they multiply when you're not looking).
First, the behavior blocker in question is a tried-and-true, caveman-simple release of System Safety Monitor; an ancient Russian treasure which I've kept onboard for years. Best piece of deliberate nagware ever made. It, and common sense takes the place of VS and a whole series of related crapola on the system in question (BTW- the box never touches anything resembling a network).
Relatedly, this is the program which needs to be deployed before Explorer kicks off! Minlogon cannot be hooked with the original DLL which came with SSM, hence the ruffled feathers.
Next, part of the native protection scheme includes a targeted read-only reg protocol to ensure the shell of choice remains so throughout boot (a good idea); hence, no dice as far as the "toggle-the-shell" scheme goes. Since I have this "block" feature available to me for this particular box, I want to keep it viable for a couple of reasons...
SO, at any rate, that's the TMI version for "inquiring minds." In sum:
- I have a box which relies directly on a behavior blocker for lightweight protection which is principally used to keep some treasured programs available and ready for skilled hands only.
- I switched over to Minlogon for several purposes related to some unnamed (but known) complaints stemming from designed-in mischief related to the standard Winlogon applet.
- For the heck of it, I always like to keep things simple and streamlined; and want to avoid calling upon a "helper app" for the work, if possible (Being a good sport, I even concocted an AHK "imposter" script which I thought was cute and clever: Based on the resulting BSOD, the old boat didn't).
- Finally, another shell is worth entertaining, but I love my horrific desktop mess; and don't know of any FOSS which will allow such bad habits to continue unhindered
BTW, it's been great connecting with this community across the years -- Keep up the good work!
Prosit.
Edited by Squid, 28 August 2014 - 11:39 PM.