Shell And Alongside Modes

Shell & Alongside modes

SteamShell runs in one of two modes. They are the same executable and the same settings file — the whole of the difference is one setting and whether Windows starts SteamShell instead of Explorer.

	Shell mode	Alongside mode
Winlogon starts	SteamShell	Explorer
Desktop and taskbar	SteamShell's	Explorer's
Shell registry value written	Yes	Never
Quick Menu, controller pointer, mappings	Yes	Yes
RTSS frame cap and overlay	Yes	Yes
Startup programs	Yes	Yes
Launcher Cleanup	Yes	Yes
Taskbar hiding, desktop backdrop	Yes	No
Window engine, focus scoring, Always Focus	Yes	No
Emergency restore needed	Yes — learn Ctrl+Alt+Shift+E	No

Which one do I want?

Shell mode if the machine is a console. Nothing else uses it, it lives under a TV, and you want it to boot to Big Picture and never show a desktop. This is what SteamShell is for, and it is the default.

Alongside mode if the machine is also a PC. You want the couch features — the Quick Menu, a controller that works as a pointer, frame caps, launchers cleaned up after a game — on a computer you also use with a keyboard and mouse.

Alongside is not a trial or a crippled mode. It is a supported way to run the program, and for a dual-purpose PC it is the right one.

Why the window engine is off in Alongside

Deliberately, not by omission.

The focus engine earns its place when Big Picture is the only thing you can see: it decides which window is really the game and keeps it in front, because nothing else will. On a machine with a taskbar and a mouse within reach, a program that rearranges and refocuses windows is an annoyance rather than a help — and you already have the tools to fix it yourself.

Taskbar hiding, the desktop backdrop and shell monitoring are off for a plainer reason: Explorer owns those, and two programs fighting over the desktop is not a feature.

Switching between them

Settings → Advanced & Logging. The button names its destination — "Switch to Shell Mode…" when you are running alongside, "Switch to Alongside Mode…" when you are the shell — so you never have to work out which way a toggle is about to go.

It writes the setting and the shell registry together. Either alone leaves a half-converted machine: the setting without the registry gives you a session that stands down its shell features while Winlogon still starts it as the shell, and the registry without the setting gives the reverse.

A restart is required, and the converter tells you rather than doing it for you. Which mode you are in is read once at startup on purpose — flipping presentation ownership underneath a live session would mean starting or stopping the taskbar guard and the desktop backdrop against a desktop that is already drawn the other way.

If the registry write fails — usually because it was not run with administrator rights — the setting is still saved, and the converter says so. Nothing is left in a state where the two disagree silently.

Choosing at install

Setup Assistant's "register as the Windows shell" checkbox is the choice:

• Ticked → Shell mode.
• Cleared → Alongside mode.

Clearing it has always produced an install Winlogon never starts as the shell. What it did not used to do was tell the installed copy — so the deployed program came up believing it owned the desktop, hiding a taskbar Explorer had drawn and running the window engine over an ordinary session. Setup now writes the mode alongside the registry decision, so the checkbox means what it says.

The setting

[Features] ReplaceWindowsShell, in SteamShellSettings.ini. true is Shell mode and is the default; false is Alongside.

Editing it by hand changes what the program does at the next start, but does not move the shell registry value. If you set it to false on a machine registered as the shell, Winlogon still starts SteamShell instead of Explorer — and SteamShell will then stand down the features that would have drawn you a desktop. Use the converter instead; it exists to keep the two in step.

What Alongside does not change

• It is the same settings file, so nothing needs migrating either way.
• The elevated helper still runs, so a controller still works over Task Manager and other administrator windows.
• The tray icon is unchanged except for two rows that would have nothing to do — see Desktop & Tray.
• Ctrl+Alt+Shift+E is still there. It has nothing to restore in Alongside mode, which is the point.