Since explorer.exe steals WA's color palette every time for me, and wkColorFix just fixes it until a popup window appears in WA, i wrote a small tool for me which completely kills explorer.exe before starting Worms 2, Worms Armageddon (with or without WormKit) and Worms World Party.
http://img.webme.com/pic/d/dr-chat/wormslauncher.png
I have uploaded it here (currently version 1.0.0.8): Download Worms Launcher (http://www.4shared.com/file/RVy15zMz/Worms_Launcher.html)
You need to have at least .NET Framework 2.0 installed since this tool is programmed in VB.NET.
Speaking of which, the source code is no big secret and downloadable here (maybe someone wants to put in better automatic detection for installed Worms versions): Download sourcecode (http://www.4shared.com/file/KZVdJ_j0/Worms_Launcher_Sourcecode.html)

If you add "W2", "WA" or "WWP" to the command line (by making a shortcut on the desktop and editing its properties), you can use this as a direct launcher of your Worms game.

1.0.0.8 now also automatically renames wkColorFix (if it exists) to prevent you from hearing looping error sounds.

Finally, a GUI version of all of the dozens of batch files that were posted here before :D

Now all you need to do is add WormKit support and we can finally move on, until the next Beta is released which (attempts to) fix this problem for good.

If you start hearing looping error sounds, these are caused by WormKit - this happens to me every time I start it with explorer.exe shut down. Disable your Windows error sound in that case.No, they are caused by wkColorFix, which beeps with the standard Windows error sound when it can't find or suspend the explorer.exe process. If you want to use this utility, you have no reason to use wkColorFix to begin with.

Finally, a GUI version of all of the dozens of batch files that were posted here before :D

Now all you need to do is add WormKit support and we can finally move on, until the next Beta is released which (attempts to) fix this problem for good.

No, they are caused by wkColorFix, which beeps with the standard Windows error sound when it can't find or suspend the explorer.exe process. If you want to use this utility, you have no reason to use wkColorFix to begin with.

It supports WormKit already, just choose WormKit when editing Worms Armageddon's path ;) if you mean to do this as a DLL, I sadly have no idea how to develop DLLs :(
And thx for the wkColorFix hint. I just deleted it but didn't notice the change since I turned Windows sounds off :D

Btw, if you are interested: ColorFix solved recoloring problems for me, but not completely: every time a "Please wait..." window popped up (when logging in to WormNET, connecting to a game room or starting the game), the colors got messed up in the frontend... if I can request this right here, I would love to see a tweak.reg removing those pop-up windows (since they are legacy anyways, loading the game doesn't need 10 seconds at all anymore) :D

if I can request this right here, I would love to see a tweak.reg removing those pop-up windows (since they are legacy anyways, loading the game doesn't need 10 seconds at all anymore) :DThat doesn't make sense unless the palette fixes in the next Beta won't have any effect...

Let's hope the best for the upcoming fixes :D

Why can't the launcher detect where WA and WWP are?

Looking at the source code, it seems that you do not know which keys have the WA and WWP path, do you?

Here's how. Please update the code.
Private Sub SearchGames()
Dim RegKey As RegistryKey
'W2
RegKey = Registry.CurrentUser.OpenSubKey( _
"Software\Team17SoftwareLTD\Worms2")
If RegKey IsNot Nothing Then TextW2.Text = RegKey.GetValue("W2Path", "Not found")
'WA
RegKey = Registry.CurrentUser.OpenSubKey( _
"Software\Team17SoftwareLTD\WormsArmageddon")
If RegKey IsNot Nothing Then TextWA.Text = RegKey.GetValue("PATH", "Not found")
'WWP
RegKey = Registry.LocalMachine.OpenSubKey( _
"Software\Team17 Software Ltd\Worms World Party")
If RegKey IsNot Nothing Then TextWWP.Text = RegKey.GetValue("PATH", "Not found")
End Sub

Sorry for double post, but I found a major bug:

Private Sub ValidateGames()
If New FileInfo(TextW2.Text).Exists = False Then TextW2.Text = "Not found"
If New FileInfo(TextWA.Text).Exists = False Then TextW2.Text = "Not found"
If New FileInfo(TextWWP.Text).Exists = False Then TextW2.Text = "Not found"
End Sub

And this is the patch, I don't think that I need to explain what the bug is:

Private Sub ValidateGames()
TextW2.Text = TextW2.Text & "\Frontend.exe"
TextWWP.Text = TextWWP.Text & "\WWP.exe"'Detects WormKit
If New FileInfo(TextWA.Text & "\WormKit.exe").Exists Then
TextWA.Text = TextWA.Text & "\WormKit.exe"
Else
TextWA.Text = TextWA.Text & "\WA.exe"
End If
If Not New FileInfo(TextW2.Text).Exists Then TextW2.Text = "Not found"
If Not New FileInfo(TextWA.Text).Exists Then TextW2.Text = "Not found"
If Not New FileInfo(TextWWP.Text).Exists Then TextW2.Text = "Not found"
End Sub

EDIT: The patch above now also detects WormKit.

Thanks for the bugfix. I didn't spend too much time on the automatic game detection, it was like a feature-in-the-last-minute - additionally I did not find the other keys in my registry (I installed the game via XCopy and not via the installer since mine does not work on Windows 7 anymore) :D I made it like this now (since ValidateGames() should only check if the executables still exist):
Private Sub SearchGames()
Dim RegKey As RegistryKey
If TextW2.Text = "Not found" Then 'you also need to check if the user didn't set up a custom path!
RegKey = Registry.CurrentUser.OpenSubKey("Software\Team17SoftwareLTD\Worms2")
If RegKey IsNot Nothing Then TextW2.Text = RegKey.GetValue("W2Path", "Not found")
If TextW2.Text <> "Not found" Then TextW2.Text &= "\Frontend.exe"
End If
If TextWA.Text = "Not found" Then
RegKey = Registry.CurrentUser.OpenSubKey("Software\Team17SoftwareLTD\WormsArmageddon")
If RegKey IsNot Nothing Then TextWA.Text = RegKey.GetValue("PATH", "Not found")
If TextWA.Text <> "Not found" Then
Dim FileWormKit As FileInfo = New FileInfo(TextWA.Text & "\WormKit.exe")
If FileWormKit.Exists Then
TextWA.Text &= "\WormKit.exe"
Else
TextWA.Text &= "\WA.exe"
End If
End If
End If
If TextWWP.Text = "Not found" Then
RegKey = Registry.LocalMachine.OpenSubKey("Software\Team17 Software Ltd\Worms World Party")
If RegKey IsNot Nothing Then TextWWP.Text = RegKey.GetValue("PATH", "Not found")
If TextWWP.Text <> "Not found" Then TextWWP.Text &= "\WWP.exe"
End If
End Sub
Private Sub ValidateGames()
If New FileInfo(TextW2.Text).Exists = False Then TextW2.Text = "Not found"
If New FileInfo(TextWA.Text).Exists = False Then TextWA.Text = "Not found"
If New FileInfo(TextWWP.Text).Exists = False Then TextWWP.Text = "Not found"
End Sub

The program now also prevents wkColorFix from being loaded by WormKit if it exists.

Oh, and check out the help button :)

Looks like Worms 2 always goes up one directory too much if it is started without Explorer in the background. It didn't find my teams nor a correct list of soundbanks installed :(

Looks like Worms 2 always goes up one directory too much if it is started without Explorer in the background.So fix it! :p

Yeah, 1.0.0.9 now kills explorer.exe when worms2.exe is launched, not frontend.exe. Luckily, it wasn't put in one program so I can easily modify my program now :D

Pacman,

Are you the same person as the worms player with nickname 'Yellow Pacman'?

Cue :<

No, my nickname is Pac-Man, but I prefer yellow as team color :D

In that case, we've played a game or two together! :P

Anyway, will try this right away and see if it fixes my colour problems in network play.

EDIT: It works great, thanks a bunch!

Nice to hear that it works out.

I am actually rewriting the program to be multithreaded, which means that it doesn't freeze when starting Worms and contains a "Force Explorer restart" button to start up the Windows Explorer again if the program fails to detect that Worms has closed (rarely the case, but happens on some PCs).

Make this into a desktop gadget!

:/ I don't know javascript too good which is needed for desktop gadgets. Also I uninstalled the gadget component since they're just eating up ressources :D

Your tool did really work out better than wkColorFix in my case. Thanks.
Only one thing, when I try minimize WA, I cannot really seem to go back again. I see my desktop but all got locked up. Force me to use CTRL+ALT+DEL.

Right click the task bar and use Task Manager to switch back to worms. Works for me!

or ctrl-alt-delete and go to Task Manager and give focus back to W:A.

Yeah, right click it in the task list and select "Bring To Foreground" (not "Switch to" or how the first entry is called in English because it sometimes crashes Worms for me).

No task bar is shown in my case (Windows 7 64-bit), though franpa's solution is what I found to be a workaround.

Hi.
This is my very first post, so : Hello World !

the links aren't available anymore. Could you please reseed ?
thxs in advance.

Since explorer.exe steals WA's color palette every time for me, and wkColorFix just fixes it until a popup window appears in WA, i wrote a small tool for me which completely kills explorer.exe before starting Worms 2, Worms Armageddon (with or without WormKit) and Worms World Party.
http://img.webme.com/pic/d/dr-chat/wormslauncher.png
I have uploaded it here (currently version 1.0.0.8): Download Worms Launcher (http://www.4shared.com/file/RVy15zMz/Worms_Launcher.html)
You need to have at least .NET Framework 2.0 installed since this tool is programmed in VB.NET.
Speaking of which, the source code is no big secret and downloadable here (maybe someone wants to put in better automatic detection for installed Worms versions): Download sourcecode (http://www.4shared.com/file/KZVdJ_j0/Worms_Launcher_Sourcecode.html)

If you add "W2", "WA" or "WWP" to the command line (by making a shortcut on the desktop and editing its properties), you can use this as a direct launcher of your Worms game.

1.0.0.8 now also automatically renames wkColorFix (if it exists) to prevent you from hearing looping error sounds.

No, I don't have that program anymore. The built-in color fixes work better.
And yes, this thread is about 1 year old.