Think I'm nearly done with my trial build. Many thanks, it's a really good image and saves idiots like me who want to customise everything to the nth degree a ton of time!
1) Added a global filter to get rid of all the sh*te + clones blah blah.
2) Removed Favourites - realised over the years I never use this (extra buttons, management etc. Instead I add a "Top 25" filter that sorts by PlayedTime with a list size limit.
3) Is that the standard AM input mapping? Changed left + right to next/prev filter.
4) Hadn't realised just what a pain to use, ugly, slow or broken most of the layouts are. Flat Blue is clearly king after my own

5) Defragmented the drives

(I'm using a HDD - installed Defraggler)
6) Added <DIR> to the rom identification for MAME in AM.
7) Removed Chrome, replaced with Firefox.
8) Updated MAME, all the dats etc.
9) Updated the wheel images - do you want a pack of them, I've got 300+ that weren't in the image?
10) Updated codec pack
11) Added a utility menu option to commit changes to the read-only partition, rather than needing to reboot to switch it off/on.
For my final build on my real MAME cab, I'm going to go a step further and really mush things around. Everything will go on a read only C: *except* stuff like cfg, nvram, hiscores, stats. I know MAME is happy to point at a different partition for its folders, but Attract Mode will need a couple of junctions - one for the stats folder and one for attract.am. Might even move them to separate drive entirely, maybe mirrored USB sticks (or a scheduled script to backup one to another...)
Think there are quite a few services I can disable too for an extreme cut down (no network etc) operation - if I remember I'll supply a reg file for this. Save some CPU cycles.cools2020-06-26 13:43:26