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How to recover a "bricked" Mono X7 (app gone) — and run your own content instead

For anyone whose Mono X7 is stuck because the FRAMED app is no longer on the App Store: your device is NOT dead. Underneath, it's just a Windows 8.1 box running a .NET shell. Here's how I took mine back. (You'll need a USB keyboard + mouse, and ideally a second computer for remote access later.)

1. Get to a desktop
Plug in a USB mouse/keyboard — they work. The FRAMED shell (Framed.exe) runs fullscreen and grabs the foreground, so normal shortcuts seem dead. Two ways in:

• The shell talks to a local MongoDB on 127.0.0.1:27017. If that fails to start in time, you get a .NET "Unhandled exception" dialog — click Quit and the shell closes, exposing the desktop.
• More reliably: open Task Manager (it may launch but stay hidden BEHIND the fullscreen shell). With Task Manager focused, press Alt+O then A (Options > Always on top). The menu draws above the shell, and this pins Task Manager in front. This single trick is the key to everything.

2. Kill the shell
In Task Manager, End task on "FRAMED" / Framed.exe. The screen goes black (no Explorer running) but you can still operate via Task Manager > File > Run new task.

3. Find how the shell auto-starts
It's NOT in Startup or Scheduled Tasks. It's the Winlogon shell. Run:
reg query "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon" /v Shell
Mine showed: wscript c:\Scripts\invisible.vbs c:\Scripts\launch.bat. That launch.bat just contained one line: C:\Framed\framed.

4. Make it run YOUR content
Back up first: copy c:\Scripts\launch.bat c:\Scripts\launch.bat.bak
Then overwrite launch.bat to launch Chrome (already installed) in kiosk mode at any URL or local image, e.g.:
"C:\Program Files\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe" --kiosk "https://your-url-here"
Reboot. The shell never loads; your page shows fullscreen instead. To revert: copy the .bak back.

Notes:

• The login user is "FRAMED". On mine the password was simply framed.
• The hardware is weak (Atom Z3736, 2GB RAM). Heavy WebGL/Three.js will drop frames and crash. A static image or a lightweight page is far more stable. (You can also wrap the Chrome launch in a loop so it auto-restarts if it crashes.)
• Install a VNC server (e.g. TightVNC, set to run as a service) while you have desktop access — then you can do all of this remotely afterwards instead of fighting the foreground lock with a keyboard.

It's ultimately just a 17" panel + Chromium. Once you strip the dead FRAMED layer off, you can display whatever you want.