Database Users

Modifying application icons

Hello,
I've been searching all day for any information on how to change the icons for various applications. I'm somewhat at a dead-end.
I've read that to change application icons you have to edit the .lnk file. However, I've discovered that applications seem to have multiple .lnk files associated with them, for example; my 1-calclite.exe program has a .lnk file in both \windows\ and in \windows\start menu. Which of these am I supposed to edit to change the icon throughout the system?
Also, the only information I've seen to edit states that you add a comma and then the name of the .dll to use as the icon. This, needless to say, is a bit confusing. I have a whole rack of .png files that I'd like to use as icons (I can easily convert them to .ico if needed) that I would like to associate with programs. Do I need to somehow compress them into a .dll file, or can I just store them into a directory (say, \my documents\icons) and just point the .lnk file to there?
Alternatively, is there any program (free or otherwise) which simplifies this whole process in a GUI?
Thanks for any help you all can give!

HELP. How to: control panel entry?

hi there.. i've searched for long (google and here) and still haven't got any answer..
i was wondering how can i put or create my own control panel entry or how to move control panel applets say from System to Personal..
is it possible to place shortcuts to EXE files in the Control Panel/Settings applet?
i would like to place all configuration applications (S2u2 settings, FtouchFLO Config, Battery Status Config, etc) in the Control Panel, since these are all settings/configurations, i feel that they should be within the control panel in one place and not scattered among other programs.
also, i would like to move the SRS WOW and MEMORY applets to the personal tab, because i always use them.. it saves me more clicks..
thanks in advance and i hope someone can help me..

any files with exe etension wont appear in control panel only cpl extensions will appear

scousemartin said:
any files with exe etension wont appear in control panel only cpl extensions will appear
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
aah.. ok.. thanks.. then how can i link cpl extensions to exes? because some (default) control panel entries (ctpnl.cpl) are actually linked to exes like Power, Backlight, Beam, Clock, etc (which are all in \Windows directory)..
is there a way to do the same?
also, how can i move (place into other tabs) some other 3rd party entries in the control panel?
i found in the registry (\HKLM\Control Panel\) that SOME entries can be moved, by changing the 'Group' DWORD vaue in each key(0=personal, 1=system, 2=Conn)..
though some are still missing, such as Clock, Add/Remove Programs, and 3rd party applets (except Wisbar's Theme manager applet)..
where can i find these entries?
also, thanks for the quick reply.. i was afraid that this li'l question will reach the second page without any replies at all..

Go here http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=340974
just copy the location and paste it in your Notepad and save it as .LNK

ather90 said:
Go here http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=340974
just copy the location and paste it in your Notepad and save it as .LNK
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
no, i don't want a shortcut of control panel entries anywhere.. i want shortcuts of PROGRAMS in my CONTROL PANEL..
you got it the other way around sir..

Hi kabayan! just to clarify:
He wants to learn how to make a .cpl file that opens up an .exe file.
I would personally like to know how that's done myself. Maybe I'll try opening a cpl file in Notepad or something..

tried opening a cpl in notepad.. and.. uhhm.. it just shows garbage tetx.. i think it is not unicode or anything readable by notepad..
thanks kabayan.. ehehe.. nice to see someone near home in an international forum..

Put a .lnk file in \Windows\Start menu\settings

_TB_TB_ said:
Put a .lnk file in \Windows\Start menu\settings
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hello,
I was also trying to add a new entry in Control Panel and followed your instruction... It worked, I made one shortcut appear in System tab, under Settings. However, I wanted it to appear in Connections tab. Already tried to add the following entries in registry, but it didn't work.
Code:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\ControlPanel\APP_NAME]
"Group"=dword:00000002
Any ideas?

Can anyone please help?

need help with ultimatelaunch

what file type do icons need to be in order to use them in ultimate launch? ico comes up with a windows icon, bmp comes up with an opera icon, and .icons come up with folders.

You need ICO

when i use ico, all of the icons have an opera icon when i put it on windows mobile. i deleted opera but it still comes up.

so i guess windows mobile set opera to open all ico files. how do i change this?

Don't know how to do it normally, but using Schap's Advanced Config tool, there's a File Associations setup tab

i'll try it out. so what program do i change ico files to in order for the icons to show? picture viewer?

mine does the opera thing too. Did you figure out how to fix it?

I had the opera icon issue after I installed the 9.5 beta. I fixed it last night with a hard reset...

I'm having a similar problem and would prefer not to do a hard reset. I can change the file association with file commander, but what do i change it to?
Thanks in advance.

it doesn't matter what file association it has for it to be used with UL. It's not like you are using the icon within file explorer to launch UL.
Put it in a folder somewhere.
When you run UL configuration when adding a app, select Xp-icon button. after you select the .exe or .lnk file, click on the icon tab, then browse button, and then find the folder containing the icons and select the one you want for that app.
It should have nothing to do with what file is associated with it.

I had the opera beta installed and ultimatelaunch would just show error for all my icons. I uninstalled opera but now all my icons are displayed as IE icons.

dmc522 said:
I had the opera beta installed and ultimatelaunch would just show error for all my icons. I uninstalled opera but now all my icons are displayed as IE icons.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
have a look on the ini file and check where the corresponding icon-path refers to.

I found the problem. I was trying to use the glass looking icons posted in another thread about Ultimate Launch. The icons weren't recognized until i set the size to 58x58.

I seems that no matter where you put your icons, somehow Opera takes over and converts them into the "O" icon no matter what they look like. is there any way to take back the default look of the icon's with out hard resetting?

dmc522 said:
I found the problem. I was trying to use the glass looking icons posted in another thread about Ultimate Launch. The icons weren't recognized until i set the size to 58x58.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
exactly. there are many reasons why an icon will not be recognized. File association by a browser is NOT one of them.
here is another tip: if you are using icons all of the same size, you can go to the tab on the main menu labelled xp-icons and set the size of the icons there, that way you don't have to individually check the box for each individual icon and rechange the size for each one unless that icon is different in size than the one you set on the main menu tab.

Is it possible to get UL to display the calendar? I've been looking through everything I can find on my phone all day and can't find any way to make it display that.

for the "XP" icons you need to use 32 bit icons. there are different versions of .ico. 32 bit have an alpha channel for transparency, they can also have various sizes within such as 16x16, 32x32, and 48x48. There are many programs out there to create the icons with. Like said earlier you also have to have enough room to see the icons of the size you choose 48 needs height of 48+ 32...you get the picture.
some apps to make .ico with:
GIMP
iicon
gconvert

I can't get the calendar plugin to work with Ultimatelaunch, anyone else has this problem

I use the calendar/today plugin TodayAgenda. Added that as a tab within UltimateLaunch. Works perfectly.

superflysocal said:
it doesn't matter what file association it has for it to be used with UL. It's not like you are using the icon within file explorer to launch UL.
Put it in a folder somewhere.
When you run UL configuration when adding a app, select Xp-icon button. after you select the .exe or .lnk file, click on the icon tab, then browse button, and then find the folder containing the icons and select the one you want for that app.
It should have nothing to do with what file is associated with it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Unfortunately, in this case it does seem to matter. the Opera icon highjacked the UltimateLauncher icon itself when I changed my layout. The content of the file hasn't changed a bit, just the way it is displayed everywhere on the Pocket PC.

SPB Mobile Shell 2.0 Beginner's How-to

Let’s sum up what we already know.
update 19-03-2008 : Icon tutorial by Luigi
update 26-03-2008 : Background mod by asefsef, some cleaning done.
*** IF YOU KNOW ANYTHING USEFUL NOT MENTIONED HERE, JUST PM ME AND I WILL UPDATE THIS POST. ***
0-Basics
.dat files need to be opened using winzip. To extract the files you will need to use a password which is:
PASSWORD = b0fm18zq
*** WARNING ***
If you plan to use WinRAR instead of WinZIP to reencrypt the files, be sure to change the radio checkbox from RAR to ZIP format before entering the password (thanks cincij for the trick).
1-Localization
Simply edit the SpbMobileShell.txt file and change the corresponding items to your needs:
…
Text Messages|Messages texte
My Documents|Mes documents
…
Note that not all of the texts will be changed; some of them require registry hacks.
2-Customize the layouts (Quick and dirty tuto from SPBCLUB, written by met3ora ?)
(I will use brackets to indicate the XML tags, since the SPB forum doesn't like the XML tags.)
Copy qa_layouts.dat to your computer.
Using a WinZip, extract Launcher.xml, using the password b0fm18zq.
Opening up Launcher.xml in Notepad, you can see how MS reads the file. There are a few layouts that are defined, and are based on screen size and orientation. For my Kasier, 240x320 and 320x240 are the portrait and landscape layouts, respectively.
Under {Layout Name="240x320"} and more specifically under {Plugins Extends="Default"}, we find what we're looking for. The first 12 plugins (named rN) are the "pinned menu" buttons, and the next 6 (named mN) are the large buttons. Defined in each Plugin is the following line (with variation on the numbers, of course) {BoundRect X="0" Y="182" Width="39" Height="45"/}. So obviously X and Y are the X and Y positions in pixels, and Width and Height are, well, width and height also in pixels.
If you'd like to remove all the 12 pinned menu buttons, simply remove the following lines (for r0-rB):
{Plugin Name="r0"}
{BoundRect X="0" Y="182" Width="39" Height="45"/}
{/Plugin}
Just delete them, and then they're done. Now, this leaves the bigger launcher menu sitting on the bottom, looking pretty odd since there's a big void on the top. To even out the void, I moved each of those big buttons up 45 pixels. Why 45? Well, 45 was the height of one of the icons in the pinned menu, so moving it up that much would leave 45 pixels above and below the big grid.
So just simply subtract 45 from each Y coordinate of each plugin m0-m5, giving you (for m0-m2) 46 and (for the next 3) 137.
Now, I don't like the grid. Fortunately, we can just hide the grid by finding this line at the top of the XML file, under {General}, which is {Int Name="LineOpacity" Value="64"/}. Simply change the Value to 0, and that will hide the grid lines.
There you go, now the 6 button launcher is in the middle of your Launcher screen, with none of those pesky 12 pinned items. Do the same thing under {Layout Name="320x240"}, except of course change the numbers so that your 6 grid is in the middle of your screen.
Save the file.
Go back to WinZip and add Launcher.xml back into qa_layouts.dat, remembering to overwrite the old Launcher.xml and remembering to encrypt it again with the same password (which is b0fm18zq).
Now replace qa_layouts.dat in the \Program Files\Spb Mobile Shell\ folder and soft reset your phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How to get rid of this annoying icon tab at the bottom (Why do this soft has gestures enabled AND shortcuts ?) netzcoyote has a solution:
Not sure if this is already known:
To get rid of the icon tab at the bottom, edit Main.xml in qa_layouts.dat:
Basically, I moved the tab below the screen's visible area.
- In every layout node you want the tab to disappear, add 47 (the tab height) to the Y-coordinate of the plugins named Tab1, Tab2, Tab3 and Tab4.
- In order to make the area where the other elements appear extend to the bottom of the screen, add 47 to the height of the Plugin named Subform.
This expands the canvas height on which to show elements like the calendar, clock, menubuttons, etc.
Now you have to go into those xml files (for example LockScreen.xml) and change those element's coordinates, heights, etc. where appropriate.
This can easily be done with the menu tab, launcher tab, speeddial tab, etc.
Navigation with left and right gestures WORKS!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
3-Customize the icons
Thx 2 Luigi
Do-it-yourself Icon Tutorial: here. <- Use this !
4-Customize the background
Thx 2 asefsef
So far, doing this is pretty easy:
- Extract files from qp_bkg_now.dat
- Change the separator2 and its mask to 240x320.
- Make the mask all white.
- Then put whatever image you like into the separator2 bmp.
You have to save the file as a Windows - 16bit - R5 G6 B5 - .bmp file.
if u miss the separator, just photoshop the separator back into the file. (thats not cheatin! >< hehe, it IS the separator layer after all.)
5-Registry Hacks
You can do some pretty nice things by directly editing your registry:
Look at the keys located here:
HKLM>Software>Spb Software House 2>Spb Mobile Shell>
How to enable the 9th icon with a 3x3 layout:Just create a .reg file with this inside:
Code:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Spb Software House 2\Spb Mobile Shell\Menu\Root\Games]
"Image"=dword:00000008
"Text"="Jeux"
"MRUImage"=dword:000000BF
"Index"=dword:00000007
"Inactive"=dword:00000001
"Add"=dword:00000001
Copy to your PDA, and launch it from there. The "Games" Menu should be available in the settings as a 9th icon.
Here’s another exemple done by Vincentvg:
gr8 work you all!
I now have 9 buttons and no need for all possible submenus. Therefore I started looking to use one of the menu buttons to activate the taskmanager from the main menu tab.
in the registry HKLM>Software>Spb Software House 2>Spb Mobile Shell>Menu>Root I added the ninth menu with folowing values:
Add = 0
Image = 8
Index = 9
Text = Active Tasks
Type = TaskManager
And the most amazing is that I got it 2 work!
Looking at existing 'Type' regvalues show that the menu buttons can be used for a lot more!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
6-Integration with Pocket Informant, Agenda Fusion and Agenda One
http://www.spbclub.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=7794
7-Make SPB your Today screen
Have a look here, thedumbkid has done something neet for us, called SPBWatcher.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=2029338
8-Nice links
HOT Theme collection for SPB mobile Shell 2, maintained by iamwhoiam
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=380103
The development thread at XDA:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=374335
SPB Club:
http://www.spbclub.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=15353
ActualiteMobiles: (french)
http://www.actualitemobile.com/forum/index.php/topic,1195.0.html
English translation of 4PDA.ru:
http://209.85.135.104/translate_c?hl=en&langpair=ru%7Cen&u=http://4pda.ru/forum/index.php%3Fs%3Da905e4fde300239b84d47f1dfd36ea09%26showtopic%3D31453%26st%3D2340%23entry1522182

SPB Mobile Shell 2.0 Beginner's How-to (Continued)
natong's Example to change menu Texts, Types and Image icons
Click Here
natong's Conclusion to make 3x3 icons (9 menus)
Click Me
natong On how make a tab for 16 speed shortcut icons
Press Me

Thank u ..
Great Work...

Dredd67 said:
*** WARNING ***
WinRAR seems OK for unpacking the files, but there has been some reports that you need WinZIP to reencrypt the files into the .dat. Files reemcrypted winth winRAR, even with the right password won’t work with SPB Mobile Shell 2.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
For me it works just fine

Good job!
Thx a lot!!
This is exactly what I was looking for!!!
Congratulations for this sum up!!!

bon tuto mon ami et vive actualitémobile lol

Dredd67 said:
*** WARNING ***
WinRAR seems OK for unpacking the files, but there has been some reports that you need WinZIP to reencrypt the files into the .dat. Files reemcrypted winth winRAR, even with the right password won’t work with SPB Mobile Shell 2.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I use WinRAR to repack, you just have to be sure to change the radio checkbox from RAR to ZIP format before entering the password.

Thank you very much for sharing, This is a good tutorial for everyone who love to customize spb mobile shell 2.

Thx
cincij said:
I use WinRAR to repack, you just have to be sure to change the radio checkbox from RAR to ZIP format before entering the password.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the details. I will update the 1st post according to this.

Thanks a lot for this. I'll be posting it over at the SPBClub if you don't mind!

Brilliant idea!
Great idea Dredd and thanks for the hard work to set it up and maintain it from here on out.

met3ora said:
Thanks a lot for this. I'll be posting it over at the SPBClub if you don't mind!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No problem !

Very nice post. It will be very helpful to people like me who intends to play with mobile shell.
Thanks.

Very nice. Is it possible to hack Mobile Shell in a way to display the full-time events (like birthdays, anniversarys) on the today screen?

Any love for the 240x240 people?

ceoprez said:
Any love for the 240x240 people?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have requested this as well a couple times, I am trying to do it myself, but...well.....it hasn't been pretty!!!!
(+1 on this request LOL)

ceoprez said:
Any love for the 240x240 people?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Found this on SPBClub. It was done by bamse. Give it a try, and if it works please report it.

Good work. Thumbs up to you. Just an annoying question to ask. In 9 tab launcher, I have only 8 icon. Missing is the favourite/game tab. There is also no option to tick in the setting/customise menu, as it is not there. Is there any registry tweak that I can do to make it show in the customise menu setting? Hope you understand. Thanks

fantastic thread! ty

kangmas said:
Good work. Thumbs up to you. Just an annoying question to ask. In 9 tab launcher, I have only 8 icon. Missing is the favourite/game tab. There is also no option to tick in the setting/customise menu, as it is not there. Is there any registry tweak that I can do to make it show in the customise menu setting? Hope you understand. Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just create a .reg file with this inside:
Code:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Spb Software House 2\Spb Mobile Shell\Menu\Root\Games]
"Image"=dword:00000008
"Text"="Jeux"
"MRUImage"=dword:000000BF
"Index"=dword:00000007
"Inactive"=dword:00000001
"Add"=dword:00000001
Copy to your PDA, and launch it from there. The "Games" Menu should be available in the settings as a 9th icon.
Edit: ah yes you can replace "Jeux" with "Games" or whatever you langage is.

[Q] tweaks/hacks for file explorer and contacts page?!

Hey guys..are there any tweaks/hacks for file explorer and contacts page which makes programs names and respectively contacts name to be shown fully..not just a part of them?i'm looking for this for long time..

I think, the only way is to turn your screen to landscape.

yep..i know this way but i'm just usual to browse the phone in portrait mode

Maybe, only if you find a way to decrease font size (names must be fit to screen, to see full name), but then you will get two new problems:
1. Vision problem
2. It will be difficult to use your finger to select an item.

hmmm..better a hack or a registry change then

About font size decreasing?

yeah......

It's not easy...
...maybe with this:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=551611

doesn't work..it give me an error

What's the error said?

MagnifierSetup.exe
NullreferenceException
la Magnifiersetup.main..ctor()
la MagnifierSetup.Program.Main()
does it work for you?

I don't know why. I don't use it. I prefer auto-rotation.

i use auto-rotation apps too..but all of them rotates manila too..even if i put them in exception list..and if i wanna use manila/sense i need to close this program hmmm

Have you tried ChangeScreen?

yes..using it..but as i told u its messing up manila even if i put it as exception,and its kinda freezing the phone when i go to homescreen

Try a manual-rotation app.
Something like this:
http://www.freewarepocketpc.net/ppc-download-rotate-screen.html

thx but its no fun without g-sensor
still looking if there is a registry hack,cuz i want to be able to see full contacts name in portrait mode,and as for file explorer i'd like to get rid of date and maybe file size because i dont care about them..this way i will see the full app name

For your files you can use Resco Explorer. You have to deactivate "Show Treeview" and you will be able to see in full name more items than file explorer, but not all.

looks great,thx..and MUCH more complex than WM file explorer,thank you very much
as for contacts..i'll try to find a better contacts manager too,,maybe i will see full names too

For free, search here:
http://www.freewarepocketpc.net/ppc-tag-contacts.html