Database Users

Dealing with icons, screen orientation, and MortScript

I apologize in advance if this gets too technical for some, but after you read it, you may understand why I took the time to do it and ultimately offer it here.
First of all, if you noticed after a soft reset that it takes some time for Windows Mobile to show the programs you have installed on your device, you'll quickly realize that the reason why it's so slow is that it's grabbing the icon image from the shortcut's executable, which is usually located at the end of that executable.
Now, you'll also notice that some icons appear slower than others. Most of the time, it's because the program's executable is usually big. Take Skype, for example. It can take up to 20 seconds just to show the stupid S icon because the single executable is about 5MB big.
All that effort to get to an icon is painstaking, and surprisingly enough, the issue remains in Windows Mobile 5.0. Why Microsoft never learned to cache the icons in a single file is beyond me. And you'll have to deal with it after every soft or hard reset... Of course, the average user here does that often, so you can see where I start to get frustrated.
But with frustration comes inspiration (or desparation).
I have created a small 26KB file called RunSkype.exe. All it does is launch Skype. While that doesn't sound helpful much, you'll realize that if you copy this file to the Skype folder, then create a shortcut to RunSkype.exe and replace the Skype shortcut with this one, you'll see that the icon and program will show up MUCH faster than having Windows Mobile 5 try to poll the 5MB file.
I also took the liberty of making a full VGA-compatible icon for Skype, so it looks good from 16x16 pixels to 64x64 pixels.
You can download the program here: http://www.beyondthetech.com/downloads/phone/hacks/RunSkype.exe
Now, for us HTC Universal owners, you're in for a treat. A really awesome program called MortScript has been released. MortScript is essentially a batch language which you can have steps completely automated for you, based on a text file of commands you create. You can simulate button and keypresses, stylus taps and holds, execute and close programs, read/write registry entries, and much more.
http://www.sto-helit.de/modules/edito/content.php?id=38
One of the biggest gripes I have on the Universal are the developers who have not yet dealt with landscape mode. Some games such as Pocket Mini Golf 2 and Farkle, will either look nice or screwed up, and/or the stylus will not work properly because the image doesn't match the screen coordinates. Avid Universal owners will know what I'm talking about.
Using MortScript, I create this batch file:
Code:
Rotate 0
RunWait \Program Files\Smart Box Design\Farkle.exe
Rotate 270
If it isn't obvious, the batch file will rotate the display to portrait mode, then launch the program. After the program has exited, it will revert back to landscape mode. Again, Universal owners such as myself have kicked themselves for launching a program knowing they have to flip the screen before they run it in order for it to work. This batch file takes the forgetful step and makes it automatic. Flipping the screen to portrait afterwards makes no difference since it's already in portrait, so you're all good to go.
The only downsides to this are two things: 1. If the program doesn't actually exit, but minimize, then it will never get a chance to rotate back. In that case, I delete the last line of the batch file and change RunWait to just Run. 2. It's obvious that you'd make a shortcut to the batch file, not the program's executable anymore. Soon, you'll notice that all the shortcuts will have the same MortScript icon, and that just looks ugly.
This is where my second executable comes in. But, this is going to require some work and an icon editor such as MicroAngelo.
I created a program called batchrun.exe. After you have created your MortScript batch file, save it as batchrun.mscr and put both files in the program's folder. Drag the batchrun.exe and the original program's executable out to your desktop. Using MicroAngelo's Librarian software, you can extract the icon images out of the original program's executable and inject it into batchrun.exe. That way, when you create a shortcut to batchrun.exe, it will have the original icon of the program you want to run.
So, the chain of command is: batchrun.exe -> batchrun.mscr -> commands + original program's executable
One final word... batchrun.exe is hardcoded to run batchrun.mscr, so you can't change the name of the batch file. In addition, you cannot change batchrun.exe's name either, since it's tied into the programming. But you can modify its icon data all you want.
Some of the programs I have successfully done this for include:
Acodic Mobile Info2Go
Handmark Zagat to Go
Resco Diamonds
RealDice.com Texas Hold'em
Smart Box Design Farkle
EdgeQ TrafficEdge
Momentum Games Pocket Mini-Golf 2
Again, the above listed programs do not play well in landscape mode, but with the batch file commands I provided above, it makes using these programs much easier.
Here's batchrun.exe. It currently has my BeyondtheTech Guy logo, but again, use an icon editor software like MicroAngelo to replace it as needed.
http://www.beyondthetech.com/downloads/phone/hacks/batchrun.exe
Here's a bonus. I like keeping the Start Menu as clean as possible. This includes the Recent Start Menu items that appear the moment you start launching away at shortcuts. You may recall that if you never ran anything, all it said was "Recent Programs" and the Start Menu was as short and simple as possible.
Well, you can always get that fresh feeling by creating a MortScript batch file containing this line:
Code:
RegDeleteKey HKCU,\Software\Microsoft\Shell\TaskSwitch,1,1
Call this file cleanup.mscr and stick it in your \Windows\Startup folder. As soon as you boot up from a soft reset, it will silently wipe out the most recently launched items.
Hope this was helpful to anyone.
If anyone needs help or doesn't understand any of this, just let me know.

RunSkype.exe .... thanks for that
S

How to change start menu colour/image on Universal?

Okay, so I've trawled the net in search of a definitive answer to this, and I know it has something to do with the tdyater image file, but I can't get mine to change.
To cover my back I decided to make the file in 3 different formats, and with 3 different names. So in my windows folder I now have:
tdywater.gif
tdywater_480_640.gif
tdywater_640_480.gif
tdywater.jpg
tdywater_480_640.jpg
tdywater_640_480.jpg
tdywater.png
tdywater_480_640.png
tdywater_640_480.png
And still the background of the start menu is just clear, with my background picture visible underneath. This isn't helpful since my background image is very busy and no font colour can make the menu clearly visible. Is there a certain size the image has to be? I'm trying to use a 640x640 image. And is there anything I need to alter in the registry to make the picture appear?
Basically I am trying to use a plain white image, so would also be happy if someone could inform me of a registry key that can change the colour of the start menu.
Thank you

Hi,
tdywater = Today screen picture
stwater = Start menu picture
My start menu picture is a darkened version of the picture I use for my today screen but you can have anything you want.
G

I have to disagree. Though that would be logical based on the file names, I have just done a little test, and my today screen background is governed by stwater_480_640.jpg (for portrait) and stwater_640_480.jpg (for landscape).
If I rename those files to tdywater, then the default windows background appears. And none of these files, be it stwater or tdywater have any effect on the start menu at all.
I sense something odd i happening with my device, since the way you said it sounds like it should be right.
But having said that, I did originally read somewhere (think it was ppcsg) that the correct filenames for portrait and landscape backgrounds were the ones I am uing, hence why I use them, and hence why they work. So basically it's just the start menu I'm struggling with.

I quote from "How to Create an Extended Theme" from Spb Pocket Plus:
http://www.spbsoftwarehouse.com/products/pocketplus/themetutorial.html?en
# Select your Today screen image (tdywater.gif) from the folder you created. Press Next.
# Select your Start menu image (stwater.gif) from the folder you created. Press Next.
These have been the standard filenames for the images for as long as I can remember...
G

gquipster said:
I quote from "How to Create an Extended Theme" from Spb Pocket Plus:
http://www.spbsoftwarehouse.com/products/pocketplus/themetutorial.html?en
# Select your Today screen image (tdywater.gif) from the folder you created. Press Next.
# Select your Start menu image (stwater.gif) from the folder you created. Press Next.
These have been the standard filenames for the images for as long as I can remember...
G
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well bugger the standard. If you read my posts you will see that is not the case on my device. Suppose I'll just keep trying

Are you just copying the images onto the device or using a TSK theme file?
I could never get it to work just copying the images.
This was the program which was recommended to me for building TSK files:
http://www.codeppc.com/telechargements/themegence/themegence.htm
Or do what I did for my first theme and use a CAB editor and just change the images in an existing theme
Not doubting you that it's not working on your device, just not a lot I can do but offer you the information which I have.
Hope this helps
G

Found a way round it
1. Make the theme using the standard microsoft theme generator
2. Apply it on the device
3. delete tdywater.gif
4. Insert my own tdywater_480_640.jpg and tdywater_640_480.jpg files
5. Bingo!
Only thing is, I have to re-do most of that (from step 2 onwards) every time I soft reset, because by default my universal is showing stwater as the background image (ie: a think white bar which I have as my start menu background). It only recognises tdywater after applying a theme

Just use Wisbar!! :lol:

GaZ said:
Found a way round it
1. Make the theme using the standard microsoft theme generator
2. Apply it on the device
3. delete tdywater.gif
4. Insert my own tdywater_480_640.jpg and tdywater_640_480.jpg files
5. Bingo!
Only thing is, I have to re-do most of that (from step 2 onwards) every time I soft reset, because by default my universal is showing stwater as the background image (ie: a think white bar which I have as my start menu background). It only recognises tdywater after applying a theme
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks

different Lockscreen and start menu wallpaper

hi all,
i have already researched this but havent found a solution..
im trying to have a different lockscreen wallpaper to my start menu
If you go to the Settings tab: Personalize, there are two wallpaper options.
Home Tab Wallpaper
Lock Screen Wallpaper
If you go to the "All Settings" and select the "Today" at the bottom is a Check Box:
"Use this picture as the background"
And you can browse for an image.
If you actually tried to use these three settings, you will find that the setting in the "use this picture as the background" is the same as the setting for the Lock Screen Wallpaper. Which is the same as the Start Menu. The Home tab, is part of HTC Sense, and is different than the other two. I want two different background images for the "Start Menu" and the "Lock Screen". Thus, equating to Three Total different backgrounds.
HELP!

not 100% sure, but i think what you desire is possible.
i think a file called "LS_LockScene_800x480.cpr" (for landscape) and "LS_LockScene_480x800.cpr" (for portrait) located in the \Windows folder contains a reference to a wallpaper file. i think if you change this reference (AFTER setting start menu and home screen wallpapers), you might be able to get a different lock screen wallpaper. i'm not certain if the mentioned files are actually "active" because i've noticed quite a few more files in my \Windows folder that might be the "active" files such as "htc_LS_LockScene_800x480.cpr" and "htc_LS_LockScene_480x800.cpr"
i seem to recall reading about CPR files and how they can be edited to achieve various styles of lock screen, incoming call screen (if using native WM dialer) and in call screen (if using native WM dialer), and alarm screen (if using native WM alarm application). so in case my suggestion doesn't work, try searching about CPR files and how to edit them and what each one is meant for.
finally, if you notice my signature, i played with lock screens about a year ago and i wrote a thread about it...so all of the above is the little bit that i remember from my experience earlier. i believe there is also an editor (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=525499) that can ease the process of making advanced changes in CPR files.
let us know if any of the above helps. if it does, why not post here with a tutorial? good luck!

[APP] Control Panel Settings to Links (.lnk)

Hi guys,
I know it's a 10 seconds job to create a link for items inside the control panel (settings) such as "Usb to PC" or "Power" but I'm too lazy to do it every time I try a new rom,
also I found some of the values change from rom to rom, so I create a really simple app that goes through the registry key which holds the settings items (KLM\Security\Shell\StartInfo\Start) and creates a .lnk file for each of these entries.
Having a direct link allows me to add that option as a quick link which is handy 8)
Anyway, here is the tool in case someone wants it.
The exe must be installed in "\Program Files\CplLinks" (Device). It only takes 11.5 kb. The only reason the .exe is needed after the lnk are created is to provide an icon.
When you run it, it reads the HKEY mention above and creates .lnk for each item in the "Settings" menu. The lnks are created in "\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\CplLinks" so are directly accessible through the Programs menu.
There are no messages, it runs and creates the links, no interaction whatsoever so do not expect any nice popup window 8)
Next version will use specific icons for each item, right now, all the links use the same icon from the cpllink.exe executable.
The icons for most of the Settings are .png files rather than .ico, and WM doesn't have an easy way to convert from .png into .ico, the idea for a "future version" is to collect all the .png files,converted to icons and create a dll on the fly with the icons as resources, so they can be referenced from the .lnk files
Couple of screen shots from the emulator.

Great application! It works like a charm! Thank you for this convenient time saver
EDiT (another time saver)
After applying a Hard Reset WE have to reinstall all programs if you have previously installed them in the memory card. Often it is sufficient to recreate the shortcut in the start menu. ShortCutCreator helps you to recover the exe files and to recreate the desired shortcut.

Thanks for sharing!

I guess would be better if I manage to provide a different icon for each link, but Icon support is quite limited inside VM. Need to work in the PNG to Icon -> .dll routine 8)
I though having the app in internal memory was a better solution than in \Storage Card, so it will take less time to load the icon from the program, but I can change it and allow that option, so the icons in the links are pointing to \Storage.. rather than \Programs..
Anyway, it just a time-saver thingy 8)

Nice app. It does not seem to work on WM6.1 though.
It does create a new folder structure: CplLinks\System inside the Start Menu.

Very nice. It does seems to create a bunch of redundant or non-used links though

Yep, I saw it only works on WM6.5, on WM6.1 there are no "StartInfo\Start" in the "KLM\Security\Shell\". Not sure where it keeps that info, maybe somewhere else in the registry.
I finally managed to convert PNG to ICO, so I think next version would allow you to choose which items you want to create links for rather than just dump everything 8)

dubidu said:
Yep, I saw it only works on WM6.5, on WM6.1 there are no "StartInfo\Start" in the "KLM\Security\Shell\". Not sure where it keeps that info, maybe somewhere else in the registry.
I finally managed to convert PNG to ICO, so I think next version would allow you to choose which items you want to create links for rather than just dump everything 8)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
WM6.1 control panel is "HKLM\ControlPanel" if I remember correctly. There will be numbers for the mycpl stuff and words for some other control panel items like backlight, etc.

I think this post got lost in the last database disaster 8)
I wrote a new version of this tool that now gives you the icons for the control panel settings, check it out here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=791682

Wallpaper for Lock Screen and Start Screen

I have one basic question on wallpaper:
1) How can I change the wallpaper of Lock Screen and Start Menu screen?
I think it is "HTC Black.tsk" that take the role?
Do I need to replace the files inside the task (stwater_480_800.jpg and stwater_800_480.jpg)?
OR I need to have a new set of file for "HTC_stwater_x_x.jpg"?
But the issue is this will change the same image for both Lock Screen and Start Menu background ... Which I dont want.
If we see the default Lock Screen background and Start menu background they are actually different... so can we change them to different image?
Thanks.

Here is the script I use with oskitchen.
In the destlop wallpaper simply replace the file in the files folder and make sure the app.dat and the app.reg match your filename! You need to add all these registery keys to make it work!
REGEDIT4
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\HTc\Manila]
"Home.wallpaperMode"=dword:1
"HomeBackgroundPath"="\\My Documents\\My Wallpapers\\Background.png"
"DefaultHomeBackgroundPath"="\\My Documents\\My Wallpapers\\Background.png"
For the lockscreen / start menu I simply use an image and rename it to HTC_stwater_480_800.jpg then use an app.dat file to copy it into the windows directory eg: Directory("\windows"):-File("HTC_stwater_480_800.jpg","\Windows\HTC_stwater_480_800.jpg")
Both of these work a treat!
I have attached the two ext packages here!
View attachment Wallpaper.zip

prabhat said:
But the issue is this will change the same image for both Lock Screen and Start Menu background ... Which I dont want.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There is no other way around this! Changing background will change your SM bkg and also lock screen...

Yes ai6908 is right. Both lock screen and start menu use the same wallpaper.

@GhostXSeries:
Thanks for your tip. For home screen it is working for me For Lock & Start Menu screen I was looking for and I wil use the HTC_stwater_x_y.jpg and see how that works
@ai6908:
Yes I know when I change the Lock screen image from settings I can see that the SM image also get changed to same file, but If I see the default build I see both are different so I was wondering If that possible from cooking .
Thanks.

You got an answer in your MUI thread, you might try that.

prabhat said:
@GhostXSeries:
Thanks for your tip. For home screen it is working for me For Lock & Start Menu screen I was looking for and I wil use the HTC_stwater_x_y.jpg and see how that works
@ai6908:
Yes I know when I change the Lock screen image from settings I can see that the SM image also get changed to same file, but If I see the default build I see both are different so I was wondering If that possible from cooking .
Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There are two different file names used but unfortunitly I cant remember what they are! I think that is also for wm builds only. If you use sense it overrides the two files and uses HTC_stwater_480_800.jpg instead. 480_800 is used on the HD2 as that is the sceen resolution. The filename might be slightly different on other devices.