I have found that it is possible to use Icon Extracting software.
You are able to extract icons and images from all files, be it *.exe, *.dll, etc.
The next step is customizing the graphics.
(Yes you can even get that pesky Video Telephony button) :lol:
Once you have done that, re-apply the graphics.
I have gotten this far. I have not actually tested a ROM with the customized skins, but theoretically it should work, right?
Thoughts?
There's quite a bit more to it...
Are you talking about skinning the phone app, particular applications, the whole system or just icons?
For resource editing and injecting new icons, unfortunately because of certificate signing, sytem apps have to be re-signed inorder to run successfully. However, some apps can't even be run like that if they are quite low level, in my experience. We often resorted to creating new resource mui files to allow use of hacked/resource edited files.
For phone skin editing, have a look through the VJBigPhone thread to see some info on how the phone skin was edited (and Buzz's site for even more info), including the video call button. There were some definitive threads on debranding the tmobile systems, which had specific discussions about the video call button.
V
The whole system
Also, what stops you from re-signing the certificates, especially when you're cooking up yor own ROM?
Hi Everyone
Try my new GSlide version which has built in MortScript plugin support
http://81.93.138.210/GSlide
I bet you can make some cool things with this
Also please try to make some skins. Still have some bugs in the skinning support but it works pretty well
Give me comments!
Ciao,
Lars
hallo, just found this. a smooth and fast fingerfriendly file explorer. very good.
but here are my problems:
- can´t open a txt-file file or xml file, but need a text editor, is it possible to link these files to totalcommander ?
- the app crashes (unexpected error)when i try to open the "windows" folder and "own videos"-folder ?
- what are these functions/apps at the right bottom ?
thanks for help. if you want i can do a skin for it.
bluemetalaxe said:
hallo, just found this. a smooth and fast fingerfriendly file explorer. very good.
but here are my problems:
- can´t open a txt-file file or xml file, but need a text editor, is it possible to link these files to totalcommander ?
- the app crashes (unexpected error)when i try to open the "windows" folder and "own videos"-folder ?
- what are these functions/apps at the right bottom ?
thanks for help. if you want i can do a skin for it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It actually used Word Mobile by default when i tried openning a text file.
it runs very very smoothly. nice interface. very simple and straightforward.
obviously just a beginning as there's no copy, paste, cut... advanced config and other options. maybe a small kinetic toolbar throttlelauncher like with the most important actions on it?... just throwing stuff in the air.
very very cool.
nice start...
implement what already been stated + maybe some smoother transitions.
I love your program. It'll probably be a free alternative for Resco Explorer in the future. Keep developing and listen to user feedback.
One feaute request: I'd like to have the option of row height. This program will mainly be used with thumbs and not everyone has the same thumb size.
@nir: i know i can open txt-file with word but i rewrite xmls and txt-files for programming.
anyone elso has a crash when opening windows folder ?
Hi
Thanks for your feedback!
First of all, replace the old installation with the new 0.3 version.
Regarding opening files:
By default GSlide uses shell execute, which is to say the default windows association for the file type.
By adding the MortSupport feature i have made it possible for you to add custom actions by writing or modifying scripts in the actions folder. Read more on the site
GSlide has problems with large folders such as the windows folder. The memory runs out. This can be handled by paging the directory (splitting it up into several pages).
Regarding errors for the context shortcuts, its mostly due to different file paths in the operating system. In the swedish version for example My Documents is called Mina Dokument... Go to the /GSlide/actions/ folder and edit the "GSlidePath.mscr.inc" file which is the place where all system paths are stored. There you can change the paths according to your config.
Regarding skins:
Lot of updates have been made such as,
- row height
- background color
- font
- font weight
- etc...
I will keep updating GSlide with many cool things Help me to write cool script actions! Post to web maybe?
Dont forget to use the latest version!
Ciao,
Lars
New API script for all GSliders
I made a new, more logical API include to make developing of actions easier.
I have also added a "copy file" and "delete file" action as proof-of-concept.
the GSlideAPI script is pretty nifty if I might say so it implements a Object-Oriented looking code style to MortScript. check it out
Ciao
Just tried it and it seems to run pretty smooth. I am sure this is just the beginning for this app. With time this could be something very useful and great. Good job so far
Some suggestions for new versions:
- possibility to show the taskbar
- scrolling looks good, BUT it is a little bit difficult to stop the list and click on the right file - perhaps you could build in a gesture to stop (e.g. short tap on screen => stop)
- of course such basic things like "rename", "send" etc. (file size...)
BUT GREAT WORK! GSlide is a tool which fills another gap for a fingerfriendly Windows Mobile
Thx
Melkor
edit: Nevermind
Updated version coming shortly
hi
New GSlide on the way soon. I have been focusing on getting friendly with MortScript for the last couple of days
I will make a new actions menu with improved usability and make it possible for an action to span several steps (such as copying or moving files to other directories). the pure UI bling and skinning related stuff will have to wait a bit
Please give me feedback concerning the MortScript API.
Ciao
Hi there,
Hopefully one of you guys can help me, I'm needing to know whether Manilla's tabs i.e, the ones on the main interface -today, messaging, contacts, etc- are actually files located somewhere within the device.
like an exe/or similar file that would move to that tab when clicked. Not actually open it, but just move to the that tab within the Manilla interface.
It's an idea I have for getting round the landscape problem that bothers us HD2 owners.
Many thanks
I'm certainly no manila guru, so can't really give much advice, but from what I do know I can tell you that manila is a single app and it runs as a today plugin. The graphics that make up the manila theme are spread around in the windows folder (and there's LOTS of them), as well as config files (xml file format), but that's where my knowledge stops.
It's basically 1 big application, not seperate ones.
Have a trawl through the rom development and the themes and apps sections, there are a few good reads on the manila files.
Also, try the advanced google search instead of the site search, it turns up some good stuff, sometimes for different phones, but the info is valid.
Try this
tut edit manila +hd2 +leo
the google page which is worth bookmarking is
Here
PREVIOUS POST:
Hi all!
My post should be in the developer page, but since I have less than 10 posts I'll post it here. Hope someone'll read it, I think it may be useful to everybody. BTW sorry for my poor english.
I am a user of Windows 8 from the developer preview, and I learned to appreciate the new Start Page and get used to.
The only thing that makes it still "just bearable" to me is the poor (more like nonexistent) non-metro applications customization. I understand that Windows wants developers to create Metro Apps, but their usability on a desktop PC does not fully not convince me; for some uses I prefer a thousand times to use the classic applications.
The question is: how to get the tiles to the classic desktop applications more pleasing than a monochromatic square with an icon?
I started to look far and wide on the Internet, finding not that much (really this does not affect anyone?), but I found something, something (even right in this site).
I've thought about three different ways of solving this problem. Since it's a little bit tl;dr i'll organize them under quotes.
1- An app that opens programs
- it is relatively easy to modify images of Metro Tiles for metro applications already installed, just follow this guide.
- For those who have knowledge of programming C + +, Javascript, or, generically, any language to Visual Basic, creating a tile for your application is extremely easy, so easy even I did it (I don't know programming, sadly). Still, nobody yet has thought to create standard desktop applications with these tiles, even Microsoft itself (Visual Studio RC hasn't got it!).
- I know that Metro Apps work a bit like the sandbox, but you can set the permissions to access images, documents and so on, so should not be impossible to make up a "double bounce" (metro app that opens a link in the Documents which opens the user desktop) without slowing down too the opening of the original program. I do not think is too complex, yet I can not do it alone.
- Also, an xda user found a way to bypass the sandbox and HERE someone (looks like the only one on the ENTIRE internet, apart from me) wondered about this problem and tried to solve this by itself.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
2- The icon, centered and bigger
- a simple and elegant solution: can't we just edit the registry to bring up the icon in the middle of the tiles and change as well as the size of it equal to the tile itself? Then we should just make bigger icons for programs large enough to not be pixelated.
I searched a bit in regedit on:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ ImmersiveShell \ Grid
However, I found "only" how to enlarge or shrink the tile itself or the number of these files. There are a lot of other data but does not have competence to understand the setup.
Seems the easiest way.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
3- Copying from Google
As you surely know Google has launched the Google Chrome metro interface, with some special features:
- The program does not come from the Windows App Store, but can be downloaded from the Chromium Project site, therefore, is installed in the usual place of Chrome (User / AppData / Local) and not in the folder WindowsApps. This is quite unusual, because I thought it was the "exclusive" folder for metro applications;
- From my analysis I understood that the application that starts, both in desktop and Metro look, is always the same, "chrome.exe". To confirm this I noticed that, in fact, the folder "Metro" in "Google Chrome" folder contains only the userdata files and not specific ones for the program, which instead are contained by the classic Chrome folder;
- I'm pretty sure that all Google Chrome files are in this folder, since I found inside the "Manifest" and the images for the tiles. Trying to change the PNG and cleaning the cache also changed the tile in the Start bar.
- The first step, too simple for it to be working ( ) was to copy the manifest and the images folder in the folder of another program (obviously changing the directory on the manifest through Notepad), clearing the cache and restarting the PC. It did not work, of course.
- The next step was to open the folder "C: \ Users \ MYUSERPROFILE \ AppData \ Roaming \ Microsoft \ Windows \ Start Menu \ Programs" and try to understand more of nature of the link to Google Chrome...Only to find out that the link to Chrome was not there! ... Does anyone know where it is?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
And that's all. There is still nobody in the world that seems to manage a tweak for having tiles in non-metro applications, so if someone here manages to do this he'll be like the first in the ENTIRE WORLD
Hope this motivates you. I hope to read something from you developers!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The user Argony-OT has found a solution to add metro tiles in the start page for common legacy application. Link to his thread:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1899865
Otinademoniac said:
Hi all!
My post should be in the developer page, but since I have less than 10 posts I'll post it here. Hope someone'll read it, I think it may be useful to everybody. BTW sorry for my poor english.
I am a user of Windows 8 from the developer preview, and I learned to appreciate the new Start Page and get used to.
The only thing that makes it still "just bearable" to me is the poor (more like nonexistent) non-metro applications customization. I understand that Windows wants developers to create Metro Apps, but their usability on a desktop PC does not fully not convince me; for some uses I prefer a thousand times to use the classic applications.
The question is: how to get the tiles to the classic desktop applications more pleasing than a monochromatic square with an icon?
I started to look far and wide on the Internet, finding not that much (really this does not affect anyone?), but I found something, something (even right in this site).
I've thought about three different ways of solving this problem. Since it's a little bit tl;dr i'll organize them under quotes.
1- An app that opens programs
2- The icon, centered and bigger
3- Copying from Google
And that's all. There is still nobody in the world that seems to manage a tweak for having tiles in non-metro applications, so if someone here manages to do this he'll be like the first in the ENTIRE WORLD
Hope this motivates you. I hope to read something from you developers!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would think that Microsoft would give a way for Google to bypass the restriction on side-loading (for verified developers like Google or the like) if they requested (Of course, they could also have found a way to install Metro Applications without the developers license/enterprise requirement, etc.)
This is probably how it works since the Metro application is not in the usual Installation folder. It is something to wonder about though.
My god! Me and my friend are having this same problem with windows 8! We like the metro menu a lot, but we want to customize non metro program tiles!! We can make some pretty cool images for the tiles, but we just dont know how to change the tiles. I think ur on to something with Google chrome though! I hope some can figure this out! Ur not the only one who wants this!
Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2
bb12489 said:
My god! Me and my friend are having this same problem with windows 8! We like the metro menu a lot, but we want to customize non metro program tiles!! We can make some pretty cool images for the tiles, but we just dont know how to change the tiles. I think ur on to something with Google chrome though! I hope some can figure this out! Ur not the only one who wants this!
Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The problem is that I haven't got enough knowledge (not as much as my dedication to the cause ) to really do something with this...I am kinda searching for some help from XDA Developers
Same problem here
I'm also having the same problems on Windows 8. I'm also finding a way to change the default traditional app icons to the metro look, like what google do. Hmmmm.... Microsoft should add a feature to change default non-metro icons to non-metro tiles.
What's weird is that, as someone made me notice, if you make Google Chrome (the W8 version) the default browser for Metro instead of Internet Explorer, IE loses it's metro icon and become a normal Windows monocoloured tile. It's weird enough for making me think that the "copy Google" way is a bit harder than expected.
On the other hand, I've got a friend of mine searching in Windows 8 resources for a way to enlarge and center icons in Start Scren. Nowadays all the icons are big and detailed enough to fit inside a tile, and if they don't we can always make our own. I think that this is actually the easiest way.
Anyone have any clue that might help the cause? Also, since I still have less than 10 post, might someone link this thread in the Windows 8 hacking-developer forum?
Otinademoniac said:
What's weird is that, as someone made me notice, if you make Google Chrome (the W8 version) the default browser for Metro instead of Internet Explorer, IE loses it's metro icon and become a normal Windows monocoloured tile. It's weird enough for making me think that the "copy Google" way is a bit harder than expected.
On the other hand, I've got a friend of mine searching in Windows 8 resources for a way to enlarge and center icons in Start Scren. Nowadays all the icons are big and detailed enough to fit inside a tile, and if they don't we can always make our own. I think that this is actually the easiest way.
Anyone have any clue that might help the cause? Also, since I still have less than 10 post, might someone link this thread in the Windows 8 hacking-developer forum?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not sure what might cause it, but I know that it's a behavior that's been there since Developers Preview, after setting Chrome as the default browser it would go away, Even when I set the older chrome versions as default it would do it.
Still nothing...! This is quite frustrating, I'm searching really deeply a way to edit the METRO UI, but nothing yet found. Any help?
The way I think would be easier is to center and make bigger the Icon inside the Metro Tiles. I'm trying to use a Resource Editor in windows, but I haven't found anything yet.
Hi, I'm (obviously) new here.
I actually joined just to try and help figure this very issue out.
1. I actually noticed about an hour ago (when installing Firefox) the change that occurred with the Metro tile for IE, changing to a default tile. Your post made me chuckle, as I had literally just done that very thing. It was as if IE felt unloved. :laugh:
2. I am a designer. The ability to not change these tiles right now is killing me from the inside! I could easily set some color values or make my own icons in Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop and then make new metro-esque tiles the way I want for nearly all my apps in no time.
So, with all of that said... I too shall be looking into how we can manage making our own tiles for non-metro apps.
I wonder (and this is a cheap cheap fix) if one were to design an application icon for say, Firefox, and it would be the actual size & dimension of the pre-fixed metro square...would that icon fill the sqaure and at least give the appearance of being a metro app? It may, but I fear it might just down-size the icon entirely leaving us at square one.
All my design programs are on my OS X hard drives. Later I'll plug them back in, then re-boot my hackintosh and try to make a fill-in metro styled icon for testing purposes.
-TYPØ
Hi TYPOGRAPH1C, sadly changing the icon size won't work, nowadays almost every application icon for Windows have a resolution big enough to fit more than just the METRO tile; sadly, it's still not working.
Also, I've tried (withouth success) another experiment: In the "Users\USERNAME\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu" folder you can find the links for some of the METRO APP; those icons are from a DLL! I've tried to simply copy one of those in another folder and make a legacy program use it, but it didn't work. I guess is one way less to try
That is unfortunate. And, who knows this may be something we can't fully tackle until the full release of the OS. But, I do know that I went through yesterday and counted 30+ apps that I personally would like to make icons for. Mainly the general stuff I use, but a lot of them are things many people use as well. So between now and the finalized OS release, I should have them all done. And if worst case, we can never set the tiles ourselves... at least I'd rock some custom metro style icons on my taskbar.
But if we do get this working... I was actually thinking last night about this. If we were able to achieve the correct look for the tile icons, I suppose it would be 100% possible to have practically nothing living on the taskbar in Windows 8 (besides the current open desktop application). Everything could be bound to the Start Menu and grouped accordingly in theory.
-TYPØ
I am also looking for a solution. I really want all my programs to have the tile icon.
What i already did is make a white icon for some programs and then specify it as the icon.
Like this you have the icon in the tile (downsized ofc) but the tile itself isn't filled with a background color.
I looks better than the full colored icons from before but i still want the whole metro tile look.
Otinademoniac said:
Hi all!
3- Copying from Google
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can read all about "metro enabled desktop browsers" when you get some free time. It's a cool idea, but unfortunately, you can only have one.
Could someone who knows how to make Tiles not make a custom tile app that can then handle custom image and file path, so we just update the details within the app so it points the the right place? So we could install the placeholder with the new set details and pop the icons are Larg and Small and offer booting the exe?
I have NO idea how to make tiles but I just thought maybe that could be a way?
rexzooly said:
Could someone who knows how to make Tiles not make a custom tile app that can then handle custom image and file path, so we just update the details within the app so it points the the right place? So we could install the placeholder with the new set details and pop the icons are Larg and Small and offer booting the exe?
I have NO idea how to make tiles but I just thought maybe that could be a way?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Windows Phone has custom tile apps...Wiztiles is one I use. A user can create custom tiles using pictures they have on their phone. These tiles can then be used to link to specific functions. The function I use it for is to point to websites. You can have it open many of the built in apps on WinPhone. It will open email and draft a new email for you with contact, subject and even the body of the mail drafted...all you have o do is hit send, or edit then send. Same with sms. It can be used to dial a contact or perform a search in the marketplace or Bing app. So it doesn't just open an app, it opens and performs an initial action in the app. Not sure how much of a leap it would be to have it point to 3rd party apps, but the basic idea is there.
The website the OP posted which was this http://stackoverflow.com/questions/9527644/launching-a-desktop-application-with-a-metro-style-app actually does have a method on creating an app to launch a desktop app if anyone wants to try it. Me I'm not that great with code.
a tip for hex editors, just DUI hackers: twinui.dll UIFILES.
I think that it's possible, because you can open internet explorer desktop from internet explorer immersive
@Ka-la I've tried some time ago, but twinui.dll get corrupted... (Next time I will retry )
Pasquiindustry said:
I think that it's possible, because you can open internet explorer desktop from internet explorer immersive
@Ka-la I've tried some time ago, but twinui.dll get corrupted... (Next time I will retry )
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I managed to size content in my tiles in RTM pretty succesfully, not sure why you corrupt it. Im not using Windows 8 at the moment so I cannot really help. I remember there were templates for many variant of tiles (widewithpicture and smallwithpicture and so on). If there is one for that applies to desktop apps, it might be possible to apply a metro one to it
I'll give it a shot once im using Windows 8 but cant promise anything.
Maybe i had wrong edits in wrong place