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hi,
i am a former palm user and proud new owner of a spv m600. i have been surfing around but still am a little lost.
how does one delete one of the standard programs delivered with the device. for example, orange has delivered internet explorer or zip. i would like to delete them and add a different program, but i do not see them in the unistall list.
how is it done ? thanks in advance,
scott
u cant, those files are in rom and belong to the operation system.
You can possibly
Check out this link. You have to do a hard reset first
http://wiki.howardforums.com/pocketpc/index.php/Selectively_Bypassing_the_Extended_ROM
Device manufacturers are beginning to place unnecessary third party software preloaded onto PDA's, the same way computers come from the factory. Unfortunately, this new software is often buggy and of questionable usefulness. Also, there is no clean way to remove some of this third party software once it is installed. The best way to keep it from making your device buggy is never to install it in the first place.
Unfortunately, since many devices have no way to edit the Extended ROM since it is locked, we need a way around it. This How to details how we can get around the Extended ROM by soft resetting before it gets a chance to install and then selectively running the cab files with a nifty little program called Total Commander.
1. The first step to selectively bypassing your Extended ROM is to download Total Commander from here:
http://ghisler.fileburst.com/ce/tcmdpocketarm.cab
You need to take this file and place it on a storage card on your device. You can do this by syncing your device, opening up my computer double clicking on mobile device, double clicking on My Windows Mobile-Based Device, and then Double Clicking on the Storage Card. Copy the CAB file there, but DO NOT INSTALL IT ON YOUR SYSTEM.
2. The next step is hard reseting your device. Since all devices are different, I can't explain how to do this precisely. On my Windows Mobile 5.0 device, I just goto Programs then tap Clear Storage, and watch the device reset. After it resets, the Windows Mobile menu will come up and ask you to align the screen, teach you how to copy and paste. When it ends, a Screen will come up and tell you that configuration is finished and tell you to tap to continue. Now pay attention, timing is crucial. As soon as you tap to continue, you need to soft reset your device before the device customization menu gets a chance to install. You don't want the extended rom to begin installing.
3. Now after the device hard resets, you should get the today screen. If you don't and you're back in the align screen section then you should complete it again and soft reset a little bit later than when you started. If it says device customizing then soft reset immediately, before anything gets installed. From the Today Screen you need to goto Start>Programs>File Explorer. In File Explorer, navigate to your storage card and run the total commander cab. Total Commander should now install. After it's installed, goto Start>Programs and open it.
4. Now type "\Extended_ROM\" (match exact case) into the location bar of total commander to make your Extended_ROM suddenly appear. From this screen you will see the cab files . Choose the CAB files you would like to install. You have now bypassed the Extended ROM. You have some choices now. If you are like me and don't want specific programs to install such as antivirus, skype and backgammon. Run every cab, but those specific cabs. They won't install and muck up your system and you will be all set. If you want to do research and only install the cabs you need you can do that too. Sites like XDA-Developers often keeps lists of all cab files found in device extended roms and what each file does so you can decide what you want and what you don't.
Hope this helps you out
I can't seem to figure out how people restore their apps, data, ActiveSync, etc. after updating their ROMs. It seems like people on this site replace their ROMs a few times a year at least, and with all the cleverness required to follow all the ROM issues, surely you can't all be manually re-installing every single app every time, etc. Are there some tools I don't know about that are useful for backing up/restoring files before/after ROM burn? Every backup program I see says you must not use it to restore after ROM update (which I understand, since you don't want to restore old versions of many key files). But surely someone could create a backup/restore app which knows which things should NOT be restored.
Thanks!
I do rom upgrades quite frequently, now I can have my device back with my settings and programs installed in around 10 minutes, here's what I did:
1)Install registry workshop on your desktop computer, this program allows you to remotely browse / export the registry on the PocketPC and compare current regitry settings on PocketPC with a previously dumped registry file.
2) Install RegDiff on your desktop computer, it allows you to generate .reg files out of two exported registry dumps done by registry workshop.
3) Spend a few hours going setting-by-setting and exporting the registry after changing each setting, compare and generate .reg file for that. Keep in mind that sometimes you need to power off the device for a while or soft reset for the registry setting to be permanently stored.
4) Once you have all the .reg files for your settings combine them in a single .reg file
5) Use WinCE Cab Manager to combine the cabs of all the programs you install, set the registry settings, and put shorcuts to all applications into the right places. This is the most "time consuming" part of the process.
Finally I end up with 2 big cab files:
- First one is around 9Mb which I install on pocketpc memory, this includes all today screen plugins, plus Net CF 2.1 and some registry settings (mostly WM5 settings and preferences from the today plugins)
- Second one is around 25Mb which i install on storage card, this includes all the other 3rd party apps I like and registry settings for those apps.
What I do after hard reset or rom upgrade: Install the two cab files, setup mail accounts and mms manually and use directpush to sync all my contacts and calendar items again.
The process of exporting all the registry settings is a PITA, but it is worth spending the time if you're going to switch roms frequently.
Look for an app called Sprite Backup.
pkx said:
Look for an app called Sprite Backup.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yup, Sprite is the easiest. Be warned, however, that it isn't able to restore PIM databases over the AKU3 upgrade. See my Backup Bible, where I;ve explained this all.
Wow, thanks. That's a lot of work to get things set up! Clearly worth it if you can re-install everything in 10 minutes, though.
I started to investigate your recommendations, installed Cab Manager, and see how you use that.
How do you get the cabs if the install isn't directly via cab? In other words, if the install is initiated via ActiveSync, then are the necessary cabs always found under the Program Files\ActiveSync directory?
As for Sprite Backup, it looks great, and maybe that would be enough for me for now. I wasn't clear (I did search through and skim the Backup Bible and the WM5 backup software comparisons but couldn't find exactly where it talked about the issue regarding AKU3) is the PIM issue a known bug? Or some limitation/problem related to new security or something?
Quincy
quinxy said:
How do you get the cabs if the install isn't directly via cab? In other words, if the install is initiated via ActiveSync, then are the necessary cabs always found under the Program Files\ActiveSync directory?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If it's installed via activesync you can find them there, but generally what I do is extract the cab files from the exe using orange in Linux, don't know if there's a windows equivalent.
pof,
Don't know if you ever ActiveSync since you use Linux, but is there a way to NOT break your ActiveSync by upgrading your ROM? I thought I tried once, years ago, to set the device name back to the original name and ActiveSync still didn't recognize it as the old partnership.
quincy
quinxy said:
pof,
Don't know if you ever ActiveSync since you use Linux, but is there a way to NOT break your ActiveSync by upgrading your ROM? I thought I tried once, years ago, to set the device name back to the original name and ActiveSync still didn't recognize it as the old partnership.
quincy
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If it doesn't recognize it, just delete the old partnership and recreate / reconfigure it . It's just some seconds.
Is possible to group several cabs in one cab?
I want it to save in the Extended Rom of my TyTn, so that when I do a HardReset, automatic it starts to install all the modifications of registry and some programs that I have in several cabs from the pocket, without need of pc.
I search on the forum, but I don´t find any solution.
Thanks
Well first off, if you use the autorun.exe that already exists in the extended ROM and modify its configuration file (the name may be different for different devices, but it is usually a plain text file) you can get it to install several cabs in sequence.
Combining cabs is not always possible unless you are the one who created them in the first place.
Get a program called CE Cab Manager. It will show you everything that a given cab includes and let you edit it. As long as it's just files and registry settings there is no problem stuffing them all in one cab.
But if a two cabs contain a setup.dll there is no way of combining them without knowing exactly what that DLL does (it could be anything) and thats almost impossible (unless you can read ARM assembler well).
tristan1412 said:
Is possible to group several cabs in one cab?
I want it to save in the Extended Rom of my TyTn, so that when I do a HardReset, automatic it starts to install all the modifications of registry and some programs that I have in several cabs from the pocket, without need of pc.
I search on the forum, but I don´t find any solution.
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
what levenum said is correct... so the best thing for you to do is to edit the config.txt file in your extended rom to have them install... HOWEVER if the cabs you are using arent digitally signed then they wont install using that method, you would need to disable the security first... Since no one has a signed disable security cab that works with the tytn the only option would be to do this on a hard reset; soft reset before the customization, when it boots run the tweak program to disable security, then go to the windows directory and manually launch the preautoconfig.exe
software alternatives
tristan1412, you can also use a software dedicated to this task.
check spb airsetup (www.spbsoftwarehouse.com, i'm not sure if it allows more then one cab), or even better airwizard (http://www.teksoftco.com/index.php?section=airwizard)
the advantage of these programs is in my opinion the compression. then you also get several options like readme/eula (with airwizard you have spash image support and even sd card output support - that creates autorun content for the sdcard)
hope this helps
RM
shogunmark said:
....HOWEVER if the cabs you are using arent digitally signed then they wont install using that method, you would need to disable the security first...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
First of all, thanks for the answers.
now, How can signed digitally my own cabs??
Hey all,
I have a question.
I have been playing with my 8125 a lot lately and am constantly resetting my device. What I want to know is I have one main machine that I do all my application installs via active sync that way when I hard reset my device I just have to go to add remove programs in active sync and re-check all the programs I want to put back on my phone.
Here is what I want.
I don’t want to have to tell the phone where to install the applications (I want it to default to storage card without any prompts.) and.. I don’t want any confirmation prompts ie: security unsigned, approve this application to be installed, this application was installed properly… etc.. I want to streamline the process so I can just tick the check boxes for my apps, let them download and that’s it. Currently after refreshing I have to spend quite a bit of time clicking “ok” … storage card…. Ok… storage card… ok… I think you get it.
Thanks much!
I've seen a lot of different reg keys out there that may accomplis this. Is there a way to disable the notifications and pre-set the install path peramaters?
sledwrecker said:
I've seen a lot of different reg keys out there that may accomplis this. Is there a way to disable the notifications and pre-set the install path peramaters?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can do this with WinCE Cab manager
If you really reset your device that often why don't you use SPB BACKUP? A reinstallation of all your apps wouldn't be necessary - just load your backup and you're ready to go!
Ya I did think of that but here is my issue.
the reason I am constantly hard reseting is because I am changing and playing with roms pretty much on a daily basis. I've been cooking my own roms trying to come up with what works best for me and what is closest to RTM. Thus why I am always re-installing apps.
So if I use SPB backup (which I have) it saves system settings and such right? So if I am switching roms all the time will it break my device?
Thanks guys! I'm new to the forum here I just got my first PPC phone a couple weeks ago but I've been an avid windows mobile (smartphone) user for years and have worked on WM platforms as beta tester.
Gotta love this stuff!!!
sledwrecker said:
So if I use SPB backup (which I have) it saves system settings and such right? So if I am switching roms all the time will it break my device?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes you are exactly right, and so many people seem to miss this... Spb Backup, Sprite Backup, etc are full backups that backup and restore the registry and all. If you restore this from one rom to a different rom you are likely to break something (may not be obvious at first, but you have a very good chance of things being broken inside the registry that you will trip up on at some point).
So yeah, the only way around this (without building your own extended rom and such) is to create a folder (or set of folders) on your SD card with all the cabs, files, and settings that you need for when your flash a new rom. Then run through that to set things up. You can also use ActiveSync to reinstall apps (just check them all and it will put them all back on) but you have to remember which ones (if any) require a reset of your device as that can cause probs with the others that are installing (if all done together).
Yep,
but at least you can import contacts, email and pim data that way quite easy!
Since you continiously flash your device: there will be no other solution but reinstalling your applications again and again. You might want to look around for a CAB extractor and then create your own CABs with all the progs you would like to have in one large CAB ???
One such CAB Installer Creator is: WinCE CAB Manager
Take a closer look at MolskiBiz_DevPack and you will find a utility to extract CAB files. It will be a bit work to add all the registry values to the Installer you're going to create but finally you might save a lot of time since you only run 1 installation instead of xxx ...
This is good, I have been playing with wince cab and it is a solution.
Now I'm going to work on making my extended roms.. will this work? I did a full recover of my apps through active sync just an hour or two ago and it reported total size of all cabs as just over 112megs. That means I'd be flashing a MONSTER rom and would it even be possible?
2gig mini SD card.
thanks
I tried before to add some apps (cab installers) to a personalized extended rom but it never worked the way I wanted it to. You might have seen that you always have to give some inputs when ever you install programs, sometimes you get ask if you really want to install the app, sometimes you need to choose a location. So, if you add CAB installers UNCHANGED to the extended ROM it just won't install because during extended rom installation you have no way of providing that information.
Development of User Customization/Provisioning App
In setting up my Kaiser, I want to use User Customization, to auto-install cabs and provisioning files for my personal settings. And to save precious device memory, non-essential apps are installed to the Storage Device, and only critical or continually running apps are stored in main memory. I believe this is a common setup.
Have other people found that getting this kind of setup is not trivial? Retargeting cabs for auto-installation to the storage card, and testing if this actually works for that application is a non-trivial task given the number of cabs available, and these efforts don't seem to be shared much between users. I've seen just a handful of SD-retargeted apps at xda-developers.
Keeping up with all the latest updates and tweaks also takes considerable effort and searching. The excellent chefs do a truly fantastic job with cooking ROMs with the latest apps built in, but burning a whole new ROM to get the latest update is inconvenient, particularly if your settings are not yet set up for easy restore via provisioning. The HTC cab collections by Dutty and others make this process easier by putting it all in one place, but you still have to download each cab install it and then try to keep track of which version you last installed, and of course this doesn’t address all the non-HTC apps that you might have on your device.
Building provisioning files for your persinalized settings is challenging to say the least, as the documentation for provisioning service configuration providers is sparse and doesn’t cover all the features. Making these provisioning files by hand can be involved (e.g. see the description for getting the Owner ID details into an XML file in the main UC thread.)
These are the main issues I’ve experienced trying to set up my Kaiser. Configuring a device with UC, apps installed to the SD and with provisonined settings and keeping the whole updated is a very time consuming task, and requires several tools to accomplish (WceCabManager, RapiConfig, SDConfig Tool etc..). Have others experienced this? If not, I’d like to hear what solutions people have used.
If this is a problem for others, then I would like to start collaboration on an application that can help simplify using UC and SD deployment and creating provisioning files as well as keeping installed applications up to date, and sharing knowledge about the applications.
The key features of the application would be:
• Runs on the PC. Maintains a local repository of CABs and provisioning files. User adds apps and settings to the repository either manually, or by downloading from a repository.
• Provisioning templates – similar to the XML file for KaiserTweak – describes provisioning characteristics that are available for tweaking or querying from the device. Querying settings from the device allows you to configure the device as normal (using the device UI) and then “suck” those settings out of the device into a provisioning file. You can then create a new provisioning file from the provisioning template for deployment to your device. (Anyone who's set up Wifi via hand-written provisioning xml knows what a time-saver this is!)
• metadata for CABs and provisioning templates in remote repositories: e.g. versions available, edition of CAB to install to SD, does installation require user input?, known issues for each version, etc.
• CABs and settings can be bundled into a Recipe for easier management. (E.g. all HTC apps.) Provisioning templates for the application can be bundled in the recipe, so users can install app and get a list of available registry tweaks for that app.
• Connection to a central repository for downloading updates to items in the local repository and discovering new CABs, templates etc.
• User builds their own local recipies containing cabs, provisioning files and other pre-cooked recipes to configure their device with apps and settings as desired.
• Deploy now: deploy selected items device now. (Given that a recipe can contain other recipes and cabs and provisioning files this can save a lot of work manually copying and running these on the device.)
• User customization: Build SDConfig.txt from selected items, and sync all files needed to SD.
• The features above are intended to be used by regular users. There will be tools for recipe concocters (advanced mode):
o Tool to retarget CAB to different installation path, or to indicate in metadata that this does not work.
o Build new Provisioning Templates
o Putting cabs and settings into a Recipe
o Updates to the repository
While there are already tools that can do bits and pieces of this, a turnkey solution would be much easier to use for novice users. The repository metadata allows valuable knowledge to be shared, e.g. versions available, SD-install, installer requires input, known issues etc. and I believe is an important feature that will make provisioning and keeping devices up to date with the latest CABs and registry tweaks much simpler.
In terms of development, I imagine the app will initially be a stringing together of existing tools, with tighter integration implemented as necessary in future revisions.
Does this seem like the right direction? Is it a problem worth solving? Let me know your thoughts. I'd like to kick this off on SourceForge if it resonates with others.
I hope you've done a search, because there already is a program that builds SDConfig.txt's for you. It's actually linked to in Sleuth's thread about UC.
I quick one before I take lunch!
I've done a search (in fact I've been reading and searching the forum/wiki for weeks, with great success in some areas and limited success in others.) SDConfig is a great tool, (I reference it in my post about one of the tools that we might bundle together in the app) but it only paints one part of the picture (Making SDConfig.txt). For a complete solution to SD-installed apps and convenient privisioning, we need more. Much of the solution (apart from the central repo) is available amongst many assorted apps, and that's the problem - users have to grab apps from here and there, figure out how to use them together, and then the work they do is just available on their device. There is no saving of that work for others to share and contribute.
So, when someone makes a version of a CAB that is customized for SD install, it would be great if that can be saved to a repository so other's don't have to replicate that work. Or if the user found the cab didn't work from SD the metadata in the repo indicates that this cab does not work from SD. When using a cab with SDConfig, we need to know if it requires user interaction. Again metadata in a repo can specify this to save each user having to make a note of this when building their UC config.
The repo also makes checking for updates an automatic process.
Finally, anyone that has worked with privisioing files knows what a pain they can be to create and manage. There are many useful tweaks already documented, so provisioning files for these would be useful, to reapply tweaks after flashing. And keeping track of all the tweaks made to a device during normal use and adding them to a provisioning file to making them available after flasing takes much committment. A orovisioning template can ease this task by documenting user-editable parts of the registry and fetching changes from the device.
In a nutshell, I'm looking at creating an app that brings the features from the other apps together, and adds time saving features, and collaboration via a repository. This is motivated by the amount of work it takes to get the common configuration of SD-installed apps and provisioning tailored to an individuals needs, and in keeping with updates to installed applications.
I hope this is clarifying!
Very quiet here!
I'd really like a response, so let's take an example in detail.
How do you install GoogleMaps to your storage card?
Here's how I did it:
1. download googlemaps.cab to the PC
2. install googlemaps - when prompted for the install location, choose "Storage Device".
3. Let google maps install.
4. Disspointment that on finding that even after selecting install to storage device, googlemaps is installed to \Program Files and not \Storage Card\Program Files.
5. Download and run WinCeCabManager
6. Open the googlemaps cab in WinCeCabManager
7. Because the CAB does not use %InstallDir% to reference the default installation directory, we much change all file locations, shortcut targets and those registry values that refer to installed files.
8. Save the cab and deploy it to the device.
Step 7 - retarteting all the files, shortcuts and applicable registry values is a real pain. Changing the default installation folder is not enough, because this information is not passed on to the individual files and registry entries.
Does anyone have a quicker solution? Surely most people think it's inconvenient to retarget apps to the SD like this?
This is just one piece of the puzzle, but an app that retargets CABs to the storage device would save much time and energy. E.g. something like
1. right click on CAB on PC. Choose "Install to Device"
2. A dialog offers option to install to storage device, and other install details (remove after install, no UI etc...)
3. Hit OK, and the CAB is retargeted to the chosen location and installed to the device.
I can write this app, but I would like some confirmation that it's the right strategy - I've owned my kaiser for about a month and hope this isn't re-inventing the wheel or that there is already a simple solution available to all this inconvenience with cab installation to SD.
Your feedback appreciated!
auto installer
I had written some basic application to provide auto installation and extraction of provisioning settings. But progress is slower than ideal due to other commitments, so I will probably abandon this effort.
There's an auto installer here that is much along the lines of what I was thinking.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=392983
I hadn't seen this thread before now, but you seem to be going to a lot of effort to find ways of re targeting CAB installers. The easiest way of setting up cabs is install them manually to the Storage Card and then manually get any registry settings/links to files from the device and install those via UC. This saves remaking cabs, and saves time when UC is running as you only need copy the lnks to the device and install an XML file with registry tweaks.
l3v5y said:
I hadn't seen this thread before now, but you seem to be going to a lot of effort to find ways of re targeting CAB installers. The easiest way of setting up cabs is install them manually to the Storage Card and then manually get any registry settings/links to files from the device and install those via UC. This saves remaking cabs, and saves time when UC is running as you only need copy the lnks to the device and install an XML file with registry tweaks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for your comment. I'm puzzled why you think my approach takes a lot of effort - once the application is written, then it works for all cabs, and it's not really a complex app. (The retargeting part is done.)
My feeling is that manually doing anything with CABs is a PITA when new versions are being released almost continually. Why do anything manually when the device can do it for you?
My vision for the app is more than just retargeting cabs, it would manage applications, track new versions with updates, manage XML provisioning files (updating the XML files when you make changes on the device.) So you can set up the device, and have a zero-effort process to save all settings and apps, and restore those settings to a new ROM.
qmdm said:
Thanks for your comment. I'm puzzled why you think my approach takes a lot of effort - once the application is written, then it works for all cabs, and it's not really a complex app. (The retargeting part is done.)
My feeling is that manually doing anything with CABs is a PITA when new versions are being released almost continually. Why do anything manually when the device can do it for you?
My vision for the app is more than just retargeting cabs, it would manage applications, track new versions with updates, manage XML provisioning files (updating the XML files when you make changes on the device.) So you can set up the device, and have a zero-effort process to save all settings and apps, and restore those settings to a new ROM.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I guess it's partly to do with the fact that what I install changes alot from ROM to ROM, so I don't like to have things already installed. My point is, though, that if you install the cab onto the storage card manually before hard reseting/flashing a ROM, you don't have to do that again until an update is released, this saves reinstalling apps to the storage card each time a new ROM is flashed.
Ok, I see, that's certainly one way of saving time.
My initial impression was that manual tweaking for each app would be inconvenient and time-consuming. Obviously, you are happy with the manual approach, and that's the kind of feedback I was looking for!
If anyone else has thoughts on manually tweaking appsvs an automated solution, I'd be happy to hear them!
Cheers.