Database Users

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.

Icon changing question.

I just flashed a new rom, and am in the process of making some custom shortcuts for the start menu, in order to implement them into my programs tab on TF2d.
How does one go about changing the icons displayed by actual WM (and in turn, TF2d)? Again, I'm not talking about about UL, IFonz, Hi-nav, SPB Pocketplus, or anything that has a icon changing function already in place. If it were that cut and dried, I wouldnt be asking. The goal here to to use some of bluemetalaxe's icons to replace the generic DOS looking icons that you get when you create your own shortcut.
Could anyone here point me in the right direction? Previous searches have only netted results for the aforemention programs, and the only place you really see customized Windows Mobile icons are in cooked roms. Surely there is a way to do this without having to cook, im not in the mood to do THAT much tweaking.
Thanks in advance,
Colin

Yes - this is a relatively hard topic to find & understand from this forum. But through a bit of patience, it can be done.
Here you can read how to change icons for folders:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=339405&highlight=icons
For icons for individual files, I sort of learned by myself (read ^ that thread first):
Select an icon from your .dll
Select a setting or program to link to
Then, simply create a .lnk file that is structured like this example [for wi-fi settings]:
1#ctlpnl cplmain.cpl,17?\Windows\custicons.dll,-186

Thanks alot man, I appreciate your help. I'm saving that info to notepad for the archives, lol.

^ yeah no problem dude.
That's what I did - all the important info is stored away

{template} TF3D HD manila PSD file

http://rapidshare.com/files/189717709/TF3D_HD_Template.zip
Here you'll find a Photoshop file with basically all screen elements of the TF3D HD manila interface present.
Unless I've missed something all icons/button/etc are present except for the weather section. I've only included the main icons there so you can put your flag on the moon..
If somebody feels like mapping out every raindrop like in this psd file, please let me know so I can update the file
The bmp files of the photo and video sub menu's are present as well.
These will go in the windows directory.
I plan to add the blackstone dialer .. but am not sure it's that much needed.
The main idea was to map out the Manila files.
I've build it from itjes Full HD cab for the X1. As far as I know it should work for all other touch HD manila setups..
import/export
I've used the mode9editor to extract all png's.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=3095189&postcount=1
The mode9editor has a batch import/export function.
When you use the layer names in the PSD file you're able to batch import all icons you'll change.
Transparency
Most icons will have either a red pixel line border or at least 2 red pixels at the corners.
This way you can select the alpha channel of the layer, crop your image and have to correct dimensions for the png/qtc file.
All you then need to do is remove the red pixel before saving.
For 99.9% of the images you can do it by a color select unless your new theme will be red
Buttons
All buttons that have a press and rest stage have been linked to each other and put on top of each other. In the corresponding layer you'll notice this soon enough
Tiny pixel files
There are a few images that are 1x1 or 2x2 pixels. These are present and I've tried to make all layers in logic order to be easy to find.
Some pixels are 100% transparent and therefor red which was easier to find
Batch PSD export
There is need to find or create a photoshop action that will:
- select layer
- crop by alpha selection
- remove red pixel
- export by layer name
- repeat this process for all layers
If there's anyone out there that can help me make such an action please do. As I have limited experience in advanced photoshop actions
All suggestions and help (especially with the photoshop actions) are welcome!
With a little help this can be an easy automated template for our own redesigning fetish

Odd. I never had those red lines when extracting the .png files. I used manila editor 0.2. I guess Mode9editor messes it up.

Angelusz said:
Odd. I never had those red lines when extracting the .png files. I used manila editor 0.2. I guess Mode9editor messes it up.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hehehe.. I put those there myself
this is the fastest way to incorporate the exact dimensions and icon location within a file

Oh I see.. that's not very convenient now then, is it?
I wouldn't know of an easy way to get rid of them. If you get it done, it's handy though, I've got 140 seperate files, sorted per folder on my PC atm xD

Angelusz said:
Oh I see.. that's not very convenient now then, is it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The thought behind is to get a photoshop action to select the whole layer and then 1. make selection by red color & delete selected / 2. select layer, crop, select all, extract 1 pixel, invert and delete selected.
By hand this is allot.. bij when automated it could work.
But true.. in theory it's perfect, in practice i've noticed it's not yet
Since I made a new layer to create the icon I have to find a way to automatically select the corresponding layer that will make the size fit.. but cannot do this without java scripted action.
So untill I meet someone who wants to help and is good at photshop java action it will only be a nice concept
but having the file names in the layers to copy/paste does help me for quick batching.
but I agree.. not yet the fastest methode.
although I personally prefer it over 140 different files to work from, but this is also cuz I render my icons in 3d all at 1 time.

thread ends here
and will be continued here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=477268

lost icon images

hi
i'm just after installing the cookie monster manila mod and have been playing around with my htc hd2 but i think i'm prob after deleting some files i shouldn't have.
when i press the windows hard key the following programs have just text boxes now in place of the boxes with images that were there before.
HTC_Footprints
HTC_People
HTC_Calender
HTC_Music
HTC_Twitter
how do i get these icons back looking how they originally were?
i just have empty white boxes now in the place where i used have nice application images. i'm annoyed with myself for fiddling wit and i'm wondering what else i've messed up.
Thanks for any help

willembanna said:
hi
i'm just after installing the cookie monster manila mod and have been playing around with my htc hd2 but i think i'm prob after deleting some files i shouldn't have.
when i press the windows hard key the following programs have just text boxes now in place of the boxes with images that were there before.
HTC_Footprints
HTC_People
HTC_Calender
HTC_Music
HTC_Twitter
how do i get these icons back looking how they originally were?
i just have empty white boxes now in the place where i used have nice application images. i'm annoyed with myself for fiddling wit and i'm wondering what else i've messed up.
Thanks for any help
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
.........................................................
just copy the image files for the selected programs and paste them into the root of your start menu folder within windows. There are quite a few variations of nicely designed ones in the forum. alternatively you can just use some compiled cabs from dinik or drik...
or just follow link
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=639163

[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