Database Users

HELP. How to: control panel entry?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Can anyone please help?

How can i create a shortcut to Program & Setting Folders in Start menu

How can i create a shortcut to "Program Folder " & for "Setting Folder" in Start menu .. as example make the right soft key open setting folder and the left one open programs

Bro' use this - WM 5 NewMenu

Programs > Create shortcut to \Windows\Start Menu\Programs

Dr.Mazika said:
How can i create a shortcut to "Program Folder " & for "Setting Folder" in Start menu .. as example make the right soft key open setting folder and the left one open programs
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You should have two programs in your \Windows folder, one called "htcPrograms.exe" and the other is "htcSettings.exe" These programs open the folder that is implied in their name, so if you create a shortcut to these programs it should work. Thay are down a bit.
T M Z

tmz said:
You should have two programs in your \Windows folder, one called "htcPrograms.exe" and the other is "htcSettings.exe" These programs open the folder that is implied in their name, so if you create a shortcut to these programs it should work. Thay are down a bit.
T M Z
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No htcSettings.exe Or htcPrograms.exe
Any Help

Without that htcsettings file I don't think anything will work. And I also don't have that file. I just know that I've tried making a shortcut to the "settings folder" before and no one seemed to know how. The problem is its not actually a "folder". It's something else. You can make shortcuts to the individual .cpls but not the whole "folder"... The programs folder is actually a folder so you can just make a shortcut to that but the settings is a whole other ball game. If you figure it that that'll be great!

Do you have the file \Windows\folderview.exe? If so, this works on my Touch XL to shortcut to the programs listing - icon list, just as if you press programs in the start menu.

Hey guys, these two shortcuts exist. Go to windows, it's not in a folder, but down below the folders. Use your sidebar and scroll it half way down. Start looking for those two. Their about 3 to 4 files apart from each other. Roughly in alphabetical order. After you find them hold down on them with your stylus and copy them to whereever your like to create a shortcut for them. i copy them both to my documents and had no problem creating shortcuts to both of them. Hop that helps. I tried posting a picture. I just can't get it to copy in this bo

This is it.

not exist in my windows folder

Dr.Mazika said:
not exist in my windows folder
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
what WM are you running?

am i missing something here, or can't tmz just post those two files from his/her windows folder? it'd be much faster than going through asking people what ROM they're running, etc.

tmz said:
This is it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This? T M Z
I'm some what new at this. I don't know what you mean by "post the files." I thought the picture showing the files in windows is what you were looking for.

try these apps. copy them to any folder and create a shortcut. works perfectly

here are the two programs
just install them where you want

woops, someone already posted files!

asefsef said:
woops, someone already posted files!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is the one.
The setting icons have a quite large text, but it is ok.
Folderwiev for programs looks perfect on duttys rom 3.x

Number of icons per row
Thanks - great applications.
In my regular settings, I have changed registry settings so that I get 4 icons per row (Horizontal icon spacing, vertical icon spacing). How do I do that for these programs? Is there a parameter I can pass to them? Or can your program read those values from the registry and adapt the display accordingly?

Hi, Guys, if you don't want to add any additional apps to your phone, here's the pure-shortcuts way:
Please check these two threads for more info:
In this thread ([Guide] How to create .LNK files and use parameters) you'll know how to make a full set of shorcuts for all control-panel settings items, and a ready-made set already there.
In this thread (Control Panel links and icons wm2003se and higher) you can also know how to associate those shortcuts with system icons.
Hence, for 'settings', just creat a new folder in \windows\start menu\programs\ named 'settings' and put inside all the control panel shortcuts.
Edit: The advantage of this wayis: You can map any single item of settings into the softkeys or a hardware button. So shortcuts become shortcut to your target within one touch.
For 'programs', just create a shortcut for the folder \windows\start menu\programs\ inside the folder itself.

Thank you egoist6 for Files
You saved me from HardReset
My problem was crushed manila and no settings shortcut in ROM, there is no htcsettings.exe , no settings.exe , no cplmain.cpl
thank you

WM 6.5 Start Menu Utility Request

Maybe an app already exists that does this, but searching hasn't revealed anything, so...
It's easy enough to add new folders to to the WM 6.5 Start Menu by creating them in
\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\
From there, one can copy/move individual .lnk files into a folder so that everything of a type would be there.
Is there a preferably finger friendly app that will allow us to create folders then sort .lnk files easily? Right now it can be done using Total Commander, but it seems quite laborious, especially if one is in the habit of installing new ROMs every couple of weeks.
An added bonus would be something that let us pick icons for these folders.

HComber is a WM6.5 app that does this. It allows users to change icons for different shortcuts/folders but doesn't allow the rearranging of shortcuts.
If you want to change the icon folder just place a .lnk to the icon/dll. For Example you have a icon in a dll called shine2.dll in your windows folder you would use this for icon number 18:
Code:
1#Shine2.dll,-18
Just use notepad to edit lnk files. Theres a tutorial on the forum somewhere if you want more information.

Aegishua said:
HComber is a WM6.5 app that does this. It allows users to change icons for different shortcuts/folders but doesn't allow the rearranging of shortcuts
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, downloading now!

Disable Settings / System icons

Hi,
As part of my customization process, I would like to disable some icons from the Setting menu's of WM6.5 (not TouchFlo).
I managed to remove a lot of icons through the registry settings in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Speech, by moving them to a non-existing group (Group=3). This works fine.
However, some of the icons in Settings/System do not appear below this registry key, such as External GPS, Encryption, Remove programs... Is there a way to remove these as well?
Alternatively, removing the entire Settings menu would also be fine. My first approach, deleting the Settings folder from \Windows\StartMenu causes the entire Start Menu to appear empty!
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
UPDATE: I managed to remove the Encryption icon by ADDING an 'Encryption' key to the ControlPanel part of the registry. Other icons I haven't so far. I suppose the key lies in correct names.
How can I obtain the names for:
Managed Programs
External GPS
Error reports
Memory
Info
Country Settings
Regional Settings
Microsoft My PHone
Remove programs
Screen
Task Manager
Connection settings
??

Setting HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Security\Shell\StartInfo:HideSettings to 1 hides the Settings folder from the Start Menu. That fixes my problem for now!

I rather choose to "hide" my icons.
You can do this by changing the registry like this:
Code:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\ControlPanel\Encryption]
"Group"=dword:00000002
"Hide"=dword:00000001
This will hide the Encrption icon in the Settings panel. I use this on the Rhodium, Blackstone, Diamond etc. but it should also work on the HD2 I guess

mccune,
The "hide" could be done for entries that are present in HKLM\ControlPanel like Encryption. For those entries that DO NOT EXIST in ControlPanel but whose icons appear in Settings like "Microsoft My Phone", do you have any idea how to suppress them?
Thanks for your assistance.

Noticed there are also some numbers in that registry key. Guess you'll have to trial and error a little to see what number corresponds to what icon.
I'm still looking for a way to hide the "Managed Programs" icon ;-)

Perhaps this program can help you out.....either hide the icons or put them away in a folder......

This program only applies to WM6.5 and also just to the Start Menu. It's fairly easy to remove icons from the Start Menu, just delete the LNK file in \Windows\Start Menu\
The discussion was about the icons in Settings. Most of these files are CPL files.

mccune,
It's exactly that! The file underlying that icon is Windows\MyPhoneLauncher.cpl for the application "Microsoft My Phone". I tried a number of ways to rename the file, rename the extension CPL in CPL2, move the file to other folder, even delete the file in order to remove it from Settings/System but always failed.
The file appears protected as part of the ROM. This is the 2nd day I'm after this problem and I still see no light...
(I tried to use the tool JWMDIconChanger but it doesn't work. Thanks anyway.)

mccune said:
I'm still looking for a way to hide the "Managed Programs" icon ;-)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Does anyone know the name of the .cpl file, or the name of the registry key in \HKey_Local_Machine\ControlPanel\, for "Managed Programs"?
I looked, but can't find anything that even remotely looks like "Managed Programs".

Start Menu Icons - Location

Hi All,
I've added a couple of folders into my HD2's Start Menu and sadly they resemble the old folder icon from 6.1.
Is there a location of the images for the stock folders? I noticed there is an "icon.ink" in the Games folder, pointing to:
"shellres.dll,-8229"
The other folders don't seem to have this shortcut in them, but they have the 6.5 (or Sense?) style icons also.
Does anyone know the location, physically or within the .dll mentioned above for the other folder icons?
I'm using Total Commander, so if that misses the other folders' icon shortcuts, please let me know.

Custom icons of folders and files in Start menu are assigned with string "Icon" in corresponding keys here:
HKLM\Security\Shell\StartInfo\Start
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So if there is a stock icon in your start menu, you can look its location and copy it for your new folder.

B.Maximenko said:
Icons for folders and files in Start menu are determined by string "Icon" in
So if there is a stock icon in your start menu, you can look its location and copy to your new folder.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Excellent, thanks!
Will take a gander and report back.

B.Maximenko said:
Custom icons of folders and files in Start menu are assigned with string "Icon" in corresponding keys here:
So if there is a stock icon in your start menu, you can look its location and copy it for your new folder.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Right, Ok.
All Icons changed and a few menus reordered. Thanks for your help!

I forgot to mention that you can also use software to make it easier. I use JWMD (search it here, I can't post a link) to reorder the icons. As for icons, I saved my customization to a .reg file and import it every time I do a hard reset.
By the way it is very comvinient to gather all the preferences into one .reg to easily restore custom settings after HR. I dump entire registry before and after changing some settings and compare the two .regs with my svn client which has a good tool for looking difference between two text files. Offtopic, anyway, but I'm happy with my "idea" and hasten to share it.
Glad my reply helped.