[XAP][SOURCE] WP8 Registry Tools - Windows Phone 8 Development and Hacking

Rebranded to WP8 Registry Tools from Lumia Registry Modifier
This is a basic registry viewer/editor demonstration using Registry dlls pulled from Nokia xaps within the latest FFUs.
First, a few things to note.
1) This only retrieves values from HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
2) It CAN read DWORD values now, but can't write. (Hell you probably won't be able to write ANYWHERE, but the code is there)
Instructions are quite simple.
To Read Values:
1) Put the Registry key in the first box (ex. SOFTWARE\Classes\MIME\Database\Codepage\1254
2) Put the Registry Value in the second box (ex. 1254)
3) Press Get Value.
To Set Values:
1) Put the Registry key in the first box (ex. SOFTWARE\Classes\MIME\Database\Codepage\1254
2) Put the Registry Value in the second box (ex. 1254)
3) Put the new registry value result in the Set Value box.
4) Press Set Value.
This is very very basic, but I wanted to just show off something using what Nokia has provided us.
We can't write dword values unfortunately so hopes of using this to change the MaxUnsignedApp value are lost. This MAY be possible with @GoodDayToDie 's WP8NativeAccess library, but with this it isn't.
In case everyone wondered what that key is... SOFTWARE\Microsoft\DeviceReg\Install
Side load away

Hmm... I get Access Denied in my library on most keys that I've tried to write. If you can write the codepage, that's interesting (generally speaking, HKLM has stronger protections). I'll double-check whether I can write there myself. If not, but you can, then we have an elevated privilege attack vector...
Also, we should see whether the app runs on non-Nokia devices. I suspect that it will, if it works the way I think it does, but in that case it also won't have much in the way of permissions.
Getting DWORDs to work is a good project, I'm sure it's possible (works fine in NativeAccess, incidentally).
EDIT: Any chance you could include the source?

snickler said:
This is a basic registry viewer/editor demonstration using Nokia's Native Registry dll pulled from one of their apps.
First, a few things to note.
1) This only retrieves values from HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
2) DWord values aren't supported.
Instructions are quite simple.
To Read Values:
1) Put the Registry key in the first box (ex. SOFTWARE\Classes\MIME\Database\Codepage\1254
2) Put the Registry Value in the second box (ex. 1254)
3) Press Get Value.
To Set Values:
1) Put the Registry key in the first box (ex. SOFTWARE\Classes\MIME\Database\Codepage\1254
2) Put the Registry Value in the second box (ex. 1254)
3) Put the new registry value result in the Set Value box.
4) Press Set Value.
This is very very basic, but I wanted to just show off something using what Nokia has provided us.
This doesn't seem to work with dword values unfortunately so hopes of using this to change the MaxUnsignedApp value are lost. This MAY be possible with @GoodDayToDie 's WP8NativeAccess library, but with this it isn't.
In case everyone wondered what that key is... SOFTWARE\Microsoft\DeviceReg\Install
Side load away
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
atleast its a start.

GoodDayToDie said:
Hmm... I get Access Denied in my library on most keys that I've tried to write. If you can write the codepage, that's interesting (generally speaking, HKLM has stronger protections). I'll double-check whether I can write there myself. If not, but you can, then we have an elevated privilege attack vector...
Also, we should see whether the app runs on non-Nokia devices. I suspect that it will, if it works the way I think it does, but in that case it also won't have much in the way of permissions.
Getting DWORDs to work is a good project, I'm sure it's possible (works fine in NativeAccess, incidentally).
EDIT: Any chance you could include the source?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ah yes, sorry about that. Let me load up my laptop
EDIT: Source added.

Hi I found the Registry item
(File path : <ffu>\Windows\Packages\RegistryFiles\SOFTWARE.REG)
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\KindMap
where we can set extensions and their types.so is it possible to add a new extension so that it will also be supported and visible in sdcard ?

vivekkalady said:
Hi I found the Registry item
(File path : <ffu>\Windows\Packages\RegistryFiles\SOFTWARE.REG)
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\KindMap
where we can set extensions and their types.so is it possible to add a new extension so that it will also be supported and visible in sdcard ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It doesn't support creating new key values, only modifying existing ones. If the data is within one key value and it's able to be read, then it should be able to have things added to it.
EDIT: From what I've seen, what you're trying to do won't be possible with this. Each extension has a different key value.

We may need to start an "interesting registry values" thread here, similar to the one for WP7. Of course, it'll be more interesting if we can actually change any of them.
Oh, and the app works on my ATIV S, just by the way. Need to find some interesting paths to test it on, though.
EDIT: Have you been able to write to *any* values using this? It fails for me every time, but I haven't tried that many yet.

GoodDayToDie said:
We may need to start an "interesting registry values" thread here, similar to the one for WP7. Of course, it'll be more interesting if we can actually change any of them.
Oh, and the app works on my ATIV S, just by the way. Need to find some interesting paths to test it on, though.
EDIT: Have you been able to write to *any* values using this? It fails for me every time, but I haven't tried that many yet.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
it has failed for me also. The only values I could write to were the ones that corresponded to Nokia. I'll look through the code again and make another update. I'm going to also rebrand it since it works for non Lumia phones.

Interesting about the Nokia paths working. That could be some characteristic of the DLL you use having better permissions or something specific to OEM stuff, but I actually suspect it's just that Nokia didn't bother to lock down the ACLs on their parts of the registry. You can easily adapt the app to my NativeRegistry class to test this, if you want.

Hmm that's a good idea. I just rebranded it to WP8 Registry Modifier. I'll add in your NativeRegistry class to work along with the RegistryRT class to see what comes about.

DWORD support
For DWORD support, take a look at the Nokia.SilentInstaller.Runtime.wim... The "CSilentInstallerRuntime" class contains multiple methods to interact with the registry including:
CreateKey
GetRegDWORDValue
GetRegSZValue
GetRegSZValueL
IsRegistryDWORDValueExists
IsRegistryKeyExists
IsRegistryREGSZValueExists
SetRegDWORDValue
SetRegSZValue
A bit off topic, I found a way to launch any URI... Literally, ANY URI (app:// http:// or anything). I can launch any application (using the GUID - so it must be a registered application but doesn't have to be one that you see in your programs list) and go to a specific page within that application. I can also pass any kind of query string that could unlock some hidden features in an application (such as the Extras+Info application - I can launch it using any dial string even though my ROM has that particular dial string disabled). I do so by launching a Toast message which allows me specify a launch uri and once it pops up, I click it. If anyone's interested, I can post a code sample for that...

@GoodDayToDie I'm able to read DWORDs with your NativeRegistry framework. I haven't been able to write though (I've only looked at the MaxUnsignedApp reg value).
What I think I'm going to do is possibly scrap the RegistryRT framework and just use yours. I can then make an even more robust app.

cpuguy said:
For DWORD support, take a look at the Nokia.SilentInstaller.Runtime.wim... The "CSilentInstallerRuntime" class contains multiple methods to interact with the registry including:
CreateKey
GetRegDWORDValue
GetRegSZValue
GetRegSZValueL
IsRegistryDWORDValueExists
IsRegistryKeyExists
IsRegistryREGSZValueExists
SetRegDWORDValue
SetRegSZValue
A bit off topic, I found a way to launch any URI... Literally, ANY URI (app:// http:// or anything). I can launch any application (using the GUID - so it must be a registered application but doesn't have to be one that you see in your programs list) and go to a specific page within that application. I can also pass any kind of query string that could unlock some hidden features in an application (such as the Extras+Info application - I can launch it using any dial string even though my ROM has that particular dial string disabled). I do so by launching a Toast message which allows me specify a launch uri and once it pops up, I click it. If anyone's interested, I can post a code sample for that...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was actually looking at the SilentInstaller not long ago. I got sidetracked by the fact that I could use the NativeRegistry read DWORD values. I'll check that out and upload a new build in a few

GoodDayToDie said:
We may need to start an "interesting registry values" thread here, similar to the one for WP7. Of course, it'll be more interesting if we can actually change any of them..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can write one up later. I have several registry keys that I'd like to bring attention to.
NOTE: I don't see anything editable yet, at least I can read it to compare it to the files in the ffu.

Launching a URI should be possible more directly than that, using ShellExecute, or similar, but that way is cool (and doesn't require importing unofficial native functionality).
Just a word of warning: NativeRegistry is under heavy modification. I hope to have the next Alpha release done soon, which brings a ton of changes, but in the meantime you might want to follow the changes on CodePlex; while I test every build that I push, I don't always publish the binaries.
There will be two ways to use the registry through NativeAccess soon: one is to use fairly thin wrappers around the native functions (that's mostly what's implemented now, but it will be expanded to include key and value enumeration, key creation, etc.), and the other is to use a class more akin to a .NET RegistryKey class, offering the ability to interact in a more object-oriented manner (where the object itself represents an open key).

Something I did notice when I tried to compile the NativeRegistry source (I just ended up using the binary you had for my testing) is that it kept blowing up on the include for WinReg.h. I don't have that anywhere. Am I missing something?

snickler said:
Something I did notice when I tried to compile the NativeRegistry source (I just ended up using the binary you had for my testing) is that it kept blowing up on the include for WinReg.h. I don't have that anywhere. Am I missing something?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not sure how GoodDayToDie did it himself (probably same approach I take it) but I compiled it using the "WinReg.h" from the Windows 8 SDK and removing the desktop-only compiler "if" instruction (lines 49 and 1446). And like he mentioned, you also have to create the KERNALBASE.LIB with the required registry export functions for the linker.

cpuguy said:
I'm not sure how GoodDayToDie did it himself (probably same approach I take it) but I compiled it using the "WinReg.h" from the Windows 8 SDK and removing the desktop-only compiler "if" instruction (lines 49 and 1446). And like he mentioned, you also have to create the KERNALBASE.LIB with the required registry export functions for the linker.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ah ok, thanks!

cpuguy said:
A bit off topic, I found a way to launch any URI... Literally, ANY URI (app:// http:// or anything). I can launch any application (using the GUID - so it must be a registered application but doesn't have to be one that you see in your programs list) and go to a specific page within that application. I can also pass any kind of query string that could unlock some hidden features in an application (such as the Extras+Info application - I can launch it using any dial string even though my ROM has that particular dial string disabled). I do so by launching a Toast message which allows me specify a launch uri and once it pops up, I click it. If anyone's interested, I can post a code sample for that...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, please post your code and give yourself your own thread (at least keep it here in development ). There are a lot of underlying dialer codes that Nokia disabled when flashing the 928s. Also this could mean we could have a custom app launcher, if you wanted to customize it that way. Most of the work we have done on WP8 has occurred in the past few months; we are finally getting so close to the first InteropUnlock for Nokia/WP8.
Sent from my RM-860 (Lumia 928) using the OFFICIAL Tapatalk app.

I'm trying to figure out the correct method prototype (since this is a method that appears to be WinPhone only and isn't part of the SDK so, no details on it whatsoever)... I stumbled upon this toast functionality in "NokiaFrameworkOBAWinPRT.dll" under the "DevPropHelper" class. The method to call is "InvokeToast". This method ends up calling "Shell_PostMessageToast" in "ShellChromeAPI.dll" (this is what I'm trying to invoke directly without going through the Nokia dll).
Add a reference in your project to "NokiaFrameworkOBAWinPRT.winmd" (you can find this in newer versions of the Extras+Info app)
Add the necessary <InProcessServer> tag (to allow the "NokiaFrameworkOBAWinPRT.DevPropHelper" class) in the <ActivatableClasses> section of you WMAppManifest.xml file
In the code... Create an instance of "NokiaFrameworkOBAWinPRT.DevPropHelper"
In the code... Call the "InvokeToast" method (of the previously created object) passing it:
Application GUID (can be your local app's GUID - doesn't seem to matter)
URI to launch in string format
Toast title (can be anything)
Toast content(can be anything)
When the Toast notification pops up, click on it and that's it.

Related

name garbaling in dll

I am using some functions in a dll but the only way I can get the name of the function to remain as I name it is to make it extern "c". If I do not do this then I have to copy the name from directly inside the dll and put the garbled text in my code, ed "someFunctionName" ends up "[email protected]@YAHXZ". It seems that every example I ever see dose not have this problem. Is there some setting I do not know about to force the linker to use the names I type without using a def file?
It was my understanding that this has something to do with C++ convention and cannot be changed, though I could be wrong on this point and if so, would also like to earn the answer.
Mean while if you are using functions from your DLL in your own code you can link to it "implicitly" (am I confusing the terms here?) by simply linking in the lib file compiler creates for the DLL and using the regular function names without all the garbage.
I think that what I am seeing is microsoft ("decoration") not from c++. I think the c++ name mangaling follows some rules that let it show the size of data being passed as arguments.
I do not want to link to it and use .lib etc because I do not want my main project to be entangled with the dll. I am trying to make a pluggin so it will be dynamically loaded with loadlibrary and getprocaddress. I am a bit new to this but it seems to work ok, I was just not sure how to use the def file properly. For example what are the rools regarding the order of names in the def as compared to the header file and what about variables, are they exported or do I have to have a function that returns a pointer to them.
Well some of MS help I encountered states that DEF files are obsolete, or at least MS is trying to make them so.
I didn't get deep in to the DLL rules my self but from what I understand it is sufficient to declare a function as _dllexport for it to be seen from the outside. If you want to specific ordinals (like in the plug-in case) that's another matter.
Variables can be exported and so are classes. I never tried using it, but the "hello world" example of a DLL that eVC 4 builds exports a function a class and a variable and does not use DEF file.
and after building that automatically generated code I get a dll with decorated function names (I view the dll in notepad to check). At first I could not figure out what was going on but after I put the decorated names into getprossaddres it works.

"Wrap" a Today plugin

I have a little project in mind, but would like some input from the pros to cut research time:
Is it possible to "wrap" a Today plugin dll with another, providing a "pass through" for operations (such as screen taps, etc)?
What I'm trying to accomplish is this: Add selectability and other one-handed d-pad operation to an older plugin that is not selectable.
What do you think?
it's possible but the problem is that the plugin have to keep track on what plugins it include and which handles it have to pass to them
could end up big and slow
Rudegar said:
it's possible but the problem is that the plugin have to keep track on what plugins it include and which handles it have to pass to them
could end up big and slow
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is specific to a single plugin - it would only keep track of one.
Perhaps plan B would be easier - a plugin that manipulates another plugin. Such that it would "appear" the older plugin was selected, etc. I guess I'd better go study some more...
Actually its really simple.
Any plug-in DLL exports a function called InitCustomItem. In this function the plug-in does all its initialization, and creates its window. The return value is the handle to this window which you can subclass to add functionality.
as for selection, there is a value in the registry for each plug-in (HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Today\Items) which controls whether the system passes selection events to the plug-in or not.
it has three settings:
0 - non selectable, item will be skipped by the system.
1 - Automatic, the system will paint the item and handle selection on / off
2 - Manual, the system will pass the selection event to the item and the item will take care of the rest. In this mode the return value of the WM_ACTION determines whether the selection is moving on. This is good for multiline plug-ins that don't want to give up focus when arrow keys are pressed.
levenum said:
Actually its really simple.
Any plug-in DLL exports a function called InitCustomItem. In this function the plug-in does all its initialization, and creates its window. The return value is the handle to this window which you can subclass to add functionality.
as for selection, there is a value in the registry for each plug-in (HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Today\Items) which controls whether the system passes selection events to the plug-in or not.
it has three settings:
0 - non selectable, item will be skipped by the system.
1 - Automatic, the system will paint the item and handle selection on / off
2 - Manual, the system will pass the selection event to the item and the item will take care of the rest. In this mode the return value of the WM_ACTION determines whether the selection is moving on. This is good for multiline plug-ins that don't want to give up focus when arrow keys are pressed.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey, thanks for the response! I've set the Selectability registry item for the older plugin, and it's ignoring it - that's what started me on this little project.
I'm a software developer by trade, but not with C++, so I don't want to waste people's time here asking a lot of dumb questions. If you could point me in the right direction on a couple of things, I'll go off and learn:
1. If all I have is a dll and nothing else (no .defs, etc), can I determine all of the functions it exports (other than InitCustomItem)?
2. Process check: My custom plugin's InitCustomItem would call old-plugin's InitCustomItem, snagging old-plug's hwnd. New-plugin would then initialize it's own window - transparent(?) and pass that hwnd back to windows. Also, my custom plugin would pass all messages to old-plugin, etc. Theoretically, old-plug would look and operate like normal?
If this is already written, just sent me the code!
Well I am afraid it will be difficult to do all this without C++. As far as WM based devices are concerned you need to use something that translates in to native code to create system components like the plugins son ,no .NET languages, and embedded VB doesn't do well on anything never that WM 2003 (not even SE), plus I am not sure if you can make DLLs with it at all.
To your questions:
1) There is a tool which comes with VS 6 called Dependency Walker. It shows you what functions a given DLL exports, what it imports from other DLLs and what DLLs it is link to. Woks on EXE files as well.
If you can't get that, download a demo of IDA 5. It's the most powerful disassembler for WM devices out there.
2) Not sure, I never tried anything like that. The thing is, the system resizes the plugins, on initialization (it controls height) and when screen rotation changes so if you pass back HWND for a window other than the one visible, it might cause some problems.
I think what you should do is learn about subclassing. It's when you replace the procedure of an existing window with your own (just replace the function, not create new window). You then get all the messages for that window, you can do what you want and call the original function when you done.
By the way, if you want to learn about writing plugins there is an article with code samples on this site: www.pocketpcdn.com and a lot of other interesting stuff.
Good luck.
What plugin is it? It might be easiest just to rewrite the plugin if you've got the code.
V
levenum said:
Well I am afraid it will be difficult to do all this without C++.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I should have been more clear - I am using C++, I'm just have to learn how to program with it first!
vijay555 said:
What plugin is it? It might be easiest just to rewrite the plugin if you've got the code.
V
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't have the old-plugin source code. My little project is to add some sort of d-pad operation to the WeatherPanel plugin, which you're probably familiar with.
Progress: I've written and deployed my first little plugin - based on the source code samples available in the internet.
Next step: In my InitializeCustomItem, I thought I'd try to call WeatherPanel's InitializeCustomItem (instead of creating my own window). Thing is, I don't yet know how to properly link the WeatherPanel dll to my project. As expected, it only exports two functions: InitializeCustomItem and CustomItemOptionsDlgProc (I used dumpbin.exe)
I'll keep plugging away - any input would be appreciated.
Thanks for your help!
It's real easy:
Use LoadLibrary and GetProcAddress functions to call functions in other DLLs without linking them.
levenum said:
It's real easy:
Use LoadLibrary and GetProcAddress functions to call functions in other DLLs without linking them.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What a coincidence! My studying led me to the same functions.
From within my plugin's InitializeCustomItem, I was able to successfully load the dll with LoadLibrayl, GepProcAddress of its InitializeCustomeItem (at ordinal 240) and call it. But it whacks the Today screen so that none of the plugins load.
Next I thought I'd try FindWindow and EnumChildWindows to find it and all it's children. Then manipulate them by sending messages...
storyr said:
What a coincidence! My studying led me to the same functions.
From within my plugin's InitializeCustomItem, I was able to successfully load the dll with LoadLibrayl, GepProcAddress of its InitializeCustomeItem (at ordinal 240) and call it. But it whacks the Today screen so that none of the plugins load.
Next I thought I'd try FindWindow and EnumChildWindows to find it and all it's children. Then manipulate them by sending messages...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Update: So far, so good. As it turns out, EnumChildWindows doesn't work on the PPC, so I used GetWindow to find the plugin's handle. I can successfully send messages to it and initiate various actions.
Question: I'd like to visually indicate (on the old-plugin) what's being clicked (such as drawing a box around it). Is it possible to draw things outside of my own window?
It is, but it's tricky.
You can always use the GetDC function to retrieve the DC for another window and paint on it, but the problem is that unless you subclass the window you have no way of knowing when it repaints it self and all your changes are erased.
levenum said:
It is, but it's tricky.
You can always use the GetDC function to retrieve the DC for another window and paint on it, but the problem is that unless you subclass the window you have no way of knowing when it repaints it self and all your changes are erased.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tried that exact thing (GetDC) and drew a rectangle in it, but it didn't do anything. I realized the reason was the WM_Paint event wasn't firing on old-plugin, and when it did, my stuff was erased (just like you said).
Next idea - open my own dialog window than overlays old-plug. The entire window needs to be transparent - except for the visual indicators that I position where I want. When the user ok's, I close the window and send the click to old-plugin...
Thanks again for keeping tabs on my progress..
No offence, but with all these rather advanced programming tricks you are attempting just to "sup up" an old weather plugin it looks to me like you would be better off just writing the whole thing from scratch.
It you are familiar with WinInet and / or sockets this should be pretty easy and it will look and work much better than the hack you are attempting now.
Plus you can make it exactly the way you like.
levenum said:
No offence, but with all these rather advanced programming tricks you are attempting just to "sup up" an old weather plugin it looks to me like you would be better off just writing the whole thing from scratch.
It you are familiar with WinInet and / or sockets this should be pretty easy and it will look and work much better than the hack you are attempting now.
Plus you can make it exactly the way you like.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No offence taken. I thought of that, but I figured this would be a good way to cut my teeth a little. Once I complete this little project, I may pursue that route...
Question: Do you have a favorite forum (or forums) besides this site that you use for your research/programming questions?
This is my favorite forum
But here are couple more sites I found very valuable:
www.pocketpcdn.com - They have tips and tricks with code examples arranged in categories like how to make MFC dialogs not full screen or the one I used in LVMTime to put the clock back on the taskbar.
www.codeproject.com - It's not specific to WM development but has tons of interesting stuff including entire sources.
You should also check out www.buzdev.net If you're not familiar with the great work of buzz_lightyear you should see some of the stuff he did for this forum like grab_it - the invisible ROM dumper.
OT
Just a quick OT question:
If I would move some of the plugin-dll's from \Windows to \Storage Card, would it be enough to change the adress within the corresponding item in the registry entry HKLM/Software/Microsoft/Today/Items ?
Of course I'm not talking about plugins like tasks a.s.o but rather third party plugins
Cheers
hrb
It won't work.
The problem is that the SD card is mounted too late so if you put the plugins on it they will not be loaded when device boots up.
You can move them to the extended ROM this way or to a folder other than windows but there is no way to move start-up stuff to SD.
Thanks for the help with this "little" project. After many hours, the product is out for beta testing. When it's released, I'll post more info...
Finished!
It's finished. The app is called WP-Pilot and it provides one-handed operation of WeatherPanel. If anyone's interested, it can be found here. Here's how it ended up:
There's a plugin (WP-PilotPlugin.dll) with an options dialog, and an executable (WP-Pilot.exe).
When the plugin gets selected, it looks for Weatherpanel. If it finds it, it fires off WP-Pilot.exe
WP-Pilot.exe opens. It does this stuff:
Look for WeatherPanel, and get it's screen coordinates.
Read the registry and determine which layout file WeatherPanel is using.
Open the layout file and read it: Record the coordinates of each "clickable" item found. This was a real PITA because of Unicode.
Sort the coordinates for left-to-right, top-to-bottom order.
Select the first coordinate and position a tiny window (10x10) at that x-y position.
Draw a "pointer" in the window (the type and color depends on what's selected in the options).
Show the window and process input:
[*]Left/right pressed - selected the next/previous coordinate and move the window to that location.
[*]Up/down pressed - close WP-Pilot and tell the plugin we're done.
[*]Center button pushed:
[*]Send a mouse click to the WeatherPanel plugin at the coordinates
[*]Close WP-Pilot and tell the plugin we're done.​
Thanks again for your help!

[New release] Registry display plugin

Ok, most of you may find this totally useless as a plugin, but it was a combination of a request by user Treo_newb and a desire to create a sample plugin project that could be used as a base / example for plugin writers (I plan on doing an article on codeproject.com and this will be the source for it).
What does it do?
This plugin displays a string stored in registry.
The path is:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\RegDispPlugin
Value name: DisplayString
It checks if this string has changed several times per second when today screen is shown (as the system sends refresh message to all plugins) and displays the updated message if a change occurred.
What is it good for?
First, if you write apps using mortscript or similar like the user who requested this it will let your script display stuff on today screen.
Alternatively it could be used to mark your device today with a string that isn't as easily changed as user info.
The source is basically a skeleton plugin you can use to build your own plugin on (no license / copyright to limit you) and it already has several tricks needed for the plugin to display correctly:
VGA compatibility
Text size matching system settings
Proper header in settings dialog (like on system plugins)
Proper text color when selected (according to theme)
No blinking all today screen on change
Proper resize when switching between landscape and portrait
When I was writing my first plugin I could not find all these little fixes concentrated in a single article so I had to fish for each one as the bug reports came in.
Hope you will find this little project useful.
The plugin:View attachment RegDisplay.CAB
The source (eVC 4 project): View attachment RegDisplay.zip
Thanks for this!
Thank You Lev.
Thanks, Thanks, Thanks,
You are a legend.
I was almost through with my today plugin and was trying to figure out reading registry values and all of a sudden I get a PM from u about the plugin !!!
Very Cool !!!
OK a few questions,
1. I know that WM_TODAYCUSTOM_QUERYREFRESHCACHE is called for refreshing the today plugin, any ideas about when is it called.
I read somewhere that it was 2 seconds. Is it true?
2. I saw ur code and u have exposed CustomItemOptionsDlgProc in RegDisplay.def, but when I installed the cab file the 'options' is not enabled.
I manually changed the resistry and changed options to dword = 1 and saw ur name and email address.
u might want to enable that by default so that people can notice ur work.
I am planing a commercial release of a new project on basis of this.
Thanks again,
Shailesh
First, you're welcome.
shaileshashar:
1) I ran a debug print on this message once on an iPaq 1710 and it seems to be sent several times per second. This could differ from OS to OS or even from device to device, I am not sure.
If you need specifically timed refresh, or you have an event triggered on new data, I suggest using a timer or maybe a thread that will wait on an event. You can refresh your plugin from anywhere in code by calling InvalidateRect with your window handle.
2) I messed up the cab at first, forgetting to add the Options reg value. Then when I went to upload the fix, I couldn't access the site for about an hour (no idea why, I even rebooted the PC to Ubuntu). Should be fixed now, but I will check it later again (I have to go back to XP for that).
Good luck with your program.
Suggestion
levenum said:
First, you're welcome.
shaileshashar:
1) I ran a debug print on this message once on an iPaq 1710 and it seems to be sent several times per second. This could differ from OS to OS or even from device to device, I am not sure.
If you need specifically timed refresh, or you have an event triggered on new data, I suggest using a timer or maybe a thread that will wait on an event. You can refresh your plugin from anywhere in code by calling InvalidateRect with your window handle.
2) I messed up the cab at first, forgetting to add the Options reg value. Then when I went to upload the fix, I couldn't access the site for about an hour (no idea why, I even rebooted the PC to Ubuntu). Should be fixed now, but I will check it later again (I have to go back to XP for that).
Good luck with your program.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the help, will check the fixed cab.
Also a suggestion:
A custom icon could also be incorporated. You can give a option to load a custom icon next to the text in the today plugin.
I know anybody can modify ur code and do it but still.
Actually, I probably should have mentioned this in the original post but I have no intention of adding options to this thing.
This would only complicate the code and turn it in to an actual app instead of a sample project.
But by all means feel free to make suggestions. If this thing does become popular, when I am done with my other projects (like LVMTopBat) which won't be any time soon (unfortunately) I will release a separate version of this plugin with all kinds of options that can be controlled both by user (form the options dialog) and by other apps through registry.
Maybe things like text alignment, size, bold / Italic / underlined.
P.S.
The reason I put the string this plugin loads under HKEY_CURRENT_USER instead of the HKLM where the rest of the plugin registry resides is because by default the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE on WM 5 and higher has a security restriction. For example you can not write to it using RAPI, only by authorized (or signed) app on the device. The HKEY_CURRENT_USER on the other hand is open for all.
levenum said:
P.S.
The reason I put the string this plugin loads under HKEY_CURRENT_USER instead of the HKLM where the rest of the plugin registry resides is because by default the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE on WM 5 and higher has a security restriction. For example you can not write to it using RAPI, only by authorized (or signed) app on the device. The HKEY_CURRENT_USER on the other hand is open for all.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the info, I never knew that.
Thank you so much! This was exactly what I was looking for!
levenum said:
...But by all means feel free to make suggestions.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As a frequent mortscript user I think, this great app might be even more usefull, if the string was shown in an "allways on top" message box instead of the today screen. The Today screen might be obscured by other active windows during the scripts runtime and the plugin eats precious today screen estate also while being unused, doesn't it?
In that case (of a standalone application) I would furthermore introduce some kind of termination string (or reg. value) to end the display application.
Code:
- start mortscript
- writes first string to registry
- starts display application (run)
- updates string in registry whenever appropriate
- ...
- writes termination string to registry
-> display applications self-terminates
- ...
- end of mortscript
Honestly, I already do use something comparable with mortscript (employing a conditioned sleepmessage loop and reading from the registry too), but this could be much nicer and more elegant.
Just my 2 cents... What do you think?
I think something like that would be better implemented by the mortsrit program it self.
It could be a function like MessageBox API in windows which you could then command on and off. Having it built in would save precious resources on the device that would be wasted by having an extra app run constantly in background.
This is just my thought though.
I'd suggest contacting the developer of mortscript and discussing it with him.
levenum said:
I think something like that would be better implemented by the mortsrit program it self.
...
I'd suggest contacting the developer of mortscript and discussing it with him.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Mort knew about that request and by chance just announced to so.
Thanks anyway.
Hello levenum,
I just joined the community. Reason being, I found your RegDisplay plug-in
You call it a sample project, but the impact is that of an awesome solution.
Great for MortScript, but equally useful in BASIC applications that write
messages to the registry which is show upon screen minimization.
I regret not being a C programmer (mainly BASIC), else I'd love to further
develop this jewel.
Your plug-in runs flawlessly in an iPAQ 210 under WM6 Classic.
Cheers and Respectful Greetings
Robert
CLSID for registry display plugin
What is the CLSID for the Registry Display Plugin? I am going to have to edit the XML file that defines my home screen in order to get the plugin to show up. I am using Facade to control my home screen, and the only plugins that it will show in its list are those currently in use in one of the XML files in the Application Data\Home folder. All other new plugins require editing the XML. Thanks for your help.
levenum said:
Ok, most of you may find this totally useless as a plugin, but it was a combination of a request by user Treo_newb and a desire to create a sample plugin project that could be used as a base / example for plugin writers (I plan on doing an article on codeproject.com and this will be the source for it).
What does it do?
This plugin displays a string stored in registry.
The path is:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\RegDispPlugin
Value name: DisplayString
It checks if this string has changed several times per second when today screen is shown (as the system sends refresh message to all plugins) and displays the updated message if a change occurred.
What is it good for?
First, if you write apps using mortscript or similar like the user who requested this it will let your script display stuff on today screen.
Alternatively it could be used to mark your device today with a string that isn't as easily changed as user info.
The source is basically a skeleton plugin you can use to build your own plugin on (no license / copyright to limit you) and it already has several tricks needed for the plugin to display correctly:
VGA compatibility
Text size matching system settings
Proper header in settings dialog (like on system plugins)
Proper text color when selected (according to theme)
No blinking all today screen on change
Proper resize when switching between landscape and portrait
When I was writing my first plugin I could not find all these little fixes concentrated in a single article so I had to fish for each one as the bug reports came in.
Hope you will find this little project useful.
The plugin:View attachment 41592
The source (eVC 4 project): View attachment 41583
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is great! I was asked if I could write a today screen plug-in for my weather application (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=445576) - I couldn't since I don't have the skills and I'm writing .NET code - but this is exactly what I needed.
I'm adding support for this plug-in and will of course give credits to you.

Developing Auto-DisableRefresh-When-Dragging App [New Video Added]

I know some people have already discussed this in the noRefresh App thread.
But I got a new idea
I don't wanna create a module and embed that to applications
Instead, I created a new Input Device in the kernel
After that, I set the device ( dev/input/event3 ) permission to allow read / write for others.
Then, write an app using JNI to catch the Input Device and set the mode of refreshing.
The prototype proved that this idea works, as i worked out it already, but not very perfect, still in experiment
I am just in some problems of threading, as I am not a professional programmer
This is wt i have now:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkFyvRR6In8
NEW!! : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cucG03rg3tg
I know that my method is a bit dirty,
but at least it works XD
I hope that someone would like to help
Upload those code soon
By the way, why can't i change content of init.rc ?
It removes my changes after reboot..... How to solve?
wheilitjohnny said:
By the way, why can't i change content of init.rc ?
It removes my changes after reboot..... How to solve?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You need to modify uRamdisk to change init.rc.
Would you like to tell me how to unpack the uRamdisk? I use both Windows and Ubuntu, any methods on these two platform is ok. Thanks!
Try the script from this post http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=24135886&postcount=72
This is simply amazing. Since you already have it working, polishing it shouldn't take too long (I think, I'm still a beginner programmer).
I don't think /dev/input is a good place to park that.
There are any number of things that could show up there and affect order.
Why not put it in its own directory?
Maybe I'm missing something, but if we use your method you still expect applications to have to be modified to read/write from event3 to control display mode?
As it is now, you only need a single function call to switch display modes. Yes, there is a little bit of housework to do before that, but what could be simpler than a single function?
I think no place else is more suitable than /dev/input.
As /dev/input is the linux kernel's input system.
In the driver, I would only use the input report system but not use the I/O system.
Maybe even setup a input/event searching function to solve the problem later.
The case now is that, the touch screen originally just provide event2,
but if we need to extract move and fingerup information on upper level, it may waste some time.
In order to make the whole algorithm easier and faster, I added 1 more event in the zForce driver,
to only output FingerMove and FingerUp state.
As the reporting system is starting from the kernel, this hack would need to change uImage + uRamdisk + Add an App. The project is quite huge.
My final target is to make the application remembering your choice on what mode u need for the focusing application.
AlwaysOn / OnlyWhenDragging / AlwaysOff, so on.
Of coz the click-to-call function still work.
Isn't it a better workflow and more intuitive, isn't it the thing that we would expect?
I already have an dev/input/event3 on my system and sometimes event4, 5, 6.
That's why I don't think that whatever it is you are doing belongs there.
Is the point to allow coders for user applications to interface with your driver?
Is this supposed to work without modifying user applications?
What information would be going in/out of event3?
Clearly I am missing something here.
Actually not necessary to be event3, the system will auto-ly create a new eventx, just in normal case, without any extra USB devices, a nook should only have up to event2. So, I use event3 as an example here.
We can later make the program auto-ly search back which is the needed eventx.
Yes, u r right, we no need to modify any other applications and this is exactly the point y i am creating this!
Anyone know how to call a FullScreen Refresh in a service?
always on?
Look really great. Since blinking after scrolling is incomfortable is it possible to have also "always on " mode using your new ideas?
My final target is to make the application remembering your choice on what mode u need for the focusing application.
AlwaysOn / OnlyWhenDragging / AlwaysOff, so on.
Of coz the click-to-call function still work.
Also an Over-Ride mode, for more flexible using.
But the most basic part need to be handled well now, as it is not very perfect now.
I still don't figure out how to call the e-ink driver to refresh the screen =-=
wheilitjohnny said:
I still don't figure out how to call the e-ink driver to refresh the screen =-=
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have you tried
Code:
echo 1 > /sys/class/graphics/fb0/epd_refresh
?
wheilitjohnny said:
Yes, u r right, we no need to modify any other applications and this is exactly the point y i am creating this!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are you saying that your idea does not require modifying user applications?
If it doesn't, then there is no need to have a public interface.
It will be only your code talking to your code.
What is the point of this /dev/input/event3? You say that it will be writable. What's going in and out?
Some apps will be using gestures, some dragging. How are you going to keep track of that all?
I have one application that works perfectly fine now, one activity uses swipe gestures to page up/down while another activity uses drag with a user choice of A2 and display while dragging or else only panning at ACTION_UP.
All this requires less than 10 lines of code.
With multitouch, many applications don't even need A2. Even normal panning in Opera Mobile works much better now that Opera doesn't try to display while panning.
Maybe my english is too bad, cannot express the idea well.
I know, we can make such an application with noRefreshDrag working on its own well.
But how about other applications, it is impossible for us to change all applications.
So, my idea is making it system based.
My prototype is very good now, after several adjustment.
Not limited to only 1 application, but the whole system.
The approach is like this:
1. zForce driver provide extra information to InputEvent
2. A JNI catch the InputEvent
3. A service get the data and set the update mode
We only need to write 1 application to handle the setting of this chain.
This is what i mean, hope that u get what i mean now.
mali100 said:
Have you tried
Code:
echo 1 > /sys/class/graphics/fb0/epd_refresh
?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Let me try it now!
wow, it works great
wheilitjohnny said:
zForce driver provide extra information to InputEvent
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I guess that this is the part that I don't understand.
What is this extra information?
Renate NST said:
I guess that this is the part that I don't understand.
What is this extra information?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It created an extra Event, l called it Event3 before.
Driver reports only move and finger_up to Event3.
Just providing a channel to pass an information from driver to user-space.
You may ask why not directly using the existing Event, need to create another one.
That is because, the original one only have touch and position information, parsing them back to move information need a bit of work. As the hardware provided the move information, then don't waste it.
Code:
public boolean dispatchTouchEvent(MotionEvent event)
{
switch(event.getAction())
{
case MotionEvent.ACTION_DOWN:
break;
case MotionEvent.ACTION_MOVE:
break;
case MotionEvent.ACTION_UP:
break;
}
return(true);
}
}
Isn't that everything that you could ask for?

[XAP][SOURCE] Native Toast Notification Launcher

This is a very simple application that enables you to specify any kind of Uri to launch. This is done through creating a Toast notification that, when clicked on, will execute the specified Uri. This uses a native method outside of the regular SDK; the standard methods available in the SDK that you'd normally use to create a Toast notification are restrictive in what kind of Uri you can specify. By using the native method not part of the SDK, these limitations can be by-passed.
I've attached both the XAP and the source code. The source project contains three projects:
CShellChromeAPI: The C++/CLI project which calls the native un-documented method
NativeToastLauncher: The .NET wrapper which simplifies the interaction with the C++/CLI project
NativeToastLauncherApp: The test application used to quickly launch any Uri
You'll notice I've hard-coded a default Uri when you launch the application: this will open the Windows Phone 8 "About" page.
To run this, you'll need to side load the XAP which requires a dev unlocked device...
Can I use any system GUID to launch?
djtonka said:
Can I use any sytem GUID to launch?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Any registered app GUID yes. You'd do app://GUID/_default (or replace the _default with the particular task to run - in most cases, that's _default).
@cpuguy this is awesome, thanks!
If you guys are looking for GUIDS and default tasks, they are all in the app's WMAppMAnifest.xml. the "ProductID" is the GUID and the "DefaultTask Name" property contains the name of the default task.
Hopefully we can use this to find a program to exploit.
Sent from my Nokia 521 using XDA Windows Phone 7 App
Does anyone happen to have a list of the ID's for the system and settings apps? Obviously, I can't go into the code and get these without messing with the file system. If no one has them, then I can just trial/error until I get some...
If you download the registry hives located at http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2393883 , you can load the Software hvie and search for "app://" That will give you a few system files you can launch.
EDIT:
I posted a zip file of the default ones in a new thread.
IF anyone has tethering blocked, see if you can get it to work by launching this URI app://5B04B775-356B-4AA0-AAF8-6491FFEA5629/Default
compu829 said:
If you download the registry hives located at http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2393883 , you can load the Software hvie and search for "app://" THat will give you a few system files you can launch.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Im only seeing the app:// function used on the system settings options after going through the regsistries so far.
aclegg2011 said:
Im only seeing the app:// function used on the system settings options after going through the regsistries so far.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
that's what I saw too. I am having way more luck finding cool stuff in the extracted ffu. Take a look at the zip file in the new thread I started.
compu829 said:
that's what I saw too. I am having way more luck finding cool stuff in the extracted ffu. Take a look at the zip file in the new thread I started.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yea, I saw the new thread. Hopefully somebody can find a exploit in all that. It executes some cool files. Too bad there wasn't a cmd.exe file on our phones that we can execute.
aclegg2011 said:
yea, I saw the new thread. Hopefully somebody can find a exploit in all that. It executes some cool files. Too bad there wasn't a cmd.exe file on our phones that we can execute.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
actually..there is! but it's stuck in a WIM. It inflates it on an "as-needed" basis.
I am hoping that we can use the backgroundworker to run some stuff elevated
compu829 said:
I am hoping that we can use the backgroundworker to run some stuff elevated
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
But they all are pretty much isolated. It is unlikely that you will be able to run anything elevated
aclegg2011 said:
yea, I saw the new thread. Hopefully somebody can find a exploit in all that. It executes some cool files. Too bad there wasn't a cmd.exe file on our phones that we can execute.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not only is there a CMD.exe, but there are other interesting things like a BSOD screen, Control Panel, registry keys referencing desktop (A future exploit I might attempt), and even native EXEs (We knew about native EXEs since WPs release).
Why does this launcher not work with "normal" toasts: {YOUR-APP-GUID} and "/Page1.xaml"? Only with empty GUID and full path.
Similarly, any chance this could be used to open arbitrary XAML pages, rather than just the ones defined in the app manifest? For example, something like what was posted in another thread (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=45265419&postcount=56) using the following URI: app://5edbdbbc-2ab2-df11-8a2f-00237de2db9e/_default#/View/APNSettingPage.xaml to launch a hidden page in the Connection Setup app. I don't know if that's a weird behavior of CS or if its universally possible (and while it feels lazy to ask, I'm at work right now). There are a bunch of "hidden" pages in the ATIV S Diagnosis app, some of which would be very useful, but the navigation code for them is blocked or outright missing. If we could invoke those directly... There are probably a bunch of other such hidden gems in other OEM apps too.
Yes you can. The way I found the one in the HTC app was by loading the dlls in JetBrain's dotPeek. Then I looked for the xaml files. It is all a relative URI based on what dotPeek/the app "sees". The only thing the manifest states is where the default entry point is for the page. Basically I looked in the manifest file for how it calls the "default" page. and then replace it with the relative URI for the other page you want.
If you guys want, I can write up a simple tutorial. I just have an HTC 8x, so my hands are tied. If someone can figure out how to deflate an nbh file so I can browse it, that'd be fantastic! I found a "dead" 521 on eBay that I am thinking of picking up for research since there are way more tools for Nokia.
compu829 said:
Yes you can. The way I found the one in the HTC app was by loading the dlls in JetBrain's dotPeek. Then I looked for the xaml files. It is all a relative URI based on what dotPeek/the app "sees". The only thing the manifest states is where the default entry point is for the page. Basically I looked in the manifest file for how it calls the "default" page. and then replace it with the relative URI for the other page you want.
If you guys want, I can write up a simple tutorial. I just have an HTC 8x, so my hands are tied. If someone can figure out how to deflate an nbh file so I can browse it, that'd be fantastic! I found a "dead" 521 on eBay that I am thinking of picking up for research since there are way more tools for Nokia.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's correct. I have been navigating to various - normally unreachable - XAML pages in quite a few of the Nokia apps. I gave an example of that in a different thread:
Code:
app://[COLOR="Navy"][B]2377fe1b-c10f-47da-92f3-fc517345a3c0[/B][/COLOR]/[COLOR="Orange"][B]_default[/B][/COLOR]#/[COLOR="Green"][B]Launcher[/B][/COLOR];component/[COLOR="DarkRed"][B]MainPage.xaml[/B][/COLOR]
In this example, I launch the Nokia extras+info app (2377fe1b-c10f-47da-92f3-fc517345a3c0) with the default entry point (_default) which, as @compu829 stated, can found in the app's manifest. Following that, you can add "#/" (not sure if either the hash-tag or slash can be taken out or both are required to work but I know with both, it does work) to the URI to specify a particular XAML file you'd like to open. Following the "#/", you get to specify the assembly (i.e. the .DLL in the XAP file) in which the XAML file is located (Launcher). And finally, you add ";component/" followed by the full path to the XAML as defined in the embedded resource file (MainPage.xaml).
-W_O_L_F- said:
Why does this launcher not work with "normal" toasts: {YOUR-APP-GUID} and "/Page1.xaml"? Only with empty GUID and full path.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I presume your reference to the "empty GUID" is for the first parameter of my static Launcher.LaunchToast method? That first parameter is, as far as I can see, ignored for the actual toast launch. If I'd have the signature of the "Shell_PostMessageToast" method, I could perhaps understand what it does but, without it, I just knew it wanted a GUID (passed to it as a string) and that that GUID could be an empty one. I reversed engineered the signature from that native method (found in ShellChromeAPI.dll) by taking a look at another native assembly calling it. Naturally, this only tells shows me how that method is being called but doesn't return the name of the parameters. If I remember correctly, the assembly calling that method was passing its own application GUID... I could have done the same but, I didn't see what use it had so I decided to keep passing it an empty GUID.
The format of the toast is different most likely because that's the raw toast launching method. The other format you're used to is the more developer friendly one that's sanitized prior to launching it (so you can't launch another app directly).
Success!
@GoodDayToDie , this is exactly what I'm trying to do! And here is result:

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