TUTORIAL: Create links to the programs in your Settings menu! A full explanation & never-before-published, full comparison list
An often-asked question concerns how you can set up direct links to the control panel applets (CPL's for short) in Start/Settings.
What's the point in all this, you may ask. Why not simply tap Start and, then, Settings and, finally, the icon you want to execute?
Yes, for a casual user, there's not much need in creating self-standing links to these files. There're, however, cases when this can prove really useful – for example, the case of including them in Today launcher plug-ins that, otherwise, don't let access to any of these applets otherwise. A well-known example of plug-ins like those is Resco File Explorer's excellent Today plug-in or in the free cLaunch. (Please see this (alternatives: iPAQ HQ, AximSite, PPC Magazine, FirstLoox, BrightHand) for more info on these excellent applications and the alternatives.)
Most of these settings are invoked from a central dialog file, \Windows\cplmain.cpl. Some additional, custom settings may have been put in a separate file, \Windows\mycpl.cpl. Finally, third-party applications that install their own settings dialogs create their own .cpl files inside the \Windows directory. For example, SOTi Pocket Controller (see this article on it) creates a file DeviceConfig.cpl, Mad Programmer's FileDialogChanger (see this article on it) uses a file named filedlgchg.cpl to offer the user the File Dialog Changer settings, Mad Programmer's Force Hi-resolution tool (see this article on it) puts a ForceHires.cpl file in there etc. The same stands for Spb Pocket Plus, MS Voice Command (please see this article for a full roundup of all voice controller apps) and XCPUScalar.
What should I do?
It's simple: create a .lnk file with the following contents:
33#ctlpnl.exe cplmain.cpl,X
OR
33#ctlpnl.exe mycpl.cpl,X
where X is a number that I'll promptly elaborate on.
As has already been pointed out, only one file, cplmain.cpl (or, with some device, mycpl.cpl in addition) contains most of the settings accessible in Start/Settings. One file containing many small applets also means that you need to choose a particular one in some way. That's why you must index the file; this numeric index (1, 2 etc.) tells cplmain.cpl which particular applet you'd like to access.
As far as the possible values of this are concerned, there're standardized ones. If you check out the "iPAQ 3660" column in the comparison chart available here (and disregard the 3 - Power record and everything starting with "MyCpl – 0"), you'll see what you can expect from any Pocket PC 2002+ Pocket PC.
Note that WM2003 added the standard 22-Manage Certificates and WM5 the standard 24-Error reporting and, with most WM5 Pocket PC devices, 25-GPS. Also, Pocket PC Phone Edition devices, regardless of their operating system version, also use the 20 - Phone Settings index. Finally, all Pocket PC's with the Microsoft BT stack use 23 – MS Bluetooth too. (Devices with the Widcomm BT stack use the separate \Windows\BTConfigCE.cpl CPL.)
It's also very important to point out that 3 – Power and 6 – Backlight is not necessarily available in all devices. For example, the iPAQ 2210 lacks both, the iPAQ 3660 lacks 6 – Backlight , while all the other listed devices have them all.
Also note the records starting with MyCpl are, as you may have already guessed, non-standard ones. It's there that the two iPAQ's have some essential applets (Backlight and, with the 2210, also Power) and some additional goodies.
Please note that lists compiled by others (for example the XDA-Developers one) are not generic enough and may contain several mistakes. Therefore, it's best not to rely on them at all. Also remember that you can freely test any indexes – you won't crash your Pocket PC if a particular index is unused.
You don't want to manually create .lnk files?
No problem, I've already done it for you! Just download this file and extract the link file(s) you'll need.
Note that the root directry of the ZIP file only contains CPL links that are guaranteed to work on all PPC2k2+ devices. I've put the additional ones in subdirectories – for example, links belonging to later operating systems (directories FromWM2003 and FromWM5), the 3 – Power and 6 – Backlight PCL's, the MS BT stack link and the PPC Phone Edition Phone Settings link.
Also, there's a separate subdirectory 'mycpl' for (unnamed – as you can also see in the comparison chart, indexes are wildly different between different devices) MyCpl link files.
Hope you'll find this information / my files useful. I really hope you'll like the new ability to include all this functionality in the Resco Today plug-in and/or cLaunch – or, for that matter, your operating system-level scripts!
Also a little bit more info on this subject + an icon extractor:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/viewtopic.php?p=223602#223602
V
When I put the link in my /windows/startmenu folder it's deleted after soft-reset of opening my start menu. What can I do about this and why is it happening?
What icon are you putting in there?
V
vijay555 said:
What icon are you putting in there?
V
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's a file I called Running.lnk with the following line:
Code:
22#ctlpnl cplmain.cpl,4,0?shellres.dll,-13900
I noticed that after soft reset or clicking the start menu this file is moved to the /windows/startmenu/programs folder. And thus appears in my programs list. But what I want is this link in my Start Menu.
Very odd.
Try making the shortcut as you've done, put it in your normal start menu, and then make a lnk to the lnk. Put the lnk to the lnk in your startup, and see if that makes any difference.
You could try my program VJBrisk as well. I can't even think what it does now, but it might help.
V
I tryed making another link to the first one and putting it in the startup but it didn't make any difference.
After this i tryed putting the lnk in the startmenu folder and at the same time removing another lnk file. And voila , it workt. Seems that wm5 keeps track of the amount of lnk files that should be in the startmenu folder. Makes sense because there is a limit to how long your startmenu can be.
Thanks for your help
ps. I changed the line in the link file to the following. This way it has the memory icon.
Code:
22#ctlpnl cplmain.cpl,4,0?shellres.dll,-13900
Now that I’ve published my quick tutorial on mass-deleting / marking (un)read mail items in all mobile operating systems I’ve just been asked by my blog reader natestera on how the same can be done under WM5+ to PIM ("Personal Information Manager") data like calendar (appointment) info, contacts and tasks.
I’ve already elaborated on this subject in some forum posts and articles some two or three years ago. As, in the meantime,
WM5 has changed the way contacts can be mass-deleted in its built-in Contacts client (read: it no longer offers mass-selection/deletion capabilities; note that it didn’t change the way tasks and appointments are handled, though. That is, it didn’t introduce mass-selection / deletion capabilities to appointments and it didn’t take away the mass (incl. Ctl + A) /block selection capabilities of Tasks);
SKTools, the, in my opinion, best all-in-one system tool, received mass deletion capabilities; so did the brand new and, what is more, free PIM Backup;
some third-party PIM handler applications also received (some) mass-deletion capabilities and
my previous tutorials didn’t elaborate on the touchscreen-less MS Smartphone platform, only Pocket PC’s,
I found it necessary to publish a brand new, all-in-one tutorial on all these questions.
Note that this tutorial both elaborates on Pocket PC’s (with a touchscreen) and touchscreen-less MS Smartphones. Section 1.1, 1.2 and 1.3 all apply to both operating systems. It’s only Chapter 2 (see Section 2.1 and 2.2) that separately discusses third-party PIM replacement applications for the two platforms.
1.1 Built-in Windows Mobile PIM apps
First, let's take a look at how the built-in Windows Mobile applications show PIM data and whether they allow for mass selection:
1.1.1 Pocket PC’s
Appointments:
{
"lightbox_close": "Close",
"lightbox_next": "Next",
"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}
(Tools / Options doesn’t have anything like this either: 1 2)
Contacts:
As can clearly be seen, starting with WM5, the contact list is not a simple, textual list any more; this may be one of the reasons why, for example, Ctl+A (on the on-screen keyboard or with external apps like AEButtonPlus capable of generating "Select all" events) or traditional block-selection keyboard shortcuts (usable from external keyboards or built-in thumbboards) don’t work any more – unlike with apps (still) based on the usual list view (like, for example, File Explorer Mobile.)
(No mass-deletion in the contact options either.)
On the touchscreen-based Pocket PC’s (but NOT on Smartphones – with the latter, not even hacks like that of AEButtonPlus work), it’s only with Tasks that mass selection (with either the stylus or Ctl-A on the on-screen keyboard) is possible:
Of course, answer Yes to the question:
1.1.2 MS Smartphones
As far as the MS Smartphone platform is concerned, the situation is equally bad with Contacts and Calendar:
and definitely worse with Tasks: unlike with Pocket PC’s, you can’t mass-delete your tasks in there. Yes, not even with "Select all" button hacks like AEButtonPlus.
1.2 Third-party tools for mass-deletion
If you do need mass deletion capabilities and you don’t want to go for a complete, PIM deletion-capable PIM replacement (or, desktop-based deletion), your best choice will be either the very capable and nice, but commercial SKTools and/or the free, but still very capable and useful PIM Backup.
Also note that, for example, MemMaid (another, excellent generic maintenance utility) also offers PIM database emptying features. As I consider MemMaid less featureful than SKTools and generally prefer the latter to the former, I don’t elaborate on it in this tutorial – I only stick to SKTools and the free PIM Backup.
1.2.1 SKTools
S-K-Tools is an all-in-one system cleaner application with quick PIM deletion capabilities. It’s available for both Pocket PC (equipped with a touchscreen) and touchscreen-less MS Smartphones. Note that it’s a commercial application; if you "only" need PIM data deletion and you are absolutely sure you won’t ever need the other (excellent) features of SKTools, you will want to prefer PIM Backup (see section 1.2.2) instead. Not that SKTools would be that expensive: actually, it’s very cheap, well worth the money.
First, go to View / PIM:
(note that I only show you MS Smartphone screenshots in here; in general, you need to do the same on touschscreen-enabled Pocket PC’s.)
Go to "Delete PIM information":
Check the PIM category you want to clean up; in the following screenshot, it’s Appointments:
Select Action/ Delete:
Answer Yes to the question coming up:
And, then, No (!!!) to the next one (NOT Yes!):
Note that you can delete more categories at once:
1. If you want to delete everything, just select Action / Delete All
2. If you want to delete the contents of several categories at once (but not all of them), tick their checkbox like in here:
3. and select Action/ Delete Marked.
1.2.2 PIM Backup
I’ve elaborated on PIM Backup’s cross-device PIM transfer capabilities HERE, along with those of SKTools. Fortunately, (as of version 2.8), it already supports emptying these databases too. As PIM Backup is free, it’s an excellent choice for mass deletion operations like this.
After downloading the app, transferring the single EXE file to your handset, running it and it firing up (the latter can take a while), you’ll be presented all the PIM databases. Go to Options / Delete All:
and select the category you’d like to empty. Answer Yes to the question:
After the deletion has successfully completed, you’ll be presented a success message:
PIM Backup, of course, also works on the MS Smartphone platform as well; an example result of the above Appointments deletion is as follows:
1.2.3 What about Pocket dbExplorer 3.0 ?
Pocket dbExplorer was one of my favorite system hacker tools back in the pre-WM5 days. Let’s take a look at the brand new, 3.0 version, which is already compatible with WM5+.
Unfortunately, it still isn’t able to empty databases, "only" view / modify / export / backup / delete these databases. However, as you may need the latter functionality (it can prove pretty useful in other cases), I still elaborate on it. (AGAIN, you can NOT use it for deleting PIM info – "only" manipulating / exporting / transferring it! This section is only for hackers and geeks!)
First, in order to be able to access these system databases, you must click the "Object Store" drop-down list in the upper left corner and select "Open External Volume...":
Now, double-tap pim.vol:
You’ll be taken to its internal database list:
Unfortunately, you can, NOT empty them:
Deletion gets rid of it completely as can also be seen in THIS screenshot.
Note that you don’t need to check in the "Show system databases" checkbox in Tools / Options.
1.3 Mass-deleting PIM info on the desktop
You can also delete your PIM data on the desktop – if you do synchronize your PIM stuff to your, say, Outlook on your desktop, you can easily mass delete your stuff in there. Fortunately, Outlook allows for mass PIM deletion – also including appointments.
After you delete your useless PIM info on the desktop, the next ActiveSync / (on Windows Vista,) Mobile Device Center synchronization will make sure these records will also be deleted on your handset.
2. Mass deletion capabilities of third-party PIM applications
Several Windows Mobile users use third-party PIM applications like Pocket Informant / Agenda Fusion on the Pocket PC and Pocket Informant / Agenda One / Papyrus on the MS Smartphone, let’s take a look at how these apps handle mass deletion. Note that you will NOT want to use these, in most cases, pretty bloated (albeit VERY useful and capable) apps if you "only" want to delete your PIM stuff – SKTools or, even better, PIM Backup is far better suited for "simple" PIM data cleanup.
2.1 Pocket PC
2.1.1 Pocket Informant 8.02
Contacts (and tasks - but, again, you can do the same in the default Tasks application of Windows Mobile Pocket PC!) can be easily mass-deleted after selecting them all (or a block of them) with the stylus:
While, in the default calendar view, it can’t delete more than one appointment at a time, you can easily do this in the powerful Search View. (Also see page 54 (Search View (SV)) in the PDF manual HERE). It’s really powerful and customizable; note that you can search for an empty string (or, an asterisk (*)) if you want to list everything:
Note that the above screenshot shows all kinds of PIM data, not only Calendar. Should you want to stick to Calendar data only, make sure you untick the Tasks etc. icons in the upper toolbar before (re-)running the wildcard search; then, only the Calendar items will be listed, ready for mass-selection with the stylus (or, if you want to quickly select everything, Ctl-A on the on-screen keyboard):
2.1.2 Agenda Fusion 8.60
In Agenda Fusion, you can mass-select Contacts and delete them in one step:
You can’t, however, do the same to appointments or tasks; they need to be deleted one-by-one:
(Of course, as the operating system supports mass-deleting Tasks, the latter isn't really a problem - always use the built-in Tasks in Windows Mobile to delete these tasks.)
2.2 MS Smartphone
Unfortunately, the situation (compared to that of the Pocket PC) is much worse with the MS Smartphone platform: the three leading PIM suites, Pocket Informant, Agenda One and Papyrus, don’t offer mass selection / deletion capabilities at all or don’t really support mass-selection using built-in dialpads / keyboards. The "Select All" hack of AEBPlus, explained in my previous, mail deletion article doesn’t work with any of them, either.
2.2.1 Pocket Informant 8.02
As with the PPC version, you’ll need to go to the Search View so that you can mass-select any kind of PIM info:
Unfortunately, I couldn’t find a way on my HTC Vox (s710) to highlight more than one element in the list when only using the built-in dialpad or the QWERTY thumbboard (again, Shift did not work as expected – this, however, doesn’t necessarily mean it won’t work with Motorola / Samsung Smartphones, though). However, with an external keyboard (tested with Pocket Controller; should also work with BT keyboards like the iGo StowAway one), it does work as can be seen in here:
(in here, I’ve mass-selected four items)
Unfortunately, my (multiple – deleting both tasks and appointments) deletion attempts resulted in a crash:
I'm pretty sure the developer will fix the latter bug and adds mass selection capabilities using the numeric dialpad - together with, say, #, as is the case with Symbian S60 smart phones without a dedicated Pencil key.
2.2.2 Agenda One 8309
The (pretty extensive) Options doesn’t offer this either:
(The situation is the same with the Tasks / Calendar view.)
Shift + cursor doesn’t work with external keyboards, unlike in Pocket Informant.
2.2.3 Papyrus 1.3.17
I didn’t find a way to mass-delete appointments or tasks (the app doesn’t handle contacts at all). You can only delete them one by one by selecting it and, then, selecting Delete. Shift + cursor mass selection doesn’t work (unlike in Pocket Informant) with an external keyboard either.
UPDATE (later the same day): there’s another, brand new utility to clean up the PIM data on WM5+ devices, PocketOutlook Eraser. As of current, 1.1 version, it requires Compact Framework 2 (CF2) to run. CF2 is integrated into WM6 devices – but not into WM5 ones. You’ll find the CF2 installer CAB file HERE. Also note that, as opposed to the initial version, it already creates a link to the main executable.
(WM6 Smartphone screenshot)
(WM6 VGA PPC screenshot)
(Thanks to my blog reader John for the heads-up!)
Note that DotFred's PPCContactsMgr (see http://www.freewarepocketpc.net/get-ppccontactsmgr-v1-6.html for download and http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=283413 for more info and the original thread) also allows for (mass) contact deletion.
i also have this
http://oldsap.blogspot.com/2008/06/os-clean-calendar.html
although it's only for Tasks and Appointments sir
very good post! thanks for taking the time to write such a thorough text.
oldsap said:
i also have this
http://oldsap.blogspot.com/2008/06/os-clean-calendar.html
although it's only for Tasks and Appointments sir
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, will also mention this in the following update.
thanks for the info...
btw those are some mighty big screenshots
absorber786 said:
btw those are some mighty big screenshots
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yup, generally I take large, nice VGA screenshots
Menneisyys said:
Yup, generally I take large, nice VGA screenshots
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just wait until the Touch HD screen shots start popping up, now those will be big
Dave
We will release a new Windows Mobile program called " CabIntegr " soon.
It is the World's first CAB file editor working on a Windows Mobile device!
No need a Desktop PC to create CAB files and make the user independent
Ideal for using, if the user is on the way or he has no access to an Desktop PC .
CabIntegr features:
Creating new CAB files
Editing CAB files:
Adding files
Adding multiple files in one operation
Adding registry keys
Importing registry keys from REG files
Adding custom* shortcuts
CAB files compression supported**
Pre- and post- XML provisioning files supported***
Managing storage of information needed for the program removal
Viewing all CAB files which are available on the device
Viewing contents of CAB files
Extracting contents from CAB files
Creating new CAB Provisioning files
Converting REG files to CAB files
Support several languages of the interface
(W)QVGA/(W)VGA support
Windows Mobile 5/6 Classic and Professional compatible
* shortcut target will be exist on device or in CAB file
** only MSZIP
*** only for new CAB files
Looking forward for release. Dreams may come true...finnaly!
Freeware, or not?
I read on german forum the regular price is $14,99.
As registered SKTools customer I get the half price.
So this is just advert..mhmm..
g'luck.
CabIntegr on our webpage released !
CABIntegr Update 1.1.0.6 released!
The World's first CAB file editor working on a Windows Mobile device!
CABIntegr allow to user create, edit, view, install CAB files.
A helpful tool for all Windows Mobile user, especially for developers, ROM cooker, skinner etc.
No need any PC, so the user is independent. Ideal if you are on the road.
News and updates:
- Added "Create Installer" option. "Installer" it is executable file. This executable include one or more (CAB or/and other) files and can install or execute it after start.
- Script support for the Installer.
- "Set Path", "Create from cab" commandS in "Create" window.
- Scroll (left, right) gestures in settings (WM6.5+ and some WM6.x devices).
- Improved import from REG files.
This update are free for all registered CABIntegr users.
CABIntegr Update 1.1.0.7 released!
The World's first CAB file editor working on a Windows Mobile device!
CABIntegr allow to user create, edit, view, install CAB files.
A helpful tool for all Windows Mobile user, especially for developers, ROM cooker, skinner etc.
No need any PC, so the user is independent. Ideal if you are on the road.
News and updates:
- Added import "pre-" and "post-" XML from CAB file
- Improved RGU files import
- Edit operation for TSK files
- Improved settings window
This update are free for all registered CABIntegr users.