Porting Bottom Start button from WM6.5 to WM 6.1 - General Questions and Answers

Hello, guys!
You all are professionals and know almost everything about different versions of WM. I have one very important question: is there at least minimal possibility to port somehow this WM 6.5.5 feature - bottom start button to the old WM 6.1 firmwares?
Thank you very much in advance and sorry if this question is a foolish one

It's sort-of possible but would take a little work. Why not just use a 6.5 rom instead?
I think the greater challenge would be resizing the top bar (smaller) and the bottom bar (larger).

Thanks for the answer!
littld said:
It's sort-of possible but would take a little work.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I even can't imagine how it could be implemented... Don't you know if there already was some work for achieving it?
littld said:
Why not just use a 6.5 rom instead?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Because it seems more slow to me. Official WM6.1 is very fast and simple as I see, faster than 6.5. I've tried a lot of 6.5 builds. But what I really miss in WM6.1 - is this bottom start button. If it be there - it would be the best firmware for all people like me, who like simplicity and usability instead of these huge slow animations and pictures.
littld said:
I think the greater challenge would be resizing the top bar (smaller) and the bottom bar (larger).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, it's useful too. Would be nice if somebody experienced considered this interesting and made some investigation...

it's easy to erase the Start menu link from the top bar. you can just overwrite the WindowProc and replace/enhance the WM_PAINT method and here you go.
It's no problem to launch the start menu. But changing the bottom bar is a *****! You could just overwrite the paint method as well. But this is not the full truth. The problem here is that every window got it's own bottom bar. So first you'd have to go through list of all windows/processes, retrieve it's menu bar and from there finally replace the window proc. Then you need to watch out and terminate your window proc if the application closes. And of course you also need to know if a new program is starting up. A nice-to-have feature of this solution would be that you can explicitely tell what happens when you hit the X button (hide or close) and don't need another hack for it.

Thanks a lot for your explanation, RAMMANN. It's very clear.
I can't do it by myself due to lack of experience. Well, the thing left is to wait if somebody experienced wants the same

Well it's a project that probably involves A LOT OF soft resets during development. I was originally planning to make the WM 6.5.x bottom bar look like PHOTON (the WM 7 that got abandoned) but when I figured out it's not THAT easy I postponed the idea for the time being, and will rather start with a smaller project (enhancing bottom bar of WM 6.5 start menu). But I reckon this might still be a very interesting project! hmmmm

RAMMANN said:
Well it's a project that probably involves A LOT OF soft resets during development. I was originally planning to make the WM 6.5.x bottom bar look like PHOTON (the WM 7 that got abandoned) but when I figured out it's not THAT easy I postponed the idea for the time being, and will rather start with a smaller project (enhancing bottom bar of WM 6.5 start menu). But I reckon this might still be a very interesting project! hmmmm
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Haha - that's exactly what I'd been doing years ago. I abandoned it as well, probably for the same reasons.
I think a decent compromise would be to set the Start menu in your left bottom bar on the Today screen (pretty easy to do, just registry change) and use a button assignment for other programs. If you install one of the start menu replacements (Green software) you can overwrite the start icon with something blank.
RAMMANN is right - a lot of work to repaint all those application windows!

littld, thanks for your answer too.
littld said:
set the Start menu in your left bottom bar on the Today screen (pretty easy to do, just registry change) and use a button assignment for other programs.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Could you please give some links to these tweaks? Thanks in advance!

littld said:
Haha - that's exactly what I'd been doing years ago. I abandoned it as well, probably for the same reasons.
RAMMANN is right - a lot of work to repaint all those application windows!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well I didn't give up yet. I didn't even start dev for it. I just coded few lines to print something like "Hey your bottom bar is hacked!" in the Manila and start menu bottom bars. This is a very interesting project and has potential to allow a lot of things like Photon style or even an Android style bottom bar and I mean not only a standalone app like Androkkid but a full system replacement. I'm still looking around for an efficient way to realize this project and first things first so I'll be doing a start menu enhancement to warm up

J-Pro said:
littld, thanks for your answer too.
Could you please give some links to these tweaks? Thanks in advance!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't have the links but you can search. You want an app called VJKeypress - one of the keypresses will launch the start menu for you. Make a shortcut (.lnk file) for it. Search for how to change the left softkey text and program (somewhere in registry) to the new VJ link.

Thanks for your answers, guys.
RAMMANN, when you have some progress on this project, please, update this thread. I think people would appreciate it.
Thanks again!

RAMMANN said:
it's easy to erase the Start menu link from the top bar. you can just overwrite the WindowProc and replace/enhance the WM_PAINT method and here you go.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I know this is an old post i dug up here, but i was wondering how i would go about earasing the start menu link from the top? i'm using 6.5 and i want to totaly dissable the top start soft key. thank you

Related

Relocate Lower taskbar/system tray WM2005??

Is it possible to relocate the lower taskbar where the bluetooth/running program icons sit??
I want to move it down into the softkey position as i have found a program to disable this from this site:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/viewtopic.php?t=27331&highlight=16
From Buzzdev.net it seems that the lower taskbar is in fact HHTaskbar and on searching the registry for this please see image below.
I think it must be controlled by a registry setting no?? any ideas?
Registry seems to point to /windows/shell32.exe
anybody able to look into this file?? maybe something in there, something must instruct the taskbar to appear at that exact location so hopefully it can be moved?!
Images below show my screen current and my screen when taskbar activated
Thank you for taking time to read this.
Darren_Bridgeland: there is another program out to hide the tray, but I forget what it's called. I'll be releasing an update of VJToggleToday as soon as I can finish off a few things on it. Hopefully be working on it this weekend... but I say that every week
This is an issue you guys need to think about though:
- hiding the tray is fine, but consider that when we do need access to the Tray, which occassionally we do, would you like it as an overlay as you have it now, or revert all of the changes made by VJToggleTodayWM5, which will optionally be:
- toggle tray
- shrink start bar (top)
- shrink soft buttons (bottom)
- expand Today screen
I future version of VJToggleToday will do some more funky stuff with the Tray, but for now, we need to consider - should I hide the tray/unhide and revert all changes, or hide/overlay similar to the current "feature" in the old WM2003 version you're using.
V
Thank you for answering so quickly vijay555 I was just looking at your personal website, great work your doing there
I absolutely love the clean look your togglenew program has given my device but unfortunately I agree that the system tray is needed.
All im hoping for is a way to relocate the tray into the old 'new menu' position at the bottom underneath Ilauncher in my screenshot. I can then reduce pocketbreeze size and away i go lol
Is this possible?
But if I mush the tray down to where the soft keys would be, what about the sofkeys?
Relocate the tray above the soft keys?
VJToggleToday works on relatively simple ideas, but the permuations are the pain of it - if I shrink the Start bar, I have to account for it in the Today screen, the soft buttons and the Tray. If I hide the tray, I have to account for it likewise. However, if I don't hide the tray? If I don't shrink the SoftButtons? Und so weiter.
VJToggleToday is going to need a config dialog I think. And a clear head to program stuff like tray toggling. The basic code is done though, I hope. I haven't looked at it for a while - so busy on VJCandela cross compatibility and something else - old, but new, coming soon :wink:
V
If you look at my screenshots I currently have my screen full, Ilauncher is sitting right at the bottom where the softkeys WOULD BE. Im asking for the tray to be INSTEAD of the softkeys (so to be EXACT the tray needs to be located 26pixels lower than its usual postion). Then I can reduce pocketbreeze by 26 pixels.
At the moment the tray cuts right through Ilauncher as Ilauncher is sitting in the tray & softkey position.
Is this clearer??
I understand that Darren.
In my WM5 screenshot, I've minimised the soft keys to 2 pixels rather then remove them completely, on the basis that you might still want to tap on them with the stylus (I do this with my Magician's start bar (top), which is minimised to 2 pixels and then overlayed with a 24 pixel PhoneAlarm skin
However, if you KNOW you will not need this, ie only use the hard keys to access the softmenu, then I can make it an option to entirely remove the softkeys (however - the SIP icon overlay still seems to enjoy popping up. I'll investigate that later).
I'm intending to make it optional to configure the size of the softkeys and start menu, from 26 pix to 0. Maybe make it bigger then 26 pix for VGA screens? That might be cool.
V
That would be a good feature to be able to configure the menu's size. So just out of interest the togglenew program, does that disable the softkeys or shrink them? Ive remade my wallpaper to be 26 pixels large and nothing appears clickable, I assumed it completely disabled them (think im getting confused lol)
Trouble is even if you disable/shrink softkeys how will you move the system tray to the bottom of the screen??
It cant be via another program as people will want to butt programs up to the tray, so you'll need to find the code that currently locates it and alter the code perminantly no??
You're using the old VJToggleToday which is Wm2003. That's hardcoded to hide the New menu on Wm2003, and by accident the soft keys on Wm5. But for the Wm5 it's more sophisticated internally (hence then new WM2003 version as well, which will be more foolproof).
The new version will permit resizing of the soft keys, and I guess the start menu (for those who use start bar replacements).
Moving the Tray is no problem. On my WM2003 I used to use it like this:
VJHideStart
To permit hiding it, but bringing it back optionally. Future versions of VJToggleTodayWM5 will (hopefully) have similar options.
It cant be via another program as people will want to butt programs up to the tray
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's all part of the difficulties involved in writing it. There are lots of contingencies to take into account.
V
wow how did you move the tray?? was it hard/easy?
could i manage it??
Sure you could manage it, but through code. PM me if you want to discuss.
V
vijay555 said:
You're using the old VJToggleToday which is Wm2003. That's hardcoded to hide the New menu on Wm2003, and by accident the soft keys on Wm5. But for the Wm5 it's more sophisticated internally (hence then new WM2003 version as well, which will be more foolproof).
The new version will permit resizing of the soft keys, and I guess the start menu (for those who use start bar replacements).
Moving the Tray is no problem. On my WM2003 I used to use it like this:
VJHideStart
To permit hiding it, but bringing it back optionally. Future versions of VJToggleTodayWM5 will (hopefully) have similar options.
It cant be via another program as people will want to butt programs up to the tray
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's all part of the difficulties involved in writing it. There are lots of contingencies to take into account.
V
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is there any way to have the latest beta version of VJToggleTodayWM5 ? Thanks in advance.
Not really jolas: if it was ready to release, I'd release it, but I've been too tied up to work on it for a while. I'll try to have a look at this and a couple of other apps this weekend... I'm also releasing a couple of other new-ish things this weekend, so busy busy
V
Thanks for your reply vijay555. Please, try to release this app, it will be very usefull for me and a lot of other people.
Hope this weekend it a positive and productive one for you Vijay and cant wait to see the results :wink:
Hope to recieve a PM about the coding, but will understand if your trying to sort the program instead.
Take Care
Any news about VJToggleTodayWM5 ???
its next on vijay's priority list, hes just finished a couple of other programs. Hopefully we'll start seeing some progress over the next week or 2
Thanks Darren. See you're posting from Buzzdev!
Yes, as I've been saying for a while, my developments tend to dovetail together. I finally got a chance to do some work on VJFullscreenTSC this weekend, which I hope finally works properly. It's had minimal testing but it worked fine on my VGA universal.
But from there I learnt a couple of lessons I needed to bring back to VJToggleToday. It strikes me that this app should not be too hard to finish now. That's no promise - I've had some very concerning news recently about Vijay555.1, my little baby who is on his way. So as I'm sure you'll all understand, family priorities
But certainly, next on my plate is VJToggleToday, finally. And research has given way to a couple of new ideas that should also help a few left handed chaps out. But one app at a time...
V
ooh I hope vijay 555.1 is ok. Ive just had a little boy 3 days ago so good luck with that.
My 2 year old was a very traumatic pregnancy and first 15months of life so I wish you all the best
Many thanks Darren. News could be better on Vijay555.1, but it could be worse. All the best to your little one! Now the real hard work begins. I must be the only guy looking forward to having an excuse to be up at night, with nothing to do but program and look at the kid..
I'm only managing an hour or two coding on weekdays, and that's slow progress, barely one app to look at per night.
Yesterday was VJFullscreenTSC again (check out the new screenshots), but VJToggleToday is certainly next. I'm resisting VJTrayLaunch, which I also have some ideas for...
V
Please give us a beta!!!
Is any beta of VJToggleTodayWM5 ready to be releasead? Please, give us something test!

Remove the start bar at top

hey guys,
wonder if this possible, i love the the new SPB3 but is there anyway to take out the start and bar at the top of the page, the standard WM6, cause looks really nice then you have the standard ugly bar at the top
If it is possible can you explain in detail, cause not a great 'Hacker' as such
thanks in advanced
Shane
The answer that I got from SPB regarding the very same question:
SPB said:
Unfortunately it is not technically possible to skin the taskbar in
Windows Mobile 6.1 (might be changed in 6.5) and we don't want to hide
it. So the only way now is to choose color theme (or Today theme) that
looks good with the background.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Even if there is away to disable the start button and take it out, leave the bar with the sound, and signal etc just want to take the start button and wording away??
i just want someway of getting rid of it, as it really spoils it
There might be a Custom Firmware, but i dont think you want to go Through all of that.
But other than that... You can download a Registry editor and:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Shell]
"DisableCtrlEsc"=dword:00000001
Strange
I installed PointUI Home2 on my xperia and it has a option to remove the top bar!! it really makes it look alot better... SPB should just make the same option available... shouldnt be to hard...
if the start bar is removed... wouldn't there just be a visibly blank area in its place?
isn't MS3 built to fit a specific dimension?

how to dismiss m$'s honeycomb menu?

The stupidest menu I have ever seen.
How can I be back to normal or just remove the top "start" to make room
to display other information. thus I won't trigger this so-called
innovative menu.
There is the discussion on this:
http://www.istartedsomething.com/20090302/windows-mobile-65-honeycomb-menu-simple-ingenuity/
My eyes are more confortable to things that are aligned.
This honeycomb menu is introduced because of the small mobile touch screen. Just couldn't udnerstand that someone thought that is a solution which perfectly fit everyone.
In real world, a solution will introduce another issue looking for solution.
To me the dis-alignment is a bigger issue.
Please help.
Start menu
There's a few options when it comes to changing the wm6.5 start menu. Theres Quick menu 2.8 found here, and theres a cab to modify the honeycomb to a list here.
Thank you. The first one is a bit overloaded.
The list seems to be a good choice. Then I just miss the list of recent program.
Emul8or said:
There's a few options when it comes to changing the wm6.5 start menu. Theres Quick menu 2.8 found here, and theres a cab to modify the honeycomb to a list here.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

[SOLVED]6.5.3/6.5.5 Soft keys (Yes I've searched the WIDE WEB)

I really want to upgrade to a custom rom with 6.5.3 or 6.5.5, BUT, the bottom soft keys is a huge turn off for me.
I've searched all over the web and I can't seem to find anything about it.
But here's basically one of 2 things I want.
1. To revert the soft keys (start button etc etc.) back to what it was in 6.5 (soft keys on top instead of bottom).
2. If putting the soft keys to top can't be done, then if they can be removed entirely.
Help is much appreciated, and if nosuch thing exist then I'm willing to pay someone to make it happen.
Regards, Kim.
It maybe difficult for your request #1.
But, there are plenty to fulfill your request #2. Here are the CABs which you actually can find within this HD2 forum.
Thanks a lot.
Does this remove the space they use also? My entire problem with these soft keys is they take up a lot of screenspace on the HD2, so it's important that the entire space they use goes away and not just the actual soft keys.
I'd really like to not risk flashing and then it only removes them but doesn't fix the space they take up.
KimVinsted said:
Thanks a lot.
Does this remove the space they use also? My entire problem with these soft keys is they take up a lot of screenspace on the HD2, so it's important that the entire space they use goes away and not just the actual soft keys.
I'd really like to not risk flashing and then it only removes them but doesn't fix the space they take up.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have a look at the screenshot I posted below. It's an example of what the cabs above will do for you. Keep in mind I'm only demonstrating the soft-keys/bottom bar configuration. Those cabs do not affect the theme in any way.
dharvey4651 said:
Have a look at the screenshot I posted below. It's an example of what the cabs above will do for you. Keep in mind I'm only demonstrating the soft-keys/bottom bar configuration. Those cabs do not affect the theme in any way.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm confused? The bottom soft keys are still there clearly?
Edit:
Get it now, thanks a lot for the help!
KimVinsted said:
I'm confused? The bottom soft keys are still there clearly?
Edit:
Get it now, thanks a lot for the help!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry I think I misunderstood you. I thought you meant the on-screen start and close buttons. The soft-keys are still kind of important.
Also, if you haven't noticed already, the bottom bar is somewhat larger than WM6.5 but also the TOP bar is somewhat smaller than WM6.5.
This essentially takes the same exact amount of space on the screen as WM6.5, just offset to the top slightly.
KimVinsted said:
I'm confused? The bottom soft keys are still there clearly?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I guess you are confused by the bottom task bar, soft keys, and start menu. The visual difference between 6.5 and 6.5.x is the placement of the start menu. The attached CABs at least would make the bottom task bar look the same as the 6.5.

Start Text & Icon ***No Start***

HI,
Is there a possibility to remove the "start" text from the hd2 top bar. Or change the icon.?
yahya.hamid said:
HI,
Is there a possibility to remove the "start" text from the hd2 top bar. Or change the icon.?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There is a way, but I can't for the life of me find the thread for it. They are just simple .cabs, I had looooads but I deleted them after installing Windows 6.5.x as I didn't need to use them. I'll keep searching and hopefully someone will link you to a thread in the meanwhile!
Okay here is one... http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=584531
*Edit* This one is just a taskbar, but check it out regardless. http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=642832
I've been searching for about 40 mins or so and I still can't find the ones I had on my hard drive, God knows where they are hiding. 0_o
Hello Everyone!
Hi guys 'n' girls.
Thanks Kalavere for pointing me to this thread
Was getting a little frosty in my other thread..
I'm looking for a few things for 6.5...
1) A collection of start icon's (only the icon, no text). Also a separate remove text cab would be nice as I've seen a few others that would give a limb for one...
2) I've not yet seen any of these yet but I'm after a collection of animated load icons (you know, the win icon that spins)
3)A collection of stand alone volume skins. Have seen a couple of these but they always seem to incorporate something else (not that I'm picky lol)
I'm mainly looking for Dusk and Anastasia themed items but i would love to see what else is out there!
Thank you in advance for any help!
Any hints to threads would be greatly appreciated!
Ps. @ Kalavere, I love your profile pic! I'm big in to Gas masks my self, had to mention!
Kalavere said:
Okay here is one... http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=584531
*Edit* This one is just a taskbar, but check it out regardless. http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=642832
I've been searching for about 40 mins or so and I still can't find the ones I had on my hard drive, God knows where they are hiding. 0_o
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks a lot. Tried but no help. The taskbar I use is from anastasia. However the Start icon change in itself is not possible.
Also the "Start" text written on the top cannot be removed. Is there a way for it really.
It will eb a very nice idea to make a collection of
Volume icons
SMS icons
Battery icons
Start icons
and customization of start text.
Anyone upto it?
yahya.hamid said:
However the Start icon change in itself is not possible.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can definitely, definitely change just the icon alone. I just can't find the damned things!
*Edit* This is how to do it manually, there are some cabs floating about though...
snowblind2142 said:
2) I've not yet seen any of these yet but I'm after a collection of animated load icons (you know, the win icon that spins)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've found an answer to that, thanks to dafunk2.
TO ALL OF YOU THAT WANT ONLY THE CUSTOM WAIT CURSOR:
No guys, there is no way to make a cab for only the custom wait cursor.
This is because the custom wait cursor graphics are into the file shellres.192.dll. Into this file reside also many of the taskbar icons and other miscellaneous graphics. If I make a cab with only the file shellres.192.dll and you install it, you will have my wait cursor, but you will have many of my taskbar icons as well. It's good if you use my taskbar (but if you use my taskbar you already have my cursor ), but if you use another taskbar....you can easily understand what can happen.
So this is why there's no way to make a cab that installs only the cursor.
I'm thinking about to make some colors variations of the cursor, but I think that I will make them for cookers (and who knows how to edit dlls) and I will post the 32bit bitmaps in the Windows Mobile Themes section.
I'm sorry.....but I'm explaining why this is impossible
Anyway, many thanks for the great interest for my custom wait cursor
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Shame
Shame but thanks for letting us know Kalavere
Cab to remove 'Start' Txt
yahya.hamid said:
Thanks a lot. Tried but no help. The taskbar I use is from anastasia. However the Start icon change in itself is not possible.
Also the "Start" text written on the top cannot be removed. Is there a way for it really.
This removed the 'Start' Txt from the upper left Start Button. I'm using T-Mobile US.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
it works - thx for it

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