Database Info

TUTORIAL: Create links to the programs in your Settings menu

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

Small tools for WM5

Two small tools I made for WM5:
NewTray adds a menu with all "New" entries (like the New menu in PPC2000 to WM2003SE) to the system tray. The icon's a small yellow star...
(Sadly, not all entries work fine on all devices, since WM5 has no native New menu, nobody seems to check them. For example, new message doesn't work on P525...)
RemapSoftkeys allows to modify the softkey allocation on the Today screen. It only modifies registry entries, so you don't need to keep it installed after you set your new values...
Both ZIP files contain the PPC executeable, i.e. you have to copy the contained file to the PPC and execute it there. For NewTray, it'd be usefull to create a shortcut in the startup folder. To do this, run the file explorer on your PPC, tap&hold on NewTray.exe, select Copy, then go to \Windows\Startup (or localized name, e.g. \Windows\Autostart for German Windows), right softkey, Edit > Paste shortcut.
I plan to show the menu if NewTray.exe is executed again, so you could open the menu with a softkey, currently this is not possible.

Thanks for the apps.. but to burst your bubble, there are already some software that do what yours are doing.
The popular one, a must have for me, is the WM5NewMenu
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=255580&highlight=
And as for the soft key customization, there are a few around
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=260171&highlight=
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=279544&highlight=

hanmin said:
Thanks for the apps.. but to burst your bubble, there are already some software that do what yours are doing.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, almost...
The popular one, a must have for me, is the WM5NewMenu
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=255580&highlight=
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I know that, but it's got a quite different approach. It has its own menu, while I read everything from the registry.
This means, that WM5NewMenu has some better features, like sending SMS to given users, but on the other hand requires more memory, isn't international (labels like "Appointment" are read from the registry, too), and (afaik) doesn't realize new/modified "New" entries (e.g. TextMaker or PocketInformant).
Its a matter of taste and needs what you prefer. Some people wished for s.th. like that in another board, and it was only about half an hour to write it, so here it is...
And as for the soft key customization, there are a few around
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=260171&highlight=
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=279544&highlight=
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OK, didn't know of that one. I just read some queries about how to modify the softkeys in the Today screen, and most of the times the answer was either WM5NewMenu or AE buttons. Since it's not too hard to modify a couple of registry entries, I wrote this small tool...

Thanks Mort. Haven't seen you for a while...
Best regards always.
V

Thanks MORT...

Text-to-image utility for WM?

Anyone know of a utility that will take a text file as input and spit out a simple GIF/JPG/PNG/BMP?
If there are none, plan B would be text-to-speech. Anyone know of a good one that sounds reasonably natural?
Thanks in advance!

if there are such options this is the search which will lead you to them
http://www.google.dk/search?hl=da&q=ocr+pocketpc&btnG=Søg&meta=lr=lang_da|lang_en
you can replace ocr with text to speach if you wanna search for that

One of us is misunderstanding...
As I understand Optical Character Recognition, it takes an image (which contains text) and extracts the text. I'm trying to do the opposite - take a text file as INPUT and OUTPUT to an image. (See attachment.)
BTW- I Googled this heavily before posting. Tons of Text2Image links, but everything I found was made for a desktop PC - not Pocket PC. And including "pocket pc" in the search criteria didn't help... lots of pages with Wintel Text2Image software that mention "Pocket PC" somewhere on the page.

Have you thought of using a fullscreen doc viewer (picsel comes to mind...) and a screen-capture mapped to a hardware button? It isn't automated, but it would get the job done.

larsuck said:
It isn't automated, but it would get the job done.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
With mortscript, you can automate pretty much anything, right? Problem is, that really wouldn't get the job done.
Let me explain the application a bit better...
I use Wisbar Advanced Desktop extensively and I have a pretty sophisticated UI set up. I have a special page for weather, but I'm really not happy with *any* of the weather today plug-ins (and I think I've tried pretty much all of them!) So what I want to do is pass 2 or 3 URLs to mortscript, have it read the file in, parse out the stuff I don't want, leaving me with text that gives me the precise details I do want. I then convert the text to an image file, saving it with the same name ands size every time (e.g. currentconditions.gif - which is already set as a positioned element on the WAD virtual page.) I do the same with extended forecast and surf report (I live at the beach in SoCal) and tell mortscript to go out and update this once per hour. Then, when I go to my weather page, I get exactly the info I want (including sunset time, water temp, UV index, etc.) and my info is no older than 59 minutes.
I'm starting to think that I should just do this server-side... maybe I can find a text-to-image script using php. Hmmmm...

Tutorial: Creating MIDlet shortcuts in start menu, and changing the shortcut icon

Well, so you have installed Opera Mini, you love the app but hate having to open your MIDlet manager each time you want to run it. You can't have a direct shortcut icon in your start menu or your quicklaunch bar. Here is a tutorial to fix it (step 1 works with any MIDlet, step 2 works with any shortcut)
First i have to give due credit to Menneisyys and his awesome Java MIDlet Bible, and also to bobstar_fr for his shortcut icon mod tutorial
PREREQUISITES :
- Get yourself a decent MIDlet manager, the default windows one is crap. I would advise Esmertec Java Manager which can be found here.
- Download an Icon Editor for PC, for example the 30-day trial version of ArtIcons Pro will do the job.
STEP 1 : Creating a MIDlet shortcut
This step assumes you have installed Esmertec Jeodek or Esmertek Jbed (see prerequisites)
First, locate the list position of the Java MIDlet you want to shortcut in the Jeodek/Jbed application list. If you install Jeodek/Jbed as a fresh install, and then directly install Opera Mini, just use the number "0" to refer to Opera Mini.
Warning, if you uninstalled some midlets, the application list may not start at 0 or may have gaps. This number is in fact incremented starting at 0 each time you install a new MIDlet.
Then, go to \Windows\Start menu\Programs, and create a new shortcut. In the "target" field, type this :
"\windows\jbed.exe" -run s0_
Replacing the number 0 after the "s" letter by the list position of your MIDlet as found above.
If you have Jeodek installed, you will want to replace jbed.exe with jeodek.exe
Then click on your shortcut, et voila, the MIDLet runs immediately without having to launch the manager.
All credit goes to Menneisyys
STEP 2 : Modifying the shortcut icon
So you have a nice working shortcut, but it has the default java icon instead of the MIDlet icon. If you make many shortcuts they will all share the same (ugly) icon. You may want to change this.
The bad point is that you can't directly access the icon in a .jar file. You may only use icons included in .exe or .dll files. You could extract the .png icon from the .jar file and compile it into a .dll, but this is not the goal of this tutorial.
So if you want to change the icon of your newly-created Opera Mini shortcut, you will use another icon, for example the one from Opera 8.
Find the .exe (or .dll) which contains the icon you want to use, copy it on your PC, then open it with your Icon Editor. You will see a list with all icons included in the file, along with a number. Write down this number, it's the ID of your icon and you will need it.
For example, when you open OperaWM.exe in your icon editor, you see several icons, and the one we're interested into (with the red "O") has ID number 131.
Then go back to your Start Menu shortcut, and in the target field add the following at the end of the line :
?path_to_your_exe,-icon_ID
For the above example, this would be :
?\Windows\OperaWM.exe,-131
Et voila, you now have a nice icon for your shortcut.
All credit goes to bobstar_fr
To end this tutorial, here's a few ready-made examples :
Example 1:
Shortcut for Opera mini, installed in first position in your manager, with opera icon. In the target field of your shortcut, you would write :
"\windows\jbed.exe" -run s0_ ?\Windows\OperaWM.exe,-131
Example 2:
Shortcut for SFR Messenger, installed in second position in your manager, with MSN messenger icon. In the target field of your shortcut, you would write :
"\windows\jbed.exe" -run s1_ ?\Windows\WLMMessenger.exe,-50
Thats'it, hope you will enjoy.

Great tutorial!!! I'll give it a try later tonight. I have jbed installed on storage card though (the modded version of jbed)... I wonder if that may become a problem?

owziee said:
Great tutorial!!! I'll give it a try later tonight. I have jbed installed on storage card though (the modded version of jbed)... I wonder if that may become a problem?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks !
No problem for having jbed installed on your storage card, just replace the "\Windows\jbed.exe" by "\Storage Card\jbed.exe" in all your shortcuts (insert subdirectory if needed).

Great tutorial, I link to it from the Bible.

Hi dude
What about link to MIDlet folders (shortcuts to folder and to any app installed inside it)?
Ciao

Menneisyys said:
Great tutorial, I link to it from the Bible.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wow, i'm honored to get that kind of feedback from the java king of xda-devs.
@[email protected] said:
Hi dude
What about link to MIDlet folders (shortcuts to folder and to any app installed inside it)?
Ciao
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I need to test this to see if installing MIDlets in folders breaches the rule of incremental numbering by installation date. Will keep you updated.

JZ SmartMort v1.4 Released!
Announcing JZ SmartMort v1.4!​
Now you can use JZ SmartMort to create Opera Mini and any other JBed application icon on your Start Menu!
Have a look at the screenshots of JZ SmartMort, available HERE or at SourceForge. Below are the prominent features that the software offers.
Copy / Paste
Clipboard / URL history
Multi-browser (Opera Mini, Opera Mobile, NetFront, Skyfire, Internet Explorer)
Make any installed browser system-level, where it opens links from anywhere. Ability to have a default browser (with a special timeout in case you want to open a link with a non-default browser).
Hardware buttons - supports Pocket PCs & SmartPhones for advanced hardware button mapping.
Opera Mini - shortcut on the Start Menu, different paste & URL handling methods to accommodate different phones.
JBed - create Start Menu shortcuts for any JBed app, run JBed App directly using JZ SmartMort, troubleshoot your JBed installation.
Ability to open synced Mobile Favorites with any browser, process killing and many other interesting features.
Includes general tweaks and hacks which will keep growing
Revisions:
v1.4 *** 2008-07-07
- Created help files.
- Browser: Skyfire fully compatible now, new scan/detection with fail-over paths (if browsers references don't exist in the usual locations like the registry). If default browser timeout is set to zero, the JZ Browser prompt will be bypassed entirely.
- Opera Mini: full-screen, kill JBed option, multiple URL & pasting options.
- Lots of new options for button mapping. All known registry and link file button hacks now integrated to allow virtually any command to be called up. Also provides ability to create a CUSTOM link file from scratch.
- Changed menus to include menu-returns for easy navigation and better user friendliness. Added letters to Action menu as qwerty keyboard shortcuts.
- Phone-specific menu under JZ Settings which expands button mapping for BlackJack II (Samsung i617) CV/MediaNet buttons, as well as, AT&T Tilt (HTC Kaiser) PTT & Long-PTT buttons. More will be added.
- Creation of Start Menu shortcuts & opening of JBed applications w/o needing to open JBed first.
- 3 different methods under JZ Settings > JZ Misc. Options for opening Favorites. Save a Favorite from the JZ Browser script when you pop a link.
- Incorporated VitoCopyPaste with a timeout to return your directional pad action button back to normal.
- Various speed & optimization considerations incorporated.
- Function to deal with MortScript losing focus (e.g. when Home is pressed while Mort choice menu is running).

I would like to add two things:
1) You can limit the memory for jBed and Jeodek:
59#"\Esmertec Java\jbed.exe" -run s2_ -DFile.maxStorageSize=4M
2) Shortcut for Tao Intent:
55#"\Program Files\TAO\jmm.exe" -r"Gmail","Google","Gmail"

I'd like to add a reference to a free icon/resource editor that allows you to create your own set of icons, e.g. for reference in the JBed .lnk files.
Tool Download: http://icofx.ro/downloads.html
Online Help for library creation: http://icofx.ro/tutorials/tutorial4.html

If anyone gets the error: "could not find suite s0..." the solution might be changing the quotation... i mean the "" characters that you copy/paste or write...
Leave the entire command sequence without quotations:
\windows\jbed.exe" -run s0_
That should work!

Hi all.
Tried all above and can't figure it out, "Could not find suite..." error keeps comming
my jbed is located on sd card, path:
\Storage Card\Program Files\Esmertec\Jbed 20090217.5.1R2\jbed.exe
Could it be the jbed location?

You need to check if the suite you access also exists under this number. The numbering is not (immediately) filling gaps that are created when deleting a suite.

V3rt!g(o) said:
Hi all.
Tried all above and can't figure it out, "Could not find suite..." error keeps comming
my jbed is located on sd card, path:
\Storage Card\Program Files\Esmertec\Jbed 20090217.5.1R2\jbed.exe
Could it be the jbed location?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have you ever try?
I've successful to create shortcut :
69#"\Storage Card\Program Files\Esmertec\Jbed 20090217.5.1R2\jbed.exe" -run s1_ ?\windows\ListView.exe, -1
unfortunately, I can't change the icons.

Q: Assign launcher button to an IE favorite?

Hi Everyone,
The is the first time I've started a thread, and I have searched, but possibly not with the right search terms.
What I'd love to have is a way to go directly to a website without first going into favorites and finding it. The first site I thought of for this was Youmail.com, so I could get to visual voicemail with one button press.
I'm using SPB MS 2.12, if that matters.
Anyone know how to accomplish this?
thanks in advance
Criss

you can create a *.lnk file with the website you desire to go to.. (e.g. http://www.youmail.com) and use HButton to assign it to a hardware button.
HButton can be found in google or in this forum. very easy to implement.
btw, creating the *.lnk file means creating an empty file in windows, writing its name and putting its format as lnk. then edit it with the web address.

I know with the IPhonz app you can create direct shortcuts to websites using the IPhonz launch buttons - Pretty easily. You can do this with Ultimate Launch as well, I have a few set up myself with my ultimate launch setup - and maybe with Throttle launcher - Have not used throttle launcher either but might be worth looking into. You can also search for a home plugin to create your own shortcuts and launcher button. I know there are a few but cannot think of them at the top of my head since I do not use them. I Use Ultimate Launch and had previously used IPhonz IPhonz is free - Ultimate Launch you must pay for if you don't want the full version withouth the words "trial" in the corners of your screen.

Thanks
Thanks for the feedback guys.