Develop Bugs

How to reorganize the home screen on the Dash

OK, I have been with a blackberry now for 2 years and my WM skills are very rusty. I have a TMO Dash running the latest HTC ROM posted here. I remember on a pocket pc you could reorganize, add/delete things on the home screen. How do you do this on the Dash?
My homescreen displays the following in order:
Blackberry: Connected
Owner: Tedy
Get More... 10:20PM
WiFi: Off 1/28/2008
Profile: Normal
Text Messages (1); Email: (0); MMS: (0)
Enter a Password
No Upcoming Appointments
"a bunch of one-click icons"
How do you rearrange these items, e.g. I don't want to display owner info, or I want to move Blackberry:Connected to the bottom. How do you do this?
TIA.

It depends on how much pc and scripting knowledge/background you have.
If you're proficient, you can copy over the *.xml file found in \Application Data\Home.
Open it up on your pc with an xml editor app or directly in notepad, and at that point re-script it to show the plugins and other information in the order and arrangement you prefer.
You're second option is to install some ready-made homescreens which take the onus of choosing what to display on your homescreen and how to arrange it. (If you search this forum for "home screen" or "themes" you'll get the necessary resources)

Suggest a google search for "Q home screens" minus the quotes. Then drag and drop the xml and images to "application data\home" on the excalibur

that or goto http://www.madbeetle.com, where they have a freeware homescreen builder, no XML nowledge required!

Chome Panel Chooser

Hey guys. Whipped this thing up to help people choose the panels that can be displayed on the homescreen. So far it only contains 7 entries, the ones I found on my phone. You can turn the panels off or on, by selecting a panel and typing it "off" or "on" respectively. After you make the changes, you need to reboot to see the changes. The last option will make that easier for you. Choose "Reboot", type "yes" and it will reboot for you. Let me know if there's any other panel names you would like me to add, or if you find any bugs. Thanks!

Look good but isn't this just like the chome settings (neoOrder) that is in Rockys ROM where you can enable and disable the windows you want and change which position they are in on the screen?

Clydeisthe**** said:
Look good but isn't this just like the chome settings (neoOrder) that is in Rockys ROM where you can enable and disable the windows you want and change which position they are in on the screen?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Everyone isn't running rickwyatt's ROM. Some are still with Kavana's. Like me.

Rip Syntaxx said:
Everyone isn't running rickwyatt's ROM. Some are still with Kavana's. Like me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ohh ok I didn't know that it wasn't in Kavana's ROM I have never flashed one of his just Rickys .. my bad

Clydeisthe**** said:
ohh ok I didn't know that it wasn't in Kavana's ROM I have never flashed one of his just Rickys .. my bad
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
To Clyde: It's cool. Contrary to popular belief, there are still some users that are on Kavana's ROMs. lol I have no problem with rickwyatt's, but I found them to have too many apps and tweaks that I found unnecessary for me personally.
To Org (and anyone who'll listen): This is great idea for those who aren't quite comfortable with editing their .xml files to rearrange the slider panels (like me)! I've noticed that many users have a panel called "My Programs". What do I need to do to create this? I think it's a really useful tool to "slide" straight through the programs you use on a regular basis. I've already read tons of posts on this, but it's not registering. Thanks in advance, guys.

It's difficult to sit here and do a step by step, but I'll point you in the right direction and answer your questions later.
1) Download a registry editor or use the one on the phone.
2) First off, keep in mind there's TWO places in the registry where you need to make changes. One is HKLM\Security\Chome\DefaultSettings\CWelcomeCenter and HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Chome\CWelcomeCenter
3) Look for a key that says "Disabled" and make sure it doesn't say "1". Or use my utility to turn the welcome center on.
4) When you're in the registry you'll find Page1, Page2, Page3 etc etc in both places. Each Page represents ONE slide. For each page you can makes changes such as... ACTIONURL is the path to the program you want to execute when hitting the middle button. for example "\program files\NRG\Chomeweathersettings\weather.exe" will run the weather program
SK2URL is the same, but for the right softkey. SK2Text is a label for that softkey. The "pictures" key points to the .png file you will be using as an icon for your program. Right now it probably says "2500". Change it to "\windows\weather.png" and you'll get the weather icon in its place, for example. The Title text is self descriptive... put in whatever you want the title of the slide to be.
I hope you can figure it out from here

OrganicM said:
It's difficult to sit here and do a step by step, but I'll point you in the right direction and answer your questions later.
1) Download a registry editor or use the one on the phone.
2) First off, keep in mind there's TWO places in the registry where you need to make changes. One is HKLM\Security\Chome\DefaultSettings\CWelcomeCenter and HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Chome\CWelcomeCenter
3) Look for a key that says "Disabled" and make sure it doesn't say "1". Or use my utility to turn the welcome center on.
4) When you're in the registry you'll find Page1, Page2, Page3 etc etc in both places. Each Page represents ONE slide. For each page you can makes changes such as... ACTIONURL is the path to the program you want to execute when hitting the middle button. for example "\program files\NRG\Chomeweathersettings\weather.exe" will run the weather program
SK2URL is the same, but for the right softkey. SK2Text is a label for that softkey. The "pictures" key points to the .png file you will be using as an icon for your program. Right now it probably says "2500". Change it to "\windows\weather.png" and you'll get the weather icon in its place, for example. The Title text is self descriptive... put in whatever you want the title of the slide to be.
I hope you can figure it out from here
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks a bunch, man. I'm gonna finagle with this as soon as I get off.

OrganicM said:
It's difficult to sit here and do a step by step, but I'll point you in the right direction and answer your questions later.
1) Download a registry editor or use the one on the phone.
2) First off, keep in mind there's TWO places in the registry where you need to make changes. One is HKLM\Security\Chome\DefaultSettings\CWelcomeCenter and HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Chome\CWelcomeCenter
3) Look for a key that says "Disabled" and make sure it doesn't say "1". Or use my utility to turn the welcome center on.
4) When you're in the registry you'll find Page1, Page2, Page3 etc etc in both places. Each Page represents ONE slide. For each page you can makes changes such as... ACTIONURL is the path to the program you want to execute when hitting the middle button. for example "\program files\NRG\Chomeweathersettings\weather.exe" will run the weather program
SK2URL is the same, but for the right softkey. SK2Text is a label for that softkey. The "pictures" key points to the .png file you will be using as an icon for your program. Right now it probably says "2500". Change it to "\windows\weather.png" and you'll get the weather icon in its place, for example. The Title text is self descriptive... put in whatever you want the title of the slide to be.
I hope you can figure it out from here
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm understanding how to read the code. Thanks for breaking it down. I'm just having trouble finding the .pngs for my icons and also (noob moment) finding the target file for certain applications. It's keeping me from being able to input the file address for ACTIONURL and SK2URL.

Not Hard to Find
Just think of your program, "Where is it stored?"
That should be your only question when finding your target file. That simple, you should look in your Program Files directory on your phone or you storage card, that will then tell you where the link is.
2ndly, you can find other programs in your startup folder. They will be listed in link format, but this is fine, the link can be treated basically as the exact file itself (as far as your phone is concerned).
Long story short, use these locations for your entries for ACTIONURL and SK2URL. Have a blast!
Rip Syntaxx said:
I'm understanding how to read the code. Thanks for breaking it down. I'm just having trouble finding the .pngs for my icons and also (noob moment) finding the target file for certain applications. It's keeping me from being able to input the file address for ACTIONURL and SK2URL.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

outerdepth said:
Just think of your program, "Where is it stored?"
That should be your only question when finding your target file. That simple, you should look in your Program Files directory on your phone or you storage card, that will then tell you where the link is.
2ndly, you can find other programs in your startup folder. They will be listed in link format, but this is fine, the link can be treated basically as the exact file itself (as far as your phone is concerned).
Long story short, use these locations for your entries for ACTIONURL and SK2URL. Have a blast!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, OD. I've figured out the file locations and such. I just need to know where you guys edit the .pngs for icons. I've found some icons, but they sucketh. I want them glossy and polished looking like the default icons.

By "where" , I assume you mean what programs do we use?
I use Photoshop do edit my pngs. I think other, cheaper software is available. Don't quote me on that. Photoshop can also be attained other "ways" (cough,cough).
Anyways, you can easily mod any pictures, turn them into anything you want, .png,.tga,.gif,etc. Look around.
Rip Syntaxx said:
Thanks, OD. I've figured out the file locations and such. I just need to know where you guys edit the .pngs for icons. I've found some icons, but they sucketh. I want them glossy and polished looking like the default icons.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

outerdepth said:
By "where" , I assume you mean what programs do we use?
I use Photoshop do edit my pngs. I think other, cheaper software is available. Don't quote me on that. Photoshop can also be attained other "ways" (cough,cough).
Anyways, you can easily mod any pictures, turn them into anything you want, .png,.tga,.gif,etc. Look around.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I understand how to make any pic a .png, .jpg, .gif, etc... It's not the icons that I need, but rather, the program. I'll search for "alternate" ways to get photoshop. lol

Rinku has a pretty good description on how to add CProgs on his blog. It at the bottom of the page.

Thanks guys for all your help and input! I've figured it out, and in the process figured out how to change the small icons in the upper lefthand corner of the panels as well. It's kinda tedious at first, but once you get the hang of it--it's not bad.

Rip Syntaxx said:
Thanks guys for all your help and input! I've figured it out, and in the process figured out how to change the small icons in the upper lefthand corner of the panels as well. It's kinda tedious at first, but once you get the hang of it--it's not bad.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
For photo edtiting, i use GIMP,,,, it's the same program i used to modify the yahoo weather icons for ORG...... it's free and works just as well as photoshop CS3.
Go here if you want to try. www.gimp.org

pudgedaddy said:
For photo edtiting, i use GIMP,,,, it's the same program i used to modify the yahoo weather icons for ORG...... it's free and works just as well as photoshop CS3.
Go here if you want to try. www.gimp.org
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, Pudgemeister. I'll check it out.

pudgedaddy said:
For photo edtiting, i use GIMP,,,, it's the same program i used to modify the yahoo weather icons for ORG...... it's free and works just as well as photoshop CS3.
Go here if you want to try. www.gimp.org
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I used GIMP for my icons, it was easy and I think they turned out quite nice. Here are a few that I found/made they all have transparent backgrounds. Feel free to use which ever you like.

A few more

Editing Slider Panels
Does anyone know the default setting for this registry key: \HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\CHome\CMessage\ICONPATHS? I changed it trying to change the condensed icon (upper lefthand corner) for the message notifications panel. Instead, my weather panel's icon was changed. What're the default values for the key? (ex. 2xxx;2xxx)

It is 2201;2201

How To: Customize the Sliding Panels Homescreen

This was from the windows mobile team blog. More to follow but wanted to post it for those who don't read that.
Original link: http://blogs.msdn.com/windowsmobile/archive/2008/06/03/customizing-the-sliding-panel-homescreen.aspx
Customizing the Sliding Panel Homescreen
from Windows Mobile Team Blog by Jorge Peraza
Hi, my name is Jorge Peraza; I am a Developer on the Windows Mobile team that was responsible for the new “Sliding Panel” home screen in Windows Mobile 6.1.
When we were working on the visual style and functionality of the home screen we tried to make something that looked both professional and appealing while still showcasing all the information the user is going to need to know what’s important and requires attention. While I think the default design looks really cool, we added some customization features to enable users to make it their own.
Customizing the layout
The home screen layout can be modified using the same home.xml file from previous versions of WM, the schema of the file was extended to allow the customization of many of its elements, this includes the art assets that are used for most of the plug-ins.
When you open the SlidingPanel.home.xml file (inside \ApplicationData\Home) you will find the plug-in element that corresponds to the sliding panel home screen (its CLSID is {E9267CAB-02EE-4f37-8216-6BF6A8FF5A71}). All the child elements inside it are designed to tweak and customize the way the home screen will look.
The top level element is the plugins tag, this has one attribute called “Order” and it’s used to list the plug-ins that will be shown and the order they are going to be laid out on the screen.
The built in plug-in names are:
1)CClock – The big clock
2)CAppointments - The calendar plugin
3)CHome – The notifications plugin
4)CMyPhotos – The photos plugin
5)CMessage – The message center (this is off by default on all sliding panel built in layouts.
6)CMusic – The music plugin
7)Settings – The settings plug-in
8)Custom Plugin – Users can specify custom plug-ins with static content that can be displayed on the home screen.
For example, the XML snippet bellow moves the photos plug-in to the first position and enables the message center (which is turned off by default on both "Sliding Panel" and "Sliding Panel Media")
<plugin clsid="{E9267CAB-02EE-4f37-8216-6BF6A8FF5A71}" name="Bronze" height="266">
<Plugins Order="CMyPhotos;CClock;CMessage" />
</plugin>
There are many other ways of customizing the home screen using the plug-in settings like overriding the default images or even adding your own custom plug-ins that display static content, I'll post and updated entry latter on on how to do this in detail but for now, you can use the provided home.xml files to start experimenting with this.
The notifications plug-in and message center
In the sliding panel home screen, the notifications plug-in by default serves as a dual-purpose notifications/gateway to all you phone/message accounts where every page represents one account (so, if you have multiple notifications in one category they will be shown as one summary page).
There is however an alternative behavior where individual notifications are added as independent pages (Similar to what the T-Mobile shadow home screen does) and the plug-in only shows accounts that have new notifications in them. One cool feature of this alternate behavior is that each individual notification can be dismissed without having to leave the home screen.
You can enable this alternative behavior by setting the following registry key to a value other than 2 (The actual value indicates how many pages of each notification type will be added to the home screen before collapsing them into a summary page. We have tested 2 and 5 but feel free to experiment with other values)
[HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Chome\Chome]
PageCollapseThreshold: DWORD
Note that this prevents you from being able to access the email/phone account data if there are no notifications for it. If you still want to be able to do that you can always re-enable the message center as described in the previous section as a separate plug-in.
There is one more behavioral change you can make that allows you to “dock” the condensed view of the first plug-in to the top of the screen when it is not active, we added this for people like me that want to have the clock always visible. To enable just set the following registry key to “1”
[HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Chome]
DockOperatorBar: DWORD
Advanced layout modification
There are even more advanced things you can do to further tweak the look of the home screen but it is unsupported by Microsoft at this moment so you’ll have to experiment on your own J (Hint, look at the following files \windows\CHome_240x320.cpr and \windows\CHome_320x240.cpr).
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thanks to djNutz for posting this information & OrganicM for his efforts.

I wanted to create a post with info about what the different keys do in the CHome section of the registry. So, I'll start with a brand new one, that I bet nobody knows about....
[HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Chome\Chome]
PageCollapseThreshold: 2 or 5 (DWORD Value)
This will collapse your Notifications panel to only show active notifications. You can enable this alternative behavior by setting the following registry key to a value other than 2 (The actual value indicates how many pages of each notification type will be added to the home screen before collapsing them into a summary page. 2 and 5 were tested and work pretty well.
More to come of course....

should this change be made to the security section too, or does that matter? actually, do changes to the security section ever matter, cause they seem to apply even when you only edit the software section.
p.s.
i'm pretty sure people are gonna ask, so maybe i'll save some trouble instead of looking like an ass by answering preemptively. This DWORD value must be created with your registry editor, it's not already there, at least on ricky v24.
2 = default or normal (i assume cause it looks the same as before) and 5 = condensed.

But for the rest of us who don't have the time to be on every WM blog and forum at once here's my favorite:
To “dock” the condensed view of the first plug-in to the top of the screen when it is not active, set the following registry key to “1”
[HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Chome]
DockOperatorBar: DWORD
This is so you can have the clock always visible, no matter which panel you're on. You could also set it so that CHome Weather's compact view is always on top. Whatever plugin is first on the list.

More info from MS coming down the pipe:
We can get the day of the week on the clock plugin at the top of CHome by doing this:
Replace this portion...
<!-- Date --> <Text ID="Date" Left="180" Top="83" Width="110" Height="19" FontFamily="Segoe Condensed" FontSize="9" FontStyle="Bold" Wrap="False" HorizontalAlignment="Left" Trimming="EllipsisCharacter"></Text>
With this!
<!-- Date -->
<Text ID="Date" Left="180" Top="83" Width="110" Height="19" FontFamily="Segoe Condensed" FontSize="9" FontStyle="Bold" Wrap="False" HorizontalAlignment="Left" Trimming="EllipsisCharacter"></Text>
<Text ID="Day of Week" Left="65" Top="83" Width="110" Height="19" FontFamily="Segoe Condensed" FontSize="9" FontStyle="Bold" Wrap="False" HorizontalAlignment="Right" Trimming="EllipsisCharacter"></Text>
I will incorporate this in Chome Weather fore sure!

Here you go, the first is my Home
2nd is Scroll Down once
3rd is Scroll Down twice
4th is Scroll Down Thrice
heh
Edit: Tried Month in cpr, no luck.
will keep trying

I'm glad people are finally getting this information out. It makes customization that much easier. I'm adding the tips to the wiki as well, as they come out.

How to Reload the Homescreen
I have two questions:
1. After editing my CHome cpr file, how do I reload the homescreen without having to reboot the device?
2. How can I show any text on the clock panel? Regular text is defined by Text ID = "xxxxx", where xxxxx is something like Time, Network Name, etc. However, suppose I want to have the text "Knowledge Rules", how do I set it up in XML?
I have very little programming and Excalibur experience. So, I apologize if these questions are too naive or have been answered before.
Thanks a lot in advance.

you can use this if you dont use OrganicM Chome Weather

I don't think Microsoft has put out much documentation on the sliding panels plugin yet. Most of the CHome configurations use
Code:
TextID="text 1"
as the delimiter for static text. But that's not to say that the clock plugin will recognize that as a valid section. Could work. Could make your phone useless.

beartard said:
I don't think Microsoft has put out much documentation on the sliding panels plugin yet. Most of the CHome configurations use
Code:
TextID="text 1"
as the delimiter for static text. But that's not to say that the clock plugin will recognize that as a valid section. Could work. Could make your phone useless.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I do not understand. How do I make the phone know that:
text 1 = Knowledge Rules?
Typical syntax seems to be Text ID = "xxxx", where xxxx is a variable name, which is recognized by the device. If Text 1 is a valid variable for the device, how do I assign it a value? Am I rambling here?

No, you're not rambling. As far as the information coming from Microsoft and disseminated here on this site goes, it's a best guess right now.

someone at msdn blog asked the same question.
Someone at msdn blog asked the same question. Let's wait to see if we get an answer from there...
From http://blogs.msdn.com/windowsmobile...ustomizing-the-sliding-panel-homescreen.aspx:
"Jorgeba, thanks for taking the time to educate your user. I have some questions.
How do you change the text in the condense clock? The .cpr file has Text ID="Text 1". How is "Text 1" define? I would love to add the date to the condense layout.
The ActionURL and Softkey2 URL in the Appointments plug-in always open calendar in the today view. Is there a way to make one of the button opens calendar in the month view? Setting the default view for calendar does not help."

Easy as pie......
If you know what you are doing.
If you have any xml experience,then you'll know how to adjust x and y values to position things in different places. Yes, you can do that. Just change x=whatever and y=whatever to where you would like them to be. Just know this means that it will start on the left and move x pixels over and y pixels down. If you put in negative values, it will shift them in the opposite direction.
Eg. x=-whatever will move it to the left vs a + value which will move it to the right. Same for y=
Also, you can adjust the valignment and halignment to center, left, or right.
Have fun with these. They apply to everything in your cpr (That's the layout for your homescreen.It's in your \Windows directory on your phone).I mean everything, from where your network displays, right down to your pictures.
That's it. Have fun!
jaymit said:
Hi,
Sorry Im kind of a newbie :s, is it possible to edit home screen panels? I wanted to change the layout and look of the clock plugin.
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

Does anybody know how to change font color for certain panels or certain lines of text in the panel? Is it only possible for the whole homescreen?

As far as I know even as far as old xml coding works, you can only change a font color for a selected word or unselected word. Meaning, if you have the old 6.0 your plugins that are selected could have a different color, but unselected could be another color. This applied to the entire homescreen. I have not seen different colors for different plugins, since each panel style is basically its own plugin (each has its own unique GUID), then I doubt you can change font color for each plugin. You can more than likely only change the active selected panel and inactive panel fonts. I am not sure what their titles are in the cpr, but I know that in the old 6.0, the homecolor was one of the fonts colors and the other was called something else.
Eventhough this is 6.1, it doesn't look like much has changed as far as the fonts color goes. You could, however, always try adding a "fontcolor=" command in the cpr and a hex code and try it, to see if it works.
Hope this helps.

Edit your registry or get CHome Config
Both do the same thing. You want to change the plugin order for CHome. It's located in HKLM\Security\CHome\Default Settings and in HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\CHome. Edit the order you want your plugins to go. Reboot your phone and the new edits should be reflected in your homescreen layout. If you are having trouble cause this is new. Just search this thread for CHome Configurator. It's stickied at the top of this forum. Download it and it will let you select the order in a much easier way. Make sure you reboot, though, or else your changes won't show. Hope this fixes your problem. Later.
tae-xda said:
How to change the default location for where the CMyPhotos plugin
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

rollingondubs1 said:
I have that already, All my games are under a folder which i cant make it as a action url
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
try this
"ACTIONURL" = "\Windows\Start Menu\Games\xxxxx xxxx.lnk
or this
"ACTIONURL" = "\windows\fexplore.exe; \windows\start menu\games"

Yes you can
One last time, I think I've figured out how to help you.
1. Open Chome Config.
2. Scroll to MyApplication and select it with your center button.
3. Scroll to any page you want to edit. Then scroll down to where it says ActionURL. Press menu.
4. Once in the menu select the "1 Change URL" item.
5. Once you have selected that it will take you to a file explorer. Go to \Windows\Start Menu\Games. This is where your games should be. If not, then wherever you store, your games, navigate yourself to that folder and select the file you want.
I think this should cover it. Hope this solved your problem. HOLLA!!!!
rollingondubs1 said:
I have that already, All my games are under a folder which i cant make it as a action url
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

How to change the location of CMyPhoto to \Storage Card\My Documents\My Picturs

MyFaves icon went red-X

I'm sorry to do this. I'm just burnt out on searching today. The icon on my MyFaves panel (the five circles icon) decided to go AWOL today. All the icons appear to be intact in the Windows directory. What do I have to edit to get rid of the damned red "X"?
Only thing I've done differently was update CHome Configurator and CHome Weather. I'm not blaming them since they really don't deal with the icon. I just can't think of anything else I've done.

Go to HKLM\Software\Microsoft\CHome\MyFaves and edit the iconpaths location to where your pic is. The first pic in iconpaths is when your window is active and the second pic location is when your window is inactive. Your pic is probably in your \Windows directory. Hope this helps

(just in case I wasn't clear, here's a capture)
I gotta get off this thing for the night.

the iconpaths key has the value "4605;4604".
What does that translate to?

beartard said:
the iconpaths key has the value "4605;4604".
What does that translate to?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you have the My Fav icons in your windows folder?
if yes, then change the link in the iconpaths to the MAIN "my fav" icon in both reg address'

In the brozeres.dll, the picture files for iconpaths are predefined (meaning they are preloaded, so you don't have to do jack to have your screen be complete).
You can change their paths to whatever you want and that image will replace what the bronzeres.dll days that iconpath should be.
So if you want your active icon to be a color image of My faves icon , and your inactive to be a black and white image of the same, then it would look something like this:
iconpaths:
\Windows\youractiveimagename.png;\Windows\yourinactiveimagename.png
Just make sure whatever image you replace IS located in the place you entered in your registry. It's that easy. Takes like 5 minutes, just type in location drop pics in location (if not already there) and reboot or run your weather update and reload homescreen (might have to change layout, not sure about that). That's it.

I owe you a beer.

One day, my friend.

Oh sure he gets the beer but i dont?
Fine next time ill write a page long way of fixing your issue. lol

Hell, get us all together and the first round's on me.

A clue, perhaps?
beartard said:
I'm sorry to do this. I'm just burnt out on searching today. The icon on my MyFaves panel (the five circles icon) decided to go AWOL today. All the icons appear to be intact in the Windows directory. What do I have to edit to get rid of the damned red "X"?
Only thing I've done differently was update CHome Configurator and CHome Weather. I'm not blaming them since they really don't deal with the icon. I just can't think of anything else I've done.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Okay, the MyFaves pics on the collapsed panel are now X's on my phone.
The pics/icons in the expanded panel are fine.
I believe I have found a clue:
Thinking it might reset the collapsed MyFaves pics/icons panel, I
thought I would change the home screen to something else, reboot, then
change it back and reboot again.
But the home screen layout wouldn't change! So I scrolled through the
home screen settings and discovered duplicate fields on the settings
page for "Home screen layout" and a couple of other fields.
If I changed the layout in the second occurrence (or both occurrences) of
the "Home screen layout" field then the change would occur, but not if
I changed it only in the first occurrence of the field.
Oddly enough, sometime over the weekend the duplicate fields
disappeared but collapsed My Faves panel still displays the X's
rather than miniature pics/icons MOST of the time. Occasionally a
single mini-pic will appear, not always the same one.
Obviously something about the Home Screen settings has become
corrupted.
Here's where maybe XDA developers can help. I'm thinking that the various
home screen layouts must be templates into which a user's unique
settings are imported.
For example, you and I (and everyone else) have identical templates
for, say, the "T-Mobile default" layout. Our unique settings (My
Faves people and icons/pics, Weather app city, etc) are properties imported into the template before (or as) it is displayed in the panel. If someone could find out what file(s) comprise the "T-Mobile default" template, someone
might be able to either tell us how to fix the corruption or post the uncorrupted template file(s) copied from another Dash phone.
Now, while online with my Dash to Tmo this past weekend through Web2Go
I came across a support screen that listed support for "missing
MyFaves app". Unfortunately that link led nowhere (dead). Now I can't even find the page, but obviously T-mo does recognize a missing MyFaves app as an issue, so it may be possible to restore our missing icons/pics to the collapsed MyFaves panel by reinstalling the MyFaves app.
I'm not sure this is relevant, but this occurred after a couple of aborted attempts to install Opera, then Mini Opera. Eventually I got Mini Opera installed.
Distinguished XDA developers, I know many of you think the MyFaves app is useless but some people like having it, so any help that you can provide is greatly appreciated!
-GoJ

Favorites as default in WM6.1

OK - I was almost sure this was a no-brainer well covered in these forums, but I could not search and find a solution. Pardon if I am recovering old ground, and perhaps someone can just point me to the right thread.
When I first open internet explorer (in my WM6.1 Dash). I know I can now easily set the home page to be some other html page - even without a registry hack in 6.1 (how nice!). But ... I want my Favorites (the list of links that appear then I click menu->favorites) to be the default home screen for IE. I can't figure out how to do this since "favorites" is really a directory of ".url" links, and not one single page.
So, what I want is when I start IE is to have this list of favorites appear.
Anyone have a hack, or other approach? Or point me to the thread where this was solved?
Thanks all!

not sure. i know that your favorites are stored in the \windows\favorites directory . I tried changing the home page to \windows\favorites, but that didnt work. Here's a tip that MAY work. It does however require using internet explorer on your PC though. What you need to do is first, backup your favorites on your PC... file-->export. Then you should have a mobile favorites in your favorites directory for IE on yor PC ( assuming you use activesync to sync your mobile favorites) you will need to organize your favorites and move all of the favorites from your mobile favorites to just favorites main. Then to file export of those favorites and name the file whatever you want. Then take that file and drop it anywhere on your mobile phone and then use pocket IE to open homepage with that file. This may then show the list of the favorites that your CURRENTLY have, this will not show any additional favorites you add after this point. you'd have to do this process all over again if you wanted to make sure that favorite is added to that list. As i haven't tried this yet, im only giving you this as a consideration, not as an absolute fix. Oh and make sure you remove all of your favorites from internet explorer on your pc then do file-import and locate the original exported file you created to get it back to where it was b-4 you started all of this.

cornell2 said:
OK - I was almost sure this was a no-brainer well covered in these forums, but I could not search and find a solution. Pardon if I am recovering old ground, and perhaps someone can just point me to the right thread.
When I first open internet explorer (in my WM6.1 Dash). I know I can now easily set the home page to be some other html page - even without a registry hack in 6.1 (how nice!). But ... I want my Favorites (the list of links that appear then I click menu->favorites) to be the default home screen for IE. I can't figure out how to do this since "favorites" is really a directory of ".url" links, and not one single page.
So, what I want is when I start IE is to have this list of favorites appear.
Anyone have a hack, or other approach? Or point me to the thread where this was solved?
Thanks all!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't know either but another way is to set a favorites panel on your homescreen. When you click on the favorite url, then it would open PIE with that link. Or if you have Operamini set as DEFBROWSER then it could open in there. It would be fairly easy to write a mortscript that would check your windows/favorites folder and automatically add/subtract urls from the panel at a set time of day.

Ok , i did what i mentioned b-4 and it worked beautifully! Although the links look more like links you will see on a web page, they all work!
Bear with me as this explaination may be a little long.
Step 1. Make sure you have favorites checked to be synched using MS Activesync. you should see a mobile favorites folder in your list of favorites in IE if you have this setting checked. Make sure all of the favorites you have on your phone match the favorites listed in your phones favorites in PIE.
Then in IE. go to file->import&export-->export favorites-->select the mobile favorites folder to export. then it select the directory you want to save it to ( i selected the desktop) into "whateverfilename".htm file name. Then take that file you just created and place it anywhere on your phone. ( i put it into the "\storage card\my documents\" folder) Then on your phone, open up PIE and press right soft key-->tools-->home page and select custom, then on the line to type where the file is located type file:\\ and wherever your .htm file is located. ( mine looked like: file://\storage card\my documents\favorites.htm ) Then i selected home page in PIE and all of my favorites showed up on the home page!

showaco said:
I don't know either but another way is to set a favorites panel on your homescreen. When you click on the favorite url, then it would open PIE with that link. Or if you have Operamini set as DEFBROWSER then it could open in there. It would be fairly easy to write a mortscript that would check your windows/favorites folder and automatically add/subtract urls from the panel at a set time of day.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I came up with a solution that works for me. Posting so others can see:
1. on my PC - in IE, I exported the "Mobile Favorites" directory to a file called mobile.htm
2. I copied this into my dash \windows folder
3. I went into InternetExplorer->Tools->Options and changed the default home page to \windows\mobile.htm
Reloaded IE and everything works just great.
Thanks !

Would this work if your favorites are organized in folders?
Yes it can
Thanks guys.
Here is my favorites i use

does anyone know how to configure the internet icons on the homepage... i'm referring to where you scroll down to Internet and there are 10 selections the first is my homepage the second is windows live email and the 4th is a link to xda developers, i want to set each one to a favorite.

micahmills said:
does anyone know how to configure the internet icons on the homepage... i'm referring to where you scroll down to Internet and there are 10 selections the first is my homepage the second is windows live email and the 4th is a link to xda developers, i want to set each one to a favorite.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not sure if I understand, but if you need to add the url to the panel so you can open links directly from the panel, then you can set it thru the registry. If you change the actionurl or sk2url to something like this:
:MSPIE;http://xda-developers.com
If thats not what you mean, and you have links that work in your panels already and you want to add to favorites in pocketInternet Explorer. Then just open the link from the panel and then save it as a favorite once it opens the page.
I wasn't sure which way you wanted to go or I could give more detail. Hopefully that helps.

thanks the first answer was was i was talking about, i tried editing the actionurl and the sk2url like you said but that hasn't changed anything, the first six pages still go to the same websites and the last four that dont' have default url's dont' go anywhere lol

micahmills said:
thanks the first answer was was i was talking about, i tried editing the actionurl and the sk2url like you said but that hasn't changed anything, the first six pages still go to the same websites and the last four that dont' have default url's dont' go anywhere lol
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sounds like its not saving in the registry right, exactly how did you go about editing and where? If it was directly in the reg, then make sure you do it in software and security. If thats what you did, then only other thing I can think of is a reboot after editing. You could also edit with CHome Configurator, I've seen it make reg changes that couldn't be done manually for some reason.