Experts Online

QUICK TIP: Changing the bar system color (the base hue) under WM5+

Werner Ruotsalainen — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 12:46:58 -0500

I’ve just been asked in the Smartphone & PPC Mag VIP section (where I’m the lead helper) of how you can easily change your upper / lower / scrollbar colors on WM5+ (WM5, WM6, WM6.1 etc.) Windows Mobile devices with touchscreens (NOT models without them!), also often referred to as the “base hue”.

What happened to the famous "ignore_my_docs" in WM5?

Werner Ruotsalainen — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 07:37:18 -0600

(Note that if you’ve never heard of ignore_my_docs, you can safely skip this article. It’s only meant for users of previous Windows Mobile operating systems that would like to know whether ignore_my_docs is still in effect.)

There is still a lot of confusion caused by ignore_my_docs explained for example in THIS (this is the most important article!), THIS and THIS threads / articles.

One of the BEST hacks of the year: Dial-up Networking Through Bluetooth Under WM5 AKU3 / WM6: at last, it’s WORKING, thanks to X

Werner Ruotsalainen — Sat, 28 Jul 2007 11:39:25 -0500

UPDATE (11/02/2007): There's a version specifically meant for the T-Mo Dash is at http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=340762 . Also, if you have a MS Smartphone (as opposed to a Pocket PC), it MUST be application unlocked for the hack to work. See for example See for example http://www.smartphonemag.com/blogs/index.php?blog=3&p=2004&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1 for more links on application unlocking. Note that app unlocking is absolutely legal.

UPDATE (10/02/2007): there is an even better, easier-to-install and, what is more, even MS Smartphone (Windows Mobile Standard)-compatible hack. Just download the CAB file linked from THIS post (I’ve also mirrored it HERE, just to be on the safe side, should you not want to register at XDA-Dev to access the download), install it (by simply clicking it on your handheld), power down your device (if it’s a Pocket PC – in order to make sure the Registry changes are all flushed) and restart it.

This hack will add full BT DUN to both platforms. I’ve thoroughly tested it on both my WM6 HTC Universal (a Pocket PC) and WM6 HTC s710 / Vox (a Smartphone) and found it excellent. Note that the traditional, BT PAN-based Internet Sharing will still work alongside with the added BT DUN (tested on both devices).

Note that it has a minor annoyance. After you terminate the connection, you will still be unable to access the Net on the Pocket PC or Smartphone that you used as a modem (also see THIS and THIS for similar bug reports). The solution to this is pretty simple: instead of (lengthy and/or awkward) soft resetting your handheld, just make sure you tap either the data connection icon in Comm Manager (this seem to be sufficient with Smartphones) or, as with, it seems, with Pocket PC’s (like the Universal), just dis- and, then, re-enable the phone connection itself (or, alternatively, en-, and, then, re-disable Flight mode). This all makes this small bug easy to live with.

Finally, Smartphone users: remember NOT to long-press the Red dial button to lock your device – it’ll also terminate the call. Instead, use the standard lock menu accessible via the Power button.

There is also a tutorial on making USB connection work with Modem Link HERE, should it be messed up. Also, the entire thread might be worth giving a read, should you still have problems.

Thanks for FX Belloir for pointing out this hack!

(end of update, the now-outdated original article follows. This means you’ll want to prefer the new hack explained above, NOT the old one I still keep for historical purposes only. It's only the first sections, which explain what this is all about, are worth reading for casual users.)

Anyone having read my article New dial-up networking model of the WM5 AKU3 – a must if you use your WM phones as modems knows WM5 AKU3 (and, of course, WM6) has dramatically changed the way dial-up networking is handled – not necessarily in the good direction. (Please DO read the article if you don’t have a clue what I’m referring to and you have ever wanted to use your Windows Mobile handheld as a cellular modem!)

Microsoft, so far, haven’t really done anything to the problem, except for publishing an article (also discussed for example HERE). Therefore, hackers needed to concentrate their forces on solving the problem. After the first failed attempts (for example mine, as is explained in the first-linked article), at last, some excellent XDA-Developers folks have managed to enable this feature with a comparatively easy-to-do hack. I’ve developed the hack further, making it compatible with several handheld models and ROM versions (the previous version available at XDA-Developers doesn’t support the Universal, Wizard and, probably, several other models because it doesn’t do any forced Registry import – it might only be compatible with the P3600.)

The hack makes it possible to use most WM5 AKU3 / WM6 devices in the traditional (pre-WM5 AKU3) DUN dial-up method, in addition to the new, in WM5 AKU3 introduced Internet Sharing.

This means you can use BOTH technologies and can have the advantages of BOTH approaches. With the “traditional” DUN dial-up, you still have the freedom of NOT having to manually start / reconnect Internet Sharing AND the ability to use clients not supporting the BT Personal Area Network (PAN) profile required by the new Internet Sharing. And, as Internet Sharing is still supported, you can still have a real internet sharing approach, making it possible to use the Internet on both the Windows Mobile device acting as a modem and the client that connects to it (and can still have the other goodies Internet Sharing also offers: for example, the accessibility of the phone even with an ongoing Internet session.)

Again, it’s almost impossible to emphasize how important, how revolutional this hack is! If you’ve EVER tried to use your WM5 AKU3 / WM6 Windows Mobile phone as a modem you know Internet Sharing can be a REAL pain in the back, particularly if the client you’d like to use it from doesn’t support BT PAN.

New PhoneDaily article on forthcoming WM5 AKU3 upgrade

Werner Ruotsalainen — Fri, 29 Sep 2006 03:33:49 -0500

http://babelfish.altavista.com/babelfish/trurl_pagecontent?lp=zh_en&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.winmobiletech.com%2Fsekalaiset%2FhkAKU3.htm

Now that Microsoft has, finally, officially released the forthcoming, by Windows Mobile 5 users, highly anticipated AKU3 (please read this article on what different AKU's are different in) for device manufacturers and rebranders, a lot of new articles have been published on it. The latest one worth checking out is that of Hong Kong-based website Phone Daily. The original article is here, the English "translation" of it here. (Note that BabelFish wasn't able to translate the original page; this is why I had to edit the original page and remove the implicit REFRESH tag to avoid BabelFish promptly switching to the main (Chinese) homepage of the site. The modified and, now, BabelFish-compliant page is here. Remembering this trick can be pretty useful when you plan to translate any page from Phone Daily - or, for that matter, any web site that is incompatible with BabelFish because of the quiuck redirection.)

Everything you need to know about USB networking in WM5 - UPDATED!

Werner Ruotsalainen — Fri, 15 Sep 2006 05:06:25 -0500

I’ve just updated my article on the USB networking model of WM5 originally published here with the latest AKU2.2+-related information.

To summarize the changes for people that aren’t interested in the technical details: in the latest, AKU 2.2 (or later) WM5 upgrades available for many HTC (i-mate, Qtek, T-Mobile, Cingular etc.) Pocket PC phones and some unconnected PDA’s like the Dell Axim x51v, it may be preferable to deactivate the, by default, enabled "Enable advanced network f

Don't you understand what all these so-called "AKU's" are about? mobile-review has just published a nice writeup of all about th

Werner Ruotsalainen — Tue, 12 Sep 2006 09:15:47 -0500

http://www.mobile-review.com/pda/articles/wm-aku-en.shtml

Are WM5 devices indeed slow to boot in?

Werner Ruotsalainen — Mon, 11 Sep 2006 00:55:11 -0500

When the first WM5 devices hit the shelves, people found them very slow to boot in compared to even the (compared to PPC2k/ PPC2k2 devices, which booted in after a reset almost instantenously) already "slow" WM2003/WM2003SE devices.

Fortunately, the situation has, in cases, dramatically changed with the later released ROM upgrades, which is best seen on the example of the HTC Wizard. All the measurements have been made on freshly hard reset devices without installing anything and just measuring the time it takes from resetting the device to opening the Start menu.

Native (high-resolution) VGA on WM5 VGA devices – the long-awaited roundup and tutorial!

Werner Ruotsalainen — Thu, 31 Aug 2006 09:48:03 -0500

It has been a year since I’ve published VGA demystified - the definitive guide to OzVGA, SE_VGA and everything VGA-related (alternatives:MobilitySite, AximSite (the x50/x51 forum; the Tips and Tricks forum), PPC Magazine, FirstLoox, BrightHand), the definite guide to the native VGA mode. As the in the meantime released Windows Mobile 5 requires so-called ‘code signing’ for these kinds of things to work, there has been a lot of confusion about how WM5 devices should be run in native VGA mode. The situation was made even worse by the fact that AKU2 ROMs and ROM upgrades, released earlier this year, also added some new icons to repertoire of Windows Mobile, which resulted in old hacks’ not working flawlessly.

Because of the tremendous (and because I’m one of the guys that know the most about the secrets of the native VGA mode) demand for a new, updated version of the above-linked VGA demystified guide, I’ve allocated some time to elaborate on this subject a bit and to test all the currently available solutions and hacks. This means I’ve tested all the available hacks on all my three VGA WM5 Pocket PC’s (HP iPAQ hx4700 (2.01), HTC Universal and Dell Axim x51v (A12)), taking a LOT of time and effort (because I’ve kept hard resetting these devices between installing other hacks).

First and foremost, now that there are some really nice packages (I'll also refer to them as "OzVGA builds" or "versions" as they're all contain the OzVGA front-end to switch between the two VGA modes and for configuration) to make the installation easy, using the hack on WM5 devices is in no way more complicated than on the previous operating system version WM2003SE.

Any Compact Flash / SDIO radio cards to support WM5?

Werner Ruotsalainen — Fri, 25 Aug 2006 23:31:31 -0500

Upon a blog reader's question, I've investigated whether there are WM5-compliant Compact Flash / SDIO radio cards.

Fortunately, there are. Please see this (the Comments section) for more information.

The WM5 RAMDisk, compatible with (almost) every WM5 device, is here!

Werner Ruotsalainen — Mon, 31 Jul 2006 11:04:11 -0500

UPDATE (03/27/2007): under WM6 (at least on the HTC Universal), Ramdisks are permanent in that they don't need to be recreated. However,

they DO forget their content through resets
they can NOT be disabled; for example, the Unload link didn't work; neither did trying to remove / rename the two related files in \Windows. It seems a hard (clean) reset is the only way to get rid of it. Beware when installing it on a WM6 device!

UPDATE (08/03/2006): make sure you don't miss http://www.smartphonemag.com/blogs/index.php?blog=3&p=1096&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1 !

Anyone having read my articles (see for example this one) on the (dis)advantages of the new Windows Mobile 5 operating system know the memory/storage model of the operating system doesn’t at all let for (even temporary) storage kept in the very fast, albeit scarce and volatile dynamic RAM.

RAM disks can help this situation. They allow for allocating some (with current 64 MByte Pocket PC’s) 2…10 Mbytes of RAM (with 128M RAM Pocket PC’s, figures can be entirely different and there can even be 96 Mbyte-big RAM disks) and map it as a stand-alone drive in the file system as if it were a real storage card.

Being a “real” drive letter means it will not only be represented by a subdirectory in the file system (as can be seen in this screenshot) but also the standard, built-in CAB (program) installer will offer the ability to install your new apps there as can be seen in this Dell Axim x51v (note that the lack of the “available disk space” is not a bug caused by the RAM disk but the A12 ROM version of x51v itself; without the RAMdisk, it behaves exactly the same way as can be seen in here), HP iPAQ hx4700 and HTC Wizard screenshots.

What do RAM disks offer? For example extracting CAB files or other archives, transferring files from the desktop to the PDA or relocating your Web browser’s cache there. In the next chapter, I elaborate on these questions more thoroughly.