Spring clean shortcuts and icons in Windows Mobile!

If you have owned a WM device for any length of time, you know that after loading several third-party applications, the main Programs screen gets pretty crowded with shortcuts that require you to scroll through. Pretty much every installer will add a shortcut here. One way to help lessen the clutter is to create the equivalent of “Program Group” folders to organize all the shortcuts, not so much different than on your desktop PC. It’s actually rather simple to do, and in my tip for this month’s round-up, I’ll also include a bonus of how to tweak the folder icons (or any of your shortcut icons really). Several programs that include a lot of separate shortcuts (like Spb Mobile Shell) do this already, and of course there is a “games” group in WM already. Read on to learn how to de-clutter and spruce up your programs menu...

Step 1. Create a new folder in \Windows\Start Menu\Programs\. In my case I named it “Tools”, but you may want to add one for several like e-book, and news “Readers”, or “Multi-media” applications for example. Step 2. Cut/paste the existing program shortcuts that you want to reorganize into your new folder using file explorer. While WM file explorer is fine for this step, but you really should go get a better file manager application (like Total Commander), because you need to be able to see hidden file types, which file explorer natively doesn’t do. There are several free ones available (or add-ons), so simply search on google or your favorite search engine to find one you might like. I still use the old Vieka Pocket Explorer myself (which still mostly works in WM 6). At this stage, if all you want to do is reorganize everything, you are done. When you open the main Programs menu, you will see a folder icon containing your program shortcuts. This may not work with all programs, so if you move a shortcut and it causes issues, you should move it back to where it was. Step 3. Now we will point WM to a custom icon for your folder. On your desktop computer, open Notepad, and type in the following text in a new text file... 1#shellres.dll,-13900 Note: The shellres.dll file is a binary file that contains several icons that the WM operating system refers to. Later we will look at some methods of editing it (or actually a similar file). The value after the comma (-13900) is a pointer to a particular icon image. In this case for my tools folder, I pointed the default to the “memory” icon in the shellres.dll. Below is a key to common WM system icon images and their values: Bluetooth: shellres.dll,-13909 Connections: shellres.dll,-13953 Network cards: shellres.dll,-13888 Buttons: shellres.dll,-13944 Input: shellres.dll,-13936 Lock: shellres.dll,-13942 Menus: shellres.dll,-13937 Owner Info: shellres.dll,-13841 Phone: shellres.dll,-13954 Sounds: shellres.dll,-13924 Today: shellres.dll,-13952 about: shellres.dll,-13899 Certificates: shellres.dll,-13941 Clock n Alarm: shellres.dll,-13840 Error Reporting: shellres.dll,-13997 Memory: shellres.dll,-13900 Power: shellres.dll,-13895 Regional Settings: shellres.dll,-13901 Remove Programs: shellres.dll,-13943 Screen: shellres.dll,-13906 Step 4. Now save the file with the following name “icon.lnk” and yes, even add the quotes in the file name in the Notepad file save dialog to make sure the type is preserved. After save, right-click on the file and select properties. Turn on the “hidden” attribute. If your desktop file explorer is not set to view hidden file types, so please turn that option on. Step 5. Copy the file to main memory on your device, and then use the enhanced file explorer application on your device to move it to your new shortcut program folder. You can also make sure the hidden attribute remains set, or set it if not. Step 6. Go to the main Programs menu (Start >> Programs), and you should now see your new program group, complete with your custom icon, and much less cluttered icons to scroll through (Note the “Tools” icon above). Tapping it should take you to your custom list of shortcuts. Step 7. Now to have some fun you can attempt to add your own icons. This is a little more complicated as you can’t simply edit shellres.dll in a conventional manner. To do this you need a tool like Resource Hacker, that allows you to tweak binary file types and then save them again. First download some custom icons along with Resource Hacker to your desktop computer. To see more detailed information on using RH for WM icon editing, see my article here. Step 8. Find a suitable resource file to edit. Many third-party programs actually add their own, but you may need to experiment some to find a suitable one. In my case I located a file under \Windows on the iPAQ called TodayPanelres.dll which provides icons for a today panel plug-in. A safe an easy way to grab system files from your windows device is to use a tool like Spb Backup to perform a full backup. Copy the backup to your desktop computer, and then use their free unpacker tool to extract all the files. Step 9. Save your newly edited .dll file (with custom icons) and copy to your \Windows directory, and follow the above steps for referring to it in your “icon.lnk”. You might want to call the new file something like newiconres.dll, etc. To see a great example, check out the screenshot below from an xda-developer who customized all his icon shortcuts thus. So what are you waiting for....go tweak and clean up them shortcuts and icons darnnit! N1c0_ds awesome icon tweaks