Mitchybums
12-27-2003, 06:54 PM
OK, I found this ultra cool hack when I found that Avantgo in my favorites in PIE was read only. Realy annoying, since the standard links in there I dont use, so why bother having to scroll around in it if I could just remove those.
I used a registry editor (resco's one) and did a search for it, and stumbled on this key that had all those links in there.
I removed all of them, and customized one for my own use.
it works. This put me in another idea of changing the icons for them as well.
They are using 16x16 bitmaps, and being the lazy type, I went to www.kdelook.org, and downloaded one of the cool looking themes.
As being png, I used Photoshop to resize them and to convert them to bitmap.
Photoshop converts the transparency of the png to white, while painshop converts it to black.
Painshop has a batch conversion for it, but ah well, just spend some time to find a few cool icons and converted them.
you can use any bitmap, every size as well, but it just shows the first 16x16 of the icon in your favorites if you use it.
here is the key.
save the text as a .reg file, and if you import it in your registry your set to go. I have an Ipaq, and my icons are stored in my file store, so you might need to change this. Editting the file might work, but I found it didnt for me. I just made a shortcut from a file in my iconfolder, pasted the shortcut in my documents and from the properties of the shortcut I copied the link and put that in the reg file.
here we go
_______________
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main\FavoritesEntries]
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main\FavoritesEntries\Gentoo]
"Icon"="\\iPAQ File Store\\Icons\\gentoo.bmp"
"URL"="http://www.gentoo.org"
"ReadOnly"=dword:00000001
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main\FavoritesEntries\Pocket Gear]
"Icon"="\\iPAQ File Store\\Icons\\pda.bmp"
"URL"="http://www.pocketgear.com"
"ReadOnly"=dword:00000001
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main\FavoritesEntries\PPC Thoughts]
"URL"="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com"
"Icon"="\\iPAQ File Store\\Icons\\newsread.bmp"
"ReadOnly"=dword:00000001
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main\FavoritesEntries\Google]
"Icon"="\\iPAQ File Store\\Icons\\google.bmp"
"URL"="http://www.google.com/palm"
"ReadOnly"=dword:00000001
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main\FavoritesEntries\TV Guide]
"Icon"="\\iPAQ File Store\\Icons\\term.bmp"
"URL"="http://www.tvguide.com/listings"
"ReadOnly"=dword:00000001
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main\FavoritesEntries\Slashdot]
"Icon"="\\iPAQ File Store\\Icons\\slashdot.bmp"
"URL"="http://slashdot.org"
"ReadOnly"=dword:00000001
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main\FavoritesEntries\Hotmail]
"Icon"="\\iPAQ File Store\\Icons\\envelope.bmp"
"ReadOnly"=dword:00000001
"URL"="http://www.hotmail.com"
________________________________________
dont copy the lines, just the text.
this file is for windows mobile 2003, so others might be different.
It's also a file from resco registry, so others might be different.
To delete the avantgo and the others you dont use, just browse in the registry to [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main\FavoritesEntries and delete the keys (folders) of the others.
have fun. and I wonder why no company has come up with this yet.
to bad I cant program.
If someone has idea's on how to make a default catagory scheme for this hack, we might be able to do Iconschemes and the like.
I am also looking for something to change the icons for programs and the like. Make windows mobile just as customizable as linux.
btw, this hack is in memory, so after a hard reset it's gone.
Thats why I have my icons and the exported regfile on my filestore together with my wifi drivers.
I hard reset quite often.
it is also a very quick way to restore your favorites.
If someone has an idea of how to catagorize the favorites in PIE (folders, like the normal favorites) that would be awesome too.
I dont like scrolling.
also, if you wanna start pie with a blank page, just fill in the url field about:blank
and set it as your startup.
especialy for some gprs users this might be handy
and way faster then the default page
edit :
just messed around with the Aqua Fusion Icon Theme on www.kdelook.org and this looks awesome. First all, the kde icon sets come with different sizes. it's not easy to look and see what icons you want if you look on your computer screen at the 16x16 icons.
so you convert the 16x16 icons to bmp format, and while editing the registry file, you can browse through the other resolutions so you can see it easier. the 16x16 on the ppc actualy look pretty good, but on a normal computer screen it's realy hard to make up what it is.
anyway, the conversion I did with pain(t)shop pro, and it went smooth.
I kept the folderstructure and the names the same as the kde icon theme folders, and this allows me to change the theme of my icons realy easy.
I just have to convert another theme, and since the filenames are the same, and the foldernames in the icon folder as well, all I have to do is copy it over to my ppc and rename the main folder to icons again.
to open the files from a linux website like kdelook, you need winrar, www.rarsoft.com
right now I have the Aqua Fusion theme running in my favorites, and it looks shiny blueish and colourfull.
if you use win2000 or xp, make sure that you remove the thumbs.db file out of each folder when you copy them over. Those are the files that let windows give you nice previews in explorer, but they are bigger then the 100+files in each folder total.
from the aqua fusion theme, I only kept the apps, actions and the filesystems folders, and totaling 600+ icons in there, size is about 1.2 mb of space.
Now if I could only change my program icons themselves.
I used a registry editor (resco's one) and did a search for it, and stumbled on this key that had all those links in there.
I removed all of them, and customized one for my own use.
it works. This put me in another idea of changing the icons for them as well.
They are using 16x16 bitmaps, and being the lazy type, I went to www.kdelook.org, and downloaded one of the cool looking themes.
As being png, I used Photoshop to resize them and to convert them to bitmap.
Photoshop converts the transparency of the png to white, while painshop converts it to black.
Painshop has a batch conversion for it, but ah well, just spend some time to find a few cool icons and converted them.
you can use any bitmap, every size as well, but it just shows the first 16x16 of the icon in your favorites if you use it.
here is the key.
save the text as a .reg file, and if you import it in your registry your set to go. I have an Ipaq, and my icons are stored in my file store, so you might need to change this. Editting the file might work, but I found it didnt for me. I just made a shortcut from a file in my iconfolder, pasted the shortcut in my documents and from the properties of the shortcut I copied the link and put that in the reg file.
here we go
_______________
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main\FavoritesEntries]
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main\FavoritesEntries\Gentoo]
"Icon"="\\iPAQ File Store\\Icons\\gentoo.bmp"
"URL"="http://www.gentoo.org"
"ReadOnly"=dword:00000001
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main\FavoritesEntries\Pocket Gear]
"Icon"="\\iPAQ File Store\\Icons\\pda.bmp"
"URL"="http://www.pocketgear.com"
"ReadOnly"=dword:00000001
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main\FavoritesEntries\PPC Thoughts]
"URL"="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com"
"Icon"="\\iPAQ File Store\\Icons\\newsread.bmp"
"ReadOnly"=dword:00000001
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main\FavoritesEntries\Google]
"Icon"="\\iPAQ File Store\\Icons\\google.bmp"
"URL"="http://www.google.com/palm"
"ReadOnly"=dword:00000001
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main\FavoritesEntries\TV Guide]
"Icon"="\\iPAQ File Store\\Icons\\term.bmp"
"URL"="http://www.tvguide.com/listings"
"ReadOnly"=dword:00000001
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main\FavoritesEntries\Slashdot]
"Icon"="\\iPAQ File Store\\Icons\\slashdot.bmp"
"URL"="http://slashdot.org"
"ReadOnly"=dword:00000001
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main\FavoritesEntries\Hotmail]
"Icon"="\\iPAQ File Store\\Icons\\envelope.bmp"
"ReadOnly"=dword:00000001
"URL"="http://www.hotmail.com"
________________________________________
dont copy the lines, just the text.
this file is for windows mobile 2003, so others might be different.
It's also a file from resco registry, so others might be different.
To delete the avantgo and the others you dont use, just browse in the registry to [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main\FavoritesEntries and delete the keys (folders) of the others.
have fun. and I wonder why no company has come up with this yet.
to bad I cant program.
If someone has idea's on how to make a default catagory scheme for this hack, we might be able to do Iconschemes and the like.
I am also looking for something to change the icons for programs and the like. Make windows mobile just as customizable as linux.
btw, this hack is in memory, so after a hard reset it's gone.
Thats why I have my icons and the exported regfile on my filestore together with my wifi drivers.
I hard reset quite often.
it is also a very quick way to restore your favorites.
If someone has an idea of how to catagorize the favorites in PIE (folders, like the normal favorites) that would be awesome too.
I dont like scrolling.
also, if you wanna start pie with a blank page, just fill in the url field about:blank
and set it as your startup.
especialy for some gprs users this might be handy
and way faster then the default page
edit :
just messed around with the Aqua Fusion Icon Theme on www.kdelook.org and this looks awesome. First all, the kde icon sets come with different sizes. it's not easy to look and see what icons you want if you look on your computer screen at the 16x16 icons.
so you convert the 16x16 icons to bmp format, and while editing the registry file, you can browse through the other resolutions so you can see it easier. the 16x16 on the ppc actualy look pretty good, but on a normal computer screen it's realy hard to make up what it is.
anyway, the conversion I did with pain(t)shop pro, and it went smooth.
I kept the folderstructure and the names the same as the kde icon theme folders, and this allows me to change the theme of my icons realy easy.
I just have to convert another theme, and since the filenames are the same, and the foldernames in the icon folder as well, all I have to do is copy it over to my ppc and rename the main folder to icons again.
to open the files from a linux website like kdelook, you need winrar, www.rarsoft.com
right now I have the Aqua Fusion theme running in my favorites, and it looks shiny blueish and colourfull.
if you use win2000 or xp, make sure that you remove the thumbs.db file out of each folder when you copy them over. Those are the files that let windows give you nice previews in explorer, but they are bigger then the 100+files in each folder total.
from the aqua fusion theme, I only kept the apps, actions and the filesystems folders, and totaling 600+ icons in there, size is about 1.2 mb of space.
Now if I could only change my program icons themselves.