Hey, I deleted the password utility and gained memory!

[caubeck]

It was not deliberate. I installed a fancy password programme (PicturePassword) on my Ipaq 1935. It was working fine, but during an Active Sync it caused a problem so I disinstalled it.

That had two consequences: the trusty old password icon on my device vanished, and like magic the spare memory on my device increased suddenly.

Apparently I can no longer add a password to my device using its built-in utility. I guess I could use another commercial brand, but the extra storage space is actually more useful.

A password was not set before I tried out PicturePassword, I never used it. I thought I couldn't gain memory by trying to delete built-in programmes. What has happened, and what else can I delete from the ROM??

Chris

[Menneisyys]

It was not deliberate. I installed a fancy password programme (PicturePassword) on my Ipaq 1935. It was working fine, but during an Active Sync it caused a problem so I disinstalled it.

That had two consequences: the trusty old password icon on my device vanished, and like magic the spare memory on my device increased suddenly.

Apparently I can no longer add a password to my device using its built-in utility. I guess I could use another commercial brand, but the extra storage space is actually more useful.

A password was not set before I tried out PicturePassword, I never used it. I thought I couldn't gain memory by trying to delete built-in programmes. What has happened, and what else can I delete from the ROM??

Chris

PicturePassword isn't in ROM but in RAM. It's not part of the WM operating system. And, you can't delete anything off ROM to ree up some iPAQ File Store memory - unfortunately, iPAQ's are far more 'closed' than, say, the HTC combos (see http://lumpistefan.dyndns.org/ for an example of what the latter can do - you can define what should be put on your device's ROM to the latest byte. This openness is prolly the biggest advantage of HTC devices.).

[caubeck]

Hi,

No, I understand that. Of course, I installed PicturePassword myself, into the RAM. The thing is that, after disinstalling it, I no longer have any option to add a password to my ipaq at all (not even the password function that comes with the device). The icon disappeared from where it has been the last 2 years, and I noticed an immediate increase in storage space (I hesitated over installing PicturePassword because I was running out of space, and afterwards I had more than I started with).

I know this sounds impossible. Of course it would probably pop back after a hard reset. But what would explain this memory increase (several MB) and simultaneous vanished native password function?

Or if you prefer, what would cause the illusion?

[surur]

Possibly your ROM password utility always ran at startup. Picture password disabled this and used its own routine. You uninstalled PP, but it did not re-enable the startup entry of the original ROM routine. Now when your device starts up after a soft-reset no password utility is loaded at all, freeing up ram, which may be allocated to storage or running programs.

As you said, a hard reset would put things back to normal.

Fiddling with the startup on a desktop device is obviously quite common (things like realplayer, quicktime and music match etc) and on the pocketpc is may also be useful to identify the programs that startup on reset that you feel you don't really need. On the XDA 2 it was common to disable 8 of the 12 startup routines without much adverse effect. It may also make your device more stable, as you can only run 32 processes at a time, and after a soft reset a very loaded device may easily run 24 processes already, leaving only 8 for your own software choices, leading to strange behaviour where some software refuse to work.

Surur

[Menneisyys]

Problems like this (that is, disappearing control applets) is very common with Pocket PC's and are very easy to correct.

1. get any regstry editor - Resco/PHM/Tascal Registry Editor, for example.

2. go to [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\ControlPanel\Password]

3. you most probably will see something like this:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\ControlPanel\Password]
"Redirect"=""
"Group"=dword:00000000

That is,

http://menneisyys.freeweb.hu/CPLReenabling/PasswordCPLWithRedirect.gif

4. you only have to remove the "Redirect" String value from here. In most registry editors, you only need to tap-and-hold "Redirect", and choose Delete from the pop-up menu. Click Delete at the screen that follows (a screenshot from the Resco Reg. Explorer):

http://menneisyys.freeweb.hu/CPLReenabling/Red2.gif

5. reset your device.

[caubeck]

Thanks for the instructions, I am sure they'll be useful when it comes to restoring the function in the future, and for anyone else with the same problem. Now that I've backed up the device with the faulty registry a restore would not help.

In any case, I'm going to make use of the additional space it has left me for the time being. Every day I learn something new about these little PCs.

Thanks,

Chris

[Menneisyys]

Now that I've backed up the device with the faulty registry a restore would not help.

You only need to restore the backup and then apply the registry patch. Then, you can back up again - the new backup will contain the patched registry with the visible Password applet.