Relocating connect2internet Pro 3.x from the main memory – free up over 2 Mbytes!

[Menneisyys]

Now that I’ve finished writing this phone manager app roundup (http://pocketpcmag.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=17757) (well worth reading, as usual ;) ) and started working on another that discusses Internet connection helper utilities (which will be published in 1-2 days), I’ve scrutinized the memory-hog c2i.

connect2internet Pro 3.x is another RAM memory usage-wise, sloppily written app that is worth some investigation if you want to free over 2 Mbytes of memory. I’ve played today with the app for some time and can producly present my results:

1, relocate the Today plug-in DLL (c2itoday.dll, 139k) to the File Store and, in the Registry, make [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Today\Items\"Connect2Internet"\DLL point to the new location:

http://www.winmobiletech.com/082005c2iProRelocate/c2iRelocateToday.gif.png

2, relocate the two PIM plug-in DLL’s (c2ipimcalldll.dll - 132k - and c2ipimsmsdll.dll – 138k -) to anywhere (not necessarily to the boot-time File Store). Modify HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\PimApps\PimExtensions\Contacts\AddIns\c2iDialer\DLL and HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\PimApps\PimExtensions\Contacts\AddIns\c2iSMS\DLL accordingly:

http://www.winmobiletech.com/082005c2iProRelocate/c2iPIMExtensionRelocate.gif.png

3, In order to be able to relocate the full contents of \Program Files\c2i pro to an external card, you’ll need to edit [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Apps\2K development connect2internet pro\InstlDir] to point to the new direction:

http://www.winmobiletech.com/082005c2iProRelocate/c2iInstlDirOverwrite.gif.png

With this, you can safely move the entire above-mentioned directory

4, unfortunately, \Windows\Dialer (around 1 Mbytes in size) can’t be moved. However, you can delete/relocate the theme (thm) files inside. You will only need them when you first run Dialer from inside c2i (or choose Menu/Options in it, to, say, set up a new communications port or another dialpad skin). Otherwise, the Dialer application will only use the uncompressed contents of the theme subdirectory (that’s where it decompresses the chosen theme) and you can safely delete/move the .thm files from its parent directory.

Please note that I’ve tried to hexedit dialer.exe and connect.exe to relocate \Windows\Dialer, but in vain. That is, hexediting, which can be seen in the following screenshots, seem to be, for some reason, futile:

http://www.winmobiletech.com/082005c2iProRelocate/c2iDialerExeWindowsDialerHexedit-1.png

http://www.winmobiletech.com/082005c2iProRelocate/c2iDialerExeWindowsDialerHexedit-2.png

http://www.winmobiletech.com/082005c2iProRelocate/c2iConnectExeWindowsDialerHexedit-1.png

http://www.winmobiletech.com/082005c2iProRelocate/c2iConnectExeWindowsDialerHexedit-2.png

5, you may also want to change the paths in version.info so that the updater utility also works.

Congratulations! You’ve relocated/deleted over 2 Mbytes from main RAM! :)