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Liberate your HTC Shift!


Guest PaulOBrien

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Guest Paul (MVP)
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" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344">I like my Shift. It has some obvious failings (such as the pretty horrible battery life) and also the 'crippled' Snapvue, which is really a locked down Windows Mobile 6 with bits removed. Wouldn't it be great if you could Liberate SnapVue by making it full WinMo 6, and then installing as normal? Wouldn't it be great if this was made really easy? Wouldn't it be great perhaps if the process was demo'd on video? Wouldn't it be great if the software you really wanted was bundled up into easy to use 'packs'? /me takes a bow :(

Introducing... SHIFTpack.Liberate and SHIFTpacks!

Let me explain :D

SHIFTpack.Liberate is the first step on the road to liberating your Shift. It's super easy to use, very small, and demonstrated in the video below. It restores your Start Menu, restores CAB assocations to let you install stuff, lets you soft reset without needing Vista and gives you a utility that lets you hook up the WinMo side to the Vista (WMDC) side of your Shift. You'll see the full process in the video and detailed below, but it goes like this...
  • Ensure you have access to an email account on Snapvue
  • Enter your e-mail address in the form below, to send the all important SHIFTpack.Liberate files to your device
  • Save files in the relevant locations (some trickery here)
  • Click the Liberate icon in Settings
  • Click the Soft Reset icon in Settings
  • Enjoy WinMo 6 goodness

Once this is done, you can then use our SHIFTpacks either in CAB form on the WinMo side or (even better) in EXE form from Vista (as demo'd in the video) to restore missing functionality. We will be adding a whole bunch of SHIFTpacks over the next few days, so keep checking back!

At this point, watch the video above!

So you like what you see and you want to get started? Excellent! There are TWO posts below (News page readers, click 'View Topic'). The first is dedicated to using SHIFTpack.Liberate to liberate your device, the second contains additional SHIFTpacks for extra functionality (such as Pocket IE in the video) and will be continually updated as we create new packs.

Read on!

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Guest Paul (MVP)

The step by step guide to using SHIFTpack.Liberate

  1. First you need to send to your device with those files we mentioned. Either input your email address below...
    • E-Mail Address for SHIFTpack.Liberate files: http://angel.modaco.com/shiftpack/sendmail.php' method='get'>

or click these links to send them to yourself the hard way!
  • LNK file
  • CAB file

  • We're going to save one of these files in the 'Settings' directory that appears when you hit 'Settings' on the homescreen, so we need to do some cheeky stuff to get access to that. So...
    • Start a new mail
    • Select 'Insert Picture'
    • Browse to \Windows
    • With the keyboard, navigate so 'Settings' is highlighted, and hit CTRL-X. The folder icon will go a lighter colour.
    • Now navigate to \My Documents, and hit CTRL-V. Settings will appear.
    • Select 'Cancel Message' to close that new message.

    [*]We're now ready to save the files. Firstly, press and hold on the CAB file, Select 'Save As' and save in the default location. Next press and hold on the .lnk file, select 'Save As' but this time drop down the 'Folder' box and select 'Settings'.

    [*]We're now ready to put that settings menu back where it should be.

      [*]Start a new mail

      [*]Select 'Insert Picture'

      [*]Browse to \My Documents

      [*]With the keyboard, navigate so 'Settings' is highlighted, and hit CTRL-X. The folder icon will go a lighter colour.

      [*]Now navigate to \Windows, and hit CTRL-V. Settings will appear right down the bottom of the list.

      [*]Select 'Cancel Message' to close that new message.

      [*]Good stuff, we're now ready to actually carry out the Liberation :D From the home screen, select Settings as normal, and you'll see a new option - 'Liberate'! Select it, say yes to the prompt, and let it finish. Then close the Settings page and reopen it before hitting the 'Soft Reset' item that has now appeared (you'll notice 'Liberate' has now disappeared from here!).

      [*]The device reboots, and it is liberated! Hurrah! You can use the 'USB Tool' option that is now in Settings to hook up to Vista (as in the video) and do all the normal stuff you'd expect to do with Windows Mobile! :(

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Guest Paul (MVP)

Additional SHIFTpacks

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Guest greeny

Hi i'm very impressed about this work - gratulation

I recieve my shift in the middle of april. it would be a german version. does yoou know if your package also work on a german version of shift?

regards

greeny

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Guest Paul (MVP)
Hi i'm very impressed about this work - gratulation

I recieve my shift in the middle of april. it would be a german version. does yoou know if your package also work on a german version of shift?

regards

greeny

Should work fine!

P

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Does the phonepad actually add the functionality to make voice calls (over gsm) with the shift and not only just data use ? Otherwise there isn't a reason to add the dailpad ?

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Guest Paul (MVP)

No, phone pad is a text input method. Nothing actually to do with phone calls, it gives you predictive text like a normal phone dial pad.

P

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Guest randomelements

Paul,

The guys over at GottaBeMobile.com have come up with an interesting point: do SHIFTpacks infringe upon any licensing agreements (i.e. is the Shift licensed for full WinMob 6)?

Now I know most people aren't really that worried when we hack our devices to bits (especially with the stuff we get from XDA-devs) but it's worth considering.

I don't know if you've checked this out at all - the GBM guys are apparently asking MS.

That aside, this is a great piece of work and may encourage some to shell out where perhaps they wouldn't have considered it with the Shift in it's normal "crippled" state. It will be intersting to see if there is any impact on sales. I still, however, think the device is overpriced and will need a price reduction before it really takes off.

Colin.

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Guest Paul (MVP)

Interesting piece on the sales aspect! I think you're also part of a majority who feel the Shift is overpriced, at least at current specs. Bump the battery life and put an atom proc in there (or a core solo?) and i'd be happier with the cost.

P

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Guest randomelements
Interesting piece on the sales aspect! I think you're also part of a majority who feel the Shift is overpriced, at least at current specs. Bump the battery life and put an atom proc in there (or a core solo?) and i'd be happier with the cost.

P

Still, the atom's aren't all they're cracked up to be are they (at least not from the performance side of things). I would expect at least 3 hours from a device such as this but obviously the more the merrier.

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Guest randomelements
You can hard reset from the settings menu, but no, the liberation doesn't survive.

P

Makes sense as you are not overwriting anything in ROM. You would need to create a new ROM which included the liberate files and flash that.

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You can hard reset from the settings menu, but no, the liberation doesn't survive.

P

Guessed that was the case but thought I'd ask a leading question.

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Guest Zeke_NL

Hey Paul,

Great work, my Shift is running the stuf you created and is running perfect now.

I would like to download the latest 2 ads but thats not working, cant download the files.

It gives this message:

Forbidden

You don't have permission to access /shiftpack/SHIFTpack.OfficeMobile61.CAB on this server.

Regards,

Bert

Edited by Zeke_NL
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Guest Jack5225

Hello,

I tried to "liberate my shift" using the method outlined. I followed it and received the liberate command in the settings menu. But when I click on it, it begins and then says "Installatino of Shiftpack.liberate.cab was unsuccessful".

Please let me know if there is something else I need to do. Thanks.

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Guest Paul (MVP)
Hey Paul,

Great work, my Shift is running the stuf you created and is running perfect now.

I would like to download the latest 2 ads but thats not working, cant download the files.

It gives this message:

Forbidden

You don't have permission to access /shiftpack/SHIFTpack.OfficeMobile61.CAB on this server.

Regards,

Bert

Fixed!

P

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Guest Paul (MVP)
Hello,

I tried to "liberate my shift" using the method outlined. I followed it and received the liberate command in the settings menu. But when I click on it, it begins and then says "Installatino of Shiftpack.liberate.cab was unsuccessful".

Please let me know if there is something else I need to do. Thanks.

Oddness... and you saved the main liberate CAB in the default location (NOT settings)?

P

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Guest Scruffy89

Paul,

Thanks for the video. I had no problems getting this to work. Is there a way to get snapvue to recognise the SD memory card slot. I want to use it to play music using windows media player.

Also is there a way to enable wifi on snapvue?

Thanks

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Guest Jack5225

I did save the cab file where it belongs (the main folder) and I put the link file in the settings folder. I have repeatedly attempted to get this to work, but unfortunately it still will not install. I inadvertently did discover that if the settings folder is left in "my documents", it will then display certain windows mobile windows when you activate settings from snapvue, including file explorer. But I have made sure to move it back to the windows folder each time. Is there any other possible way to install the liberate file? I can't figure out what I am doing that is inconsistent with the insructions. Any additional information would be much appreciated!

Thanks again!!!

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Guest Jack5225
Oddness... and you saved the main liberate CAB in the default location (NOT settings)?

P

Yes I did -- just as you show on the video. And it still won't work.

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