Surreal Start version 1.17 (updated 13-4-2004)

[Guest spacemonkey]

New version addresses another translation bug that will have affected french, nederland and italian translated phones.

Banner mode bugs should now be resolved. And translation bug.

New version released.

It has fast startup, improved T9 mode including multi word t9, one installer for any phone (only tested on e200, spv, e100 and derivatives).

Surreal Start is a total replacement for the start menu on Microsoft Windows Mobile for Smartphone 2002 and 2003 platforms.

It requires the phone to be application unlocked. Due to differences between phone models it is recommended that you test the trial version prior to purchasing.

After installation please reboot your phone to enable Surreal Start

At Version 1.16 Surreal Start has the following features

-T9 Mode

-Color Scheme support

-Skin support including bannered skins

-Speed Dial Creation

-Partial Language Translation

-Icon caching for high performance

-All standard features of the Microsoft Start Menu

-User background changes via background.gif or background.jpg

The Trial Version of Surreal Start displays an unregistered banner and will periodically display a shareware message during operation.

To obtain a registration key please visit www.surrealservices.co.uk and purchase Surreal Start.

Or buy it at Handango

Note, if you miss the blue stripey background of the previous version (this was hard coded) you need to modify your homescreen colour scheme to include the apropriate blue stripey tags.

Useful information:

-To override the background quickly while still haveing the default highlighting behaviour copy a image called "background.gif" or "background.jpg" to the /Storage/Program Files/SurrealStart directory.

*To get a gradiented or stripey look on your phone, don't use a background. Then edit your *.home.xml file (for your current homescreen) and change the bits that look like:

They control alternating lines GRAD controlling the first, INTGRAD controlling the second. FFFFFF is white, 000000 is black. FF0000 is red 00FF00 is green 0000FF is blue and numbers inbetween are darker shades. So 700070 should be a bit purple.

*To add backgrounds the skinning way (such as the full skins you can download off the web), use regedit and go to HKLMSoftwareMicrosoftShellRai:MSStart and edit the values BKBitmapFile (for a background) and BannerImage (for a 20 pixel high banner) Make sure you get these paths right as people have reported problems when they get it wrong. When using skins the highlighting behaviour has no background, only the font colour and style will change.

*To order the items on your start menu use regedit and go to HKCUSoftwareMicrosoftShellStartMenu and edit the Order value. Items listed in this value will appear before all other items and they will appear in the order shown by the value.

Items tagged with a * exhibit the same behaviour as the original start menuHandango

sstart.jpg

[Guest Vector]

Cool, going to install this now :D

EDIT: Just installed and all my shortcuts are wrong.

If you select one shortcut it opens the program before it :?

like if you select Settings it opens Call History which is one before it in the list...

[Guest Will]

confirmed, all menu items are out by 1

Quick fix we hope, this is becoming a 'must have' application!

[Guest hawpunch]

space monkey,

i am a registered use for this program, but i lost my email with the unlock code. could you please send it to me at [email protected] again? thanks.

also, i am experiencing the same problems as the above two users on an t-mobile mpx200 where selecting an item on the menu actually selects the item above it. thanks.

Jae Park

[Guest spacemonkey]

Fixed the bug. It affected bannered mode (I have no idea how that one got past me). Of course the unregistered version is always bannered :roll:

Hawpunch, I've mailed you a reminder.

[Guest ferret]

I get this

404 File Not Found: The File files/sstartsetup_185.exe does not exist.

when trying to download

[Guest MoRFLeZ]

Me too, but you can find version 1.14 on his website as well!

[Guest mrdanne]

I get the same messsage, so I tried to download it from SpaceMockey's homepage, but it has the "wrong program bug".

/Daniel

[Guest ferret]

Me too, but you can find version 1.14 on his website as well!

I was just checking that, great minds think alike :!:

[Guest MoRFLeZ]

I get the same messsage, so I tried to download it from SpaceMockey's homepage, but it has the "wrong program bug".

/Daniel

Hehe .. ups! Oh well .. he'll probably uploade it really fast.

[Guest spacemonkey]

I've fixed the attachment... not sure what MoDaCo had done...

As to the "Wrong Program Bug", is this as initially mentioned where it run the previous program, rather than the one you thought you clicked?

Can you confirm by Menu-About that you are running 1.14.

1.14 is running on my e200 and I get the right program in both bannered and unbannered mode.

If you are running 1.14 and there is still a bug please provide as much detail as possible.

[Guest mrdanne]

My misstake, it was not the "wrong program bug" that opends the previous program. It works fine if I use t9 to start programs, but if I click * to get to the next screen, it opens the first program on the next screen instead of showing the next screen.

EDIT. I got the Bannerd 1.14 version.

/Daniel

[Guest MoRFLeZ]

Hmmm riiight ... running 1.14 and it seems to be a great improvement *yah*!

My guess is the translation isn't quite finished ... cause a couple of my folders are called: (null) ... as well as some of the standard programs *smirk*!

[Guest spacemonkey]

OK, thanks mrdanne that is a definite problem.

The problem is that in bannered mode selecting * More... or 9 More... (depending on whether you are running T9 or not) runs the first program on the next page rather than scrolling down.

This problem doesn't exist in unbannered mode and I will fix it as soon as I get home tonight, so unless you are a registered user without banners wait for the next upload in about 12 hours.

Morflez, translation problems? that's very strange, can you give me any more details like what the underlying folders are called, what language you have set etc.

[Guest MoRFLeZ]

One tiny little request more ... a long time ago you said yes to adding "symbols" before "alphabet" .. so that _Top Menu_ would appear before SPV in the regular startmenu mode...

Think you could add that for the next update!? My fingers know that _Top Menu_ is spose to be under "2" and not under "7" .. *wink*

[Guest gnagis]

wwhen i press more it starts active sync so i cant use this if i dont remember what the name of the things are ?

i have an SPV E100

[Guest MoRFLeZ]

Running the Danish update .. and language Danish under Settings:

My Accessories folder should be Tilbehør

My Games folder should be Spil

My Programs folder should be Programmer

My Settings should be Indstillinger

My Klondike (or whatever) should be 7 kabale

My Inbox should be Indbakke

My Contacts should be Kontaktpersoner

My Calander should be Kalender

My "check" who you called and who called you .... should be Opkaldsliste

My weird lil icon should be something I can't remember will have to check

My Calculator should be Lommeregner

My Receive

My Shortcuts should be Genveje

My Tasks should be Opgaver

Well it's not complete .. but I'm sure you get the idea...

Edited: And instead of the Danish translation, I just get (null)

ScreenShot001.jpg

[Guest spacemonkey]

OK... here we go again :D

The banner related bugs should now all be fixed. I totally rewrote the engine it used internally for mapping stuff and clearly I failed to test banner mode sufficently.

MoRFLeZ, I've made it so it sort _things to the top as you wanted. However alphabetic and _ sorting is second priority so the sorting keys in the registry will still put a few items above _Whatever_. If you want to control that you need to attack your registry.

Also, hopefully I've fixed the language translation thing so if it can't translate it it leaves it alone... I can't replicate your problem on mine though so if you could test that fix it'd be most appreciated.

[Guest MoRFLeZ]

Right - installed version 1.15 - and _Whatever_ works juuuust the way I like it! So o/ for that!

As for the language whatnot, it now displays everthing in English - instead of (null) - so that's definitely a step in the right direction =)

[Guest kurtfhouse]

Probably a dumb question but how do you change the background now? The default gif is gone???? :oops:

Cheers

[Guest spacemonkey]

The default.gif was a dodgy work around because it didn't do colourscheme based backgrounds...

However, just for you I've put up a new version.

Now if you put a background.gif or background.jpg in the Surreal Start directory it'll use it as a background and ignore the colour scheme.

Probably a dumb question but how do you change the background now? The default gif is gone???? :oops:  

Cheers

[Guest kurtfhouse]

Cheers Spacemonkey! ;)

Can't thank you enough :D

[Guest kurtfhouse]

Just to give it a try I thought I would try and change the program menu background the skinning way as per Spacemonkeys instructions:

*To add backgrounds the skinning way (such as the full skins you can download off the web), use regedit and go to HKLMSoftwareMicrosoftShellRai:MSStart and edit the values BKBitmapFile (for a background) and BannerImage (for a 20 pixel high banner) Make sure you get these paths right as people have reported problems when they get it wrong. When using skins the highlighting behaviour has no background, only the font colour and style will change.

But when I go into :MSStart there aren't any values KKBitmapFile or Bannerimage :?

Anyone else know how to do it?

Cheers

[Guest ferret]

But when I go into :MSStart there aren't any values KKBitmapFile or Bannerimage :?:

Have you tried creating them?

[Guest spacemonkey]

The other thing is to download a full skin which will include these.

Examples are Futurama 1.2, Reload, Red Dragon

Look in the homescreens section of the forum.

And remember kids, be careful editing the registry... it's not my fault if you wreck your phone.