Hacking the C500 homescreen - Date format and changing links

[Guest benjymous]

I've been looking at the C500's default homescreen, and am trying to figure out if there's anything else that can be changed

Here's what I know about:

[*] You can change the icons Clicky [edit] and if you save the .bmh's in StorageApplication DataHome then they won't get lost when you reboot your phone!!

[*] You can change the level of alpha transparency that the vertical bar, the popups and the clock use

[*] You can edit the web page shortcuts in the globe icon - (edit the Url_0 .. Url_4 strings, and the corresponding Opt_5_0 .. Opt_5_4 strings for their names) - also you can add more (add a Url_5 and Opt_5_5, Url_6 and Opt_5_6 and so on) - [edit] this works up to Url_9 / Opt_5_9 - giving you up to 10 links from your home page

[*] You can change the date format:

The default is: "dd.MM.yyyy"

see This page (scroll down to the table titled "Format Pattern") - not sure if all the patterns work, though.

I'm now using "ddd dd MMM yyyy" (which reads "Friday 17 Dec 2004" on the screen, instead of the default "17.12.2004")

[*] You can change various colours (I haven't had a play with this yet)

[*] There's also a "Flag1" variable in the standard xml (and Flag2..Flag6 are in the homescreen dll) - need to fiddle some more to see if these do anything, I suppose

[edit]

Legality question:

I know re-distributing the homescreen.dll, or a modified version would be illegal - what about something that patches the existing homescreen.dll? (to change stuff that's hard coded in there?)

[Guest Sage]

posting something that patches it is not illegal :D

can you tell a newb how to change my date and time format?

i thought id need to edit an xml file?

i read through the MSDN article.. though what do i edit on the phone and how?

all i want is a standard orange screen with my own ie links.. 24 hour time and a date format like yours.

Can you spell it out for me in layman's terms :D

thanks heaps

Edited January 14, 2005 by Sage

[Guest gpcarreon (MVP)]

Based from info shared by crafty and benjymous, this online article came into reality:

http://n.domaindlx.com/gpcarreon/abaxia/

Read on and you'll learn something. What's cool about the homescreen (XML) modification is that you can assign not just custom internet webpages but program links...a maximum of 10 as mentioned by benjymous. Our target file: OrangeHomescreen.home.xml (from root Windows folder).

Here is a sample animated gif from the article (showing only 8 program links from PHM Reg Edit down to Quick List):

Another minor modification you can make is at the Radio tags...

Radio_M1 = "Flight Mode"    

 	 Radio_M2 = "Searching..."

 	 Radio_M3 = "Denied, Searching..."

 	 Radio_M4 = "No Service"

You can put something like...

Radio_M1 = "Sex Mode"    

 	 Radio_M2 = "Scanning..."

 	 Radio_M3 = "Denied, Searching..."

 	 Radio_M4 = "Youre screwed"

...when you toggle FlighMode on-off or when you Power On your phone

I'd love to know how to change the time format to 12hour instead of 24hr format.

Related link:

http://www.modaco.com/index.php?showtopic=115811

[Guest Muzza]

Hi there,

I'm interested in customising the orange home screen as well, however when i try to copy the OrangeHomescreen.home.xml file from my phone i get a message saying that "executable and resource files in ROM cannot be copied"

Any idea's what I need to do to get this copied?

Cheers,

[Guest Goatie]

I'm also having difficulty in being able to get the file copied. My phone is a spv c500 and it's been decerted.

At the moment I'm going to try opening it with Orneta Notepad, changing values there then save it somewhere else, copy it to my pc for easier editing in future, then try copy it onto the phone.

Edited February 17, 2005 by Goatie

[Guest Muzza]

cool, i tried using orneta notepad and i was able to copy it, sweet!

[Guest Giffer2]

I'd love to know how to change the time format to 12hour instead of 24hr format.

You could just change it in the Regional Settings........... :lol:

[Guest gpcarreon (MVP)]

You could just change it in the Regional Settings........... :lol:

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I dont think so. Im using the 12 hour time format on Regional Settings but still having the 24 hour format on the homescreen.

Welcome to MoDaCo! :(

[Guest kxraw]

Hello, I am trying to adapt orange's homescreen on non-orange roms for Qtek8010 (SP3,Freeed C500, etc...),

here are some ressources to use homesreen.dll differently :

Look at mxip_oem_100.rgu of a rom from orange.

Editing some registry keys can be useful to make the dll more "portable"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{82C7F821-1CF5-4b17-8A4B-4D02683206C3}\InprocServer32]

@="\\Windows\\HomeScreen.dll"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{82C7F821-1CF5-4b17-8A4B-4D02683206C3}]

@="HOMESCREEN Plugin"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{A2536C5B-6AC2-4C31-9542-B144B0E9D077}\InprocServer32]

@="\\Windows\\4orangeh.dll"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{A2536C5B-6AC2-4C31-9542-B144B0E9D077}]

@="Orange Homescreen Memory"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{A2536C5A-6AC2-4C31-9542-B144B0E9D077}\InprocServer32]

@="\\Windows\\4orangeh.dll"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{A2536C5A-6AC2-4C31-9542-B144B0E9D077}]

@="Orange Homescreen LineSwitcher"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{A2536C59-6AC2-4C31-9542-B144B0E9D077}\InprocServer32]

@="\\Windows\\4orangeh.dll"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{A2536C59-6AC2-4C31-9542-B144B0E9D077}]

@="Orange Homescreen Alarm"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{A2536C58-6AC2-4C31-9542-B144B0E9D077}\InprocServer32]

@="\\Windows\\4orangeh.dll"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{A2536C58-6AC2-4C31-9542-B144B0E9D077}]

@="Orange Homescreen Ringtone"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{A2536C57-6AC2-4C31-9542-B144B0E9D077}\InprocServer32]

@="\\Windows\\4orangeh.dll"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{A2536C57-6AC2-4C31-9542-B144B0E9D077}]

@="Orange Homescreen Proxy"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{A2536C56-6AC2-4C31-9542-B144B0E9D077}\InprocServer32]

@="\\Windows\\4orangeh.dll"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{A2536C56-6AC2-4C31-9542-B144B0E9D077}]

@="Orange Homescreen Spacer"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{A2536C55-6AC2-4C31-9542-B144B0E9D077}\InprocServer32]

@="\\Windows\\4orangeh.dll"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{A2536C55-6AC2-4C31-9542-B144B0E9D077}]

@="Orange Homescreen Calendar"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{A2536C54-6AC2-4C31-9542-B144B0E9D077}\InprocServer32]

@="\\Windows\\4orangeh.dll"


[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{A2536C54-6AC2-4C31-9542-B144B0E9D077}]

@="Orange Homescreen Messages"

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\ControlPanel\Home]

"HIFFileCurrent"="\\windows\\full.hif"

    "BgImage"="\\Storage\\Application Data\\Home\\Background.jpg"

"ColorScheme"=""

"Timeout"=dword:927C0

"SchemeFailSafe"="\\windows\\full.home.xml"

    "Scheme"="\\Windows\\OrangeHomeScreen.home.xml"

the whole stuff works also with 4orangeh.dll. By making registry modification it is possible to locate both dll's in another place "\Storage\Application Data\Home\" for example.

1- Does anybody have any information about all the images used by those two libraries ?

2- the references to the keys

"{A2536C5D-6AC2-4C31-9542-B144B0E9D077}" and

"{A2536C5C-6AC2-4C31-9542-B144B0E9D077}" are missing in my registry. Any help ? Can you watch you orange registry for any reference ?

Pleeeeeeease have a little quick look at you orange registry to confirm or not the informations needed, pleeeeease ...

Thank you all in advance.

Edited August 11, 2005 by kxraw

[Guest bills1974]

I'd love to know how to change the time format to 12hour instead of 24hr format.

In your homescreen xml being used, you should see your clock tags that will look something like this:

Either change the mode attribute on the time node to 12 or remove the mode attribute entirely.

[Guest soxvirus]

It would be possible to put a link to the alarm insted of the orange links?