WM5 Start Menu Background

[Guest nickcornaglia]

Does anyone know if I can add images behind the start menu pages? I thought gStart was mimicing WM5 in doing this but I cant seem to figure out how to do it.

[Guest chrisc28]

HKLM/Software/Microsoft/Shell/Rai/:MSStart

Values->

Check if you have an entry called "BKBitmapFile". If you do not, create a new "String" value.

Name : BKBitmapFile

Value data: Path to image file

That's it!

[Guest nickcornaglia]

NICE! Thanks alot. Do you know what size picture it is expecting? I used a 320 x 240 image and only 1/4 seems to be showing zoomed in.

[Guest chrisc28]

NICE! Thanks alot. Do you know what size picture it is expecting? I used a 320 x 240 image and only 1/4 seems to be showing zoomed in.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I use a 176X212 pic as this seems to display properly.

[Guest mlab]

Hello everybody,

Just a little tips if you want to add a bigger image ( =240x266 instead of 176x212) for a higher quality (the quality of the 2 images below are only due to bad screenshots):

After that you've got added the BKBitmapFile, add the following lines to the same key :MSStart

a Dword value with the name BKBitmapLogPixelsX and the data value 131 in decimal

a Dword value with the name BKBitmapLogPixelsY and the data value 131 in decimal

a Dword value with the name BKBitmapTransparent and the data value 16711935 in decimal (or FF00FF in hexa )

a Dword value with the name BKDefaultGradient and the data value 1 in decimal

a Dword value with the name BKFlags and the data value 26 in decimal

and finally

a String value with the name BKUnselected and the value data COLOR_alertWINDOW

I have no time now to verify if all those values are really used but i have tested that and it's ok on my C600.

take a look on that :

and

I hope that it will be helpfull for you. :)

I'm working now on these "graphical" tweaks and unfortunately we've got less tweaks available for the Tornado than for the old smartphones (with 2002/2003/2003SE) :cry:

Edited December 9, 2005 by mlab

[Guest juni]

Works great. Thank you :)

ss000.bmp

[Guest cyclonegto]

I've only tried this on a 2125.

Here's a way to keep your Start Menu background the same as your Home Page background. Follow the instructions above, but select the following file as the Start Menu background:

\Windows\stwater_240_320.jpg

Whenever you change your home page, it does any necessary modifications to the image and saves the modified copy of it as that filename. By setting your start menu background to that filename, you will always be pointing to the current home page file. The only catch is that you will have to reboot after you change the home page before the start menu will update.

[Guest cyclonegto]

Does anyone know how to change the font color for the Start Menu? I've changed the background to a dark image. The black text is not showing up very well.

[Guest Woody_SP5]

Does anyone know how to change the font color for the Start Menu?  I've changed the background to a dark image.  The black text is not showing up very well.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I'm after buggering this up on my SP5 has anyone got the default registry settings ????

[Guest JMBrown32]

I did this and it looks great. However, this made me notice that the image was quite blurry and unsharp on my homescreen. The image size is 240x295, any thoughts as to what may be causing this or how I could fix it?

[Guest chrisc28]

Does anyone know how to change the font color for the Start Menu?  I've changed the background to a dark image.  The black text is not showing up very well.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I believe this controls the grid menu text colors

[Guest Cybertronic]

Is there any way to align the start menu background?

My homescreen background is aligned top, but my start menu background seems to be aligned to the bottom, is there an extra key for this alignment? :)

EDIT: Ignore this post, I used the wrong .psd file :oops:

Edited February 27, 2006 by Cybertronic

[Guest Cybertronic]

When pressing the more button, does the background flicker for anyone else?

[Guest Flyapart2]

I've only tried this on a 2125.

Here's a way to keep your Start Menu background the same as your Home Page background.  Follow the instructions above, but select the following file as the Start Menu background:

\Windows\stwater_240_320.jpg

Whenever you change your home page, it does any necessary modifications to the image and saves the modified copy of it as that filename.  By setting your start menu background to that filename, you will always be pointing to the current home page file.  The only catch is that you will have to reboot after you change the home page before the start menu will update.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I swapped out the value in my 2125 (\Windows\Cingular.bmp) for the above value, but all I get is my Homescreen with a pic of some plants and a stream covering the lower right 3/4 of the screen. Am I doing something incorrectly?

[Guest Cybertronic]

For those who applied the background, does the screen flash once when you open the start menu and press more?

[Guest tboy2000]

I can't get this to work. I have tried all variations - jpeg and bmp. In phone memory and storage card. I did everything chrisc28 and mlab said so i could use a larger hi quality image at 240 x 266. What am I doing wrong?

JPEG or Bitmap?

Memory or SD Card location?

With quotes or without?

Storage for phone or Storage Card for SD card?

For example in BKBitmapFile in the valuedata field I put:

\Windows\vistaback.jpg as the path to the image.

Any help please? So frustrating.

Edited October 27, 2006 by tboy2000