jchk

Hi everyone, this is my first post here, but I've been lurking this forum since I got my Treo 500v a few weeks ago. I guess there's not much interest in this phone, but I noticed there were a few users who, like me, were looking to customise their phones, so I thought I'd post how I customised mine (as posted on my blog: http://blog.fibrowalls.com/20080627/...the-treo-500v/).

Of course, the usual caveat: EDIT AT YOUR OWN RISK!


The “carousel” menu
I like this menu, but I don’t like that you can’t change the programs that it displays. From the “Recent Applications” screen you can click on the right softkey to go into the “Main Menu”, but that’s time wasted waiting for the carousel to load and go away. The name of the carousel menu app is “Hotlist.exe”, and to change the program that is launched when you press the “Start” key, go to:

\ HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ Software \ Microsoft \ Shell \ Rai \:MSHotlist\ 1

…and change the value to a different launcher. I used the app that shows the “Main Menu”, which is called “Gridview.exe”.


The side hardware button
The Treo 500v ships with the side hardware button (not the volume buttons, the one below those) not linked to any program on a click, but will launch Pocket IE when held down for a time. There doesn’t seem to be any reason for this except that either Vodafone or Palm forgot about it when then were setting up the phone. You can change it so that when you press down on the button it will launch one program, but when you press and hold down it will launch another. To do the former you have to change these two keys:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ Software \ Apps \ KeyAssignment \ Click \ 195
“Open” = “\ Program Files \ YourProgram.exe”
“Remap” = dword: 00000000

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ Software \ Apps \ KeyAssignment \ Default \ Click \ 195
“Open” = “\ Program Files \ YourProgram.exe”
“Remap” = dword: 00000000

…and to change the latter:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ Software \ Apps \ KeyAssignment \ PressAndHold \ 195
“Open” = “\ Program Files \ YourProgram.exe”
“Remap” = dword: 00000000

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ Software \ Apps \ KeyAssignment \ Default \ PressAndHold \ 195
“Open” = “\ Program Files \ YourProgram.exe”
“Remap” = dword: 00000000

I’ve changed my phone so that it launches the “carousel” menu on a click, and the camera on press and hold:

Click — Open: “\Windows\Hotlist.exe”
PressAndHold — Open: “\Windows\Camera.lnk”


The Vodafone Live! softkey
I bought my phone unlocked from eBay, and I don’t use Vodafone, so it’s pretty pointless to have a button devoted to a link I can’t use. I do, however, lean pretty heavily on my tasks program, so I changed it to launch Tasks instead:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ software \ microsoft \ home \ key \ 113
“Default” = “Whatever the label should be”
“Open” = “\ Program Files \ YourProgram.exe”

You should be able to change the icon as well with the “IconResDll” and “IconResID” keys, but I’m not sure where the icon for the Tasks program is, and it’s not that important for me anyway.


Start Menu icon order
The last thing I did was to put all the apps that are useful but aren’t used too often (like the calculator, voice notes etc) in a folder in the Start Menu. But folders are placed low in the list, with Windows prioritising application icons. To change the order, and to “pin” my “Quicklist” folder to the top of the menu:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Microsoft \ Shell \ StartMenu \ Order

…and edit the “Order” key by adding (or removing) a line from the list.


So, that's it so far. If you want more information, the solution for the “Start” button I found here, the left hardware button here and the Start Menu order here.

Hope this works as well for you as it does for me.

John

tymchn

Wow nice stuff! Its a shame it all has to be done with registry tweaks but thankfully they arent difficult to do. Unfortunately the link to your blog didnt seem to work for me. Really appreciate this device specific info though, I look forward to any more posts you make.

jchk

Thank you Glad you liked it!

It is a shame that all these tweaks has to be made in the registry, I appreciate the way that Vodafone/Palm tried to dress up the Windows Mobile UI for beginners, but it's a bit disappointing that they didn't build in customisable features for other users. And Palm's been pretty quiet about marketing this phone, at least here in Australia, which is a bit of a shame because I think many people who are looking for a Blackberry just for push email and not calendar/tasks/contacts sync would be very happy with the 500v; I use Mobipush which is a free service, and I get push email through Activesync straight from my Gmail account without having to pay the Blackberry access fee!

(Oh and thanks for the heads-up about my blog link, it should be fixed now)

John

unforgettable

Hi John,

great findings , let see if you have time to help me a little since I can modify registry keys no prob, but as soon I find some less than dumbproof steps I stop. As a matter of fact I have modified already the hw button , long press.

1)To modify the same button but for the single click, you need to create a "open" .....what is this ? a Key? a Dword? a String? ....once I properly create it , I'll know what to do, you ve explained it .

2)Great John!!! you ve found how to get rid of the voda live thing. I wanted to launch from it my Contacts. I believe the command is "poutlook.exe". As you know under the default "open" you have:
Windows\Start Menu\vLink\vodaLive.lnk

how can I modify this command to launch my contact list from the "former" Live! key? I have tried by changing first only the last bit vodalive.lnk with poutlook.exe and after the whole string \Start Menu\vLink....with it but it doesn t launch my contact i.e I have done something stupid.

thanx if you have tome to explain that to me.

claudio

jchk

Hi Claudio,

The "Open" key here should be a string.



Hmm... to open Contacts with the Live! softkey, try putting "\Windows\poutlook.exe contacts" as the value in the "Open" key, or alternatively, my phone has a link to Contacts at "\Windows\Start Menu\Accessories\Contacts.lnk".

Let me know how you go with those settings, good luck!

John

unforgettable

you were right in every point. now everything works nice and smooth as silk. Thanx!!
claudio

RangerMD

Jchk thanks a lot.

Works fine in Samsung i640v Vodafone branded WM6.

Guys may like search for right key app. very usefull:
1. changes right key to a great customizable menu, get rid of live button.
2. once unistalled, permanently alters button to contacts!
3. once installed, even if unistalled, permanently adds a bluish default scheme to the two already in phone.
I think all 3 would work on treo500, i am almost certain for 1 and 2.
THKS again. Repute!