Just recently I obtained on contract a Samsung SGH-I640V (sometimes referred to as a version of the Blackjack Slider). Its a great little Windows Mobile 6 based smartphone which had unfortunately like many phones fallen victim to Vodafones branding butchery. One of the things I personally found particularly painful was the horrific background images and red colouring which appeared all over the place. In my quest to remove this obnoxiousness I discovered a few little tips and tricks which may be useful to anyone else in a similar dilemma.

As it stands I've tested and indeed use all of the settings listed below on my SGH-i640V but I'm guessing they should also work on other Windows Mobile 6 smartphones. You will need a registry editor such as PHM Registry Editor or Total Commander to make these changes and you will also need to restart the phone for them to come into effect. Like any registry editor please be careful to make a note of any changes you make and remember if you mess up your phone its not easy to get it back again without a full reset.

Background Images:

These registry entries basically contain the path to the image which is used as the background picture at various stages in the phones operation (such as the contact list). I didn't need to unlock my phone to adjust these settings and simply redirected them to the appropriately sized image of my choice.

HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Shell\Rai\:MSCdial\BKBitmapFile
HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Shell\Rai\:OEMCallAlert\BKBitmapFile

Banner Images:

The banner image is a strip identifying the call carrier which again appeared in the contact list (this one particularly annoyed me for some reason) but also showed up in call details and a couple of other places. In my case it was the Vodafone logo. I personally set it to either be blank or the same as the background image so it wouldn't be visible, another option would be to set an image you wish to use instead.

HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Shell\Rai\:MSBranding\BannerImage
HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Shell\Rai\:MSCdial\BannerImage
HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Shell\Rai\:MSCPROG\BannerImage

Stubborn images:

Even after all that I still had a couple of branding images that still wouldn't go. I eventually tracked them down to the following registry locations which unfortunately I couldn't change until I application unlocked the phone (which I'll provide more details of in a minute).

HKLM\Security\Phone\Skin\PROGRESS\Landscape\Other\bmpNormal
HKLM\Security\Phone\Skin\PROGRESS\Portrait\Other\bmpNormal
HKLM\Security\Phone\Skin\DIALER\Landscape\Other\bmpNormal
HKLM\Security\Phone\Skin\DIALER\Portrait\Other\bmpNormal

The last remaining banner I fixed by replacing file below:
\Windows\Carrierlogo.gif

Its worth noting that this file is stored in the ROM and while you cant change the ROM you can replace it with a file using the same name and it will use that instead. The problem is many file manager programs cant do this including the Sync Center file manager in Windows Vista. This means you will need to copy the file to a directory you can easily write to and then move it using an application on the phone. I had to try a couple of apps before I found one that worked.

Changing the keys on the home screen:

The next thing that annoyed me was Vodafone had configured the right hand soft button on the home screen rather arrogantly to take you to their Vodafone Live! website. Why on earth you would want a button like that in one of those most prime real-estate locations on the phone is beyond me - so I changed it. The registry keys were as follows:

To change the text:
HKCU/Software/Microsoft/Home/Keys/113/Default

To change the application:
HKCU/Software/Microsoft/Home/Keys/113/Open

To change the icon:
HKCU/Software/Microsoft/Home/Keys/113/IconResDll
HKCU/Software/Microsoft/Home/Keys/113/IconOffset

Personally I changed it to launch \Windows\Gridview.exe which I believe is the default application launcher used by Microsoft on the Start button. I was actually going to put this on the Start button and move the hotlist launcher onto the right soft button but I haven't quite figured out how to do that yet and this was a nice compromise. For the icon I just set it blank - I prefer it without an icon anyway its cleaner.

Another option would be to set the right soft button back to the contacts list. You can do this by setting the Open parameter to \Windows\cdial.exe and the Default text to Contacts.

Changing the colour of the highlight block on the application launcher:

Microsofts application launcher (which was now on my right hand soft button but on your system may be on the start button or under "Main Menu") used a red highlighting block. I have no idea if this was due to Vodafones meddling or the default, but because I had scrapped Vodafones rage inducing red for a rather pleasant blue theme I needed to change this and did so by altering this file:

\Windows\Background1_s.png

Like the carrierlogo this file is stored in ROM so I copied the file into the document folder on the phone and moved it to the correct location using the filemanager application on the phone.

Themes:

Amazingly enough the best place I have found for smartphone themes is Microsofts very own website. If you go here you will find quite a selection, some of which were actually reasonably good - at least for a starting point.

Application unlocking your phone

Before you start playing with unlock programs its best to find out if your phone is actually locked or not already and if it is how locked it actually is. Luckily enough Microsoft have been kind enough to supply us with a Powertoy called the Device Security Manager. This allows you to check and even in some cases even set the security level on your phone. The application basically has two panels; in the one on the left you can set what the security level you desires setting are and in the one one on the right you can see the current security status of your phone. Clicking the provision button in the middle then transfers the settings on the left across to your phone on the right. The setting you are aiming for is of course "No Security".

Unfortunately its rarely that easy and my guess is you will get an error explaining that the security is setup in a way you can't change it. To solve this problem you need an hack called sda_applicationunlock.exe. Google will probably be the best person to help you out with this one. Needless to say once you have run sda_applicationunlock you will find the Microsoft Device Security Manager a lot more willing to comply to your wishes.

Conclusion

Whilst I haven't gone into a huge amount of detail here, mainly because unfortunately I don't have the time at the moment, for someone that is familiar with the Windows registry this should give you a good kickstart into fixing up your Windows Mobile 6 machine to be a bit more pleasant. Good luck and remember be careful, its very easy to accidentally turn your phone into a doorstop.

Posted by Daniel: 21:56, Thu 13th Dec 2007