WM 6.5 Themes and Development

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greatbal

Senior Member
Mar 18, 2006
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EDIT: Post your questions and discoveries regarding WM6.5 skinning here. For finished themes, you may visit this thread. Thanks.


My aim is to centralize WM6.5 Themes and any discovery on how to skin items such as messageboxes, etc. and any discovery on which could be changed via registry values.

I myself have just started on playing around with it and here is what I have so far:

1) Files could be saved anywhere on the Storage memory. I opted to save my image files and tsk files on \My Documents\Themes folder instead of overwriting the default files on the \Windows directory.

2) Which could be skinned: Bubble, Listview, Menu, Messagebox, Scrollbar, Tabview, Taskbar, Toast, UpDown Control.

3) Main Registry keys/values to look at:

- HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Color\MultiColorTheme\
- HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Today\MultiColorThemeEnabled = 1
- HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Today\Bubble, etc.
- HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Color\MultiColorTheme\
- HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Color\MultiColorTheme\ThemeColors
- HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Color\MultiColorTheme\ThemeValues

As an example i created a theme posted on post#2.

Anything you discover with regards to theme generation or any registry keys to consider you can post on this thread. Thanks.

If you have created your own themes, you are welcome to post them here! :)

WM6.5 Theme Colors Wiki! - http://wiki.xda-developers.com/index.php?pagename=Windows_Mobile_6.5_Theme_Colors

Hopefully the beginning of something extremely useful. Trying to put together some sort of idea of how the whole thing works together.

Please edit this page to update your findings! I've been very hit and miss in finding what these registry values actually change, although I think I've got a pretty good handle on how the whole thing works...

If you need some explanation, please drop a PM I'd be happy to explain so we can all figure this out.



A 'theme' cab is simply a .CAB renamed to .TSK. My instructions aren't 'there' but they're simply in-between the lines (I added this to my (now) mega-post):

1. Name your theme (use your name instead of the *)
2. Make your images according to the guidelines set. If you don't know what each image does, unpack some of the original shipped themes to get some ideas.
3. Make the TSK. Use WinCECabManager to edit my base theme so that wherever a key says "REPLACEWITHNAME" in the Registry section, put in *.
4. Add wallpapers. This is where you have to make separate files for VGA and QVGA. You need stwater_640_480.jpg, stwater_480_640.jpg, stwater_320_240.jpg, and stwater_640_480.jpg each at the resolutions given. Just drag and drop your files (these will be the backgrounds) into the Files section of your TSK and put them in the Windows folder and select Hard Code Path.
5. Save your TSK and create a new CAB. This will be your theme installer.
6. Drag and drop all of your TSK theme elements and the TSK itself into the files section and put all of the files in /My Documents/Themes/*/ and select Hard Code Path.
7. Test your theme by installing it. Select your theme in the Today settings and check that all of your theme elements are displayed. If some aren't, make sure you have everything in the right path and at the right resolution (also check filename!). If you had to edit something, just recompile your theme and test again.
8. If your theme works, share it! :D We all love a new theme in our midst ;) Make sure you take some screenshots (preferably of the Home Screen and the Dialer with the right soft-key pressed) with SPB Screenshot. Then add your screenshots to the PSD template that is provided in the first post of this thread.

 
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greatbal

Senior Member
Mar 18, 2006
1,527
75
Ferrari WM 6.5 Theme (QVGA)

Here's my first try on making a WM6.5 Theme:

Screenshots:
(Sorry for the low quality GIF animation.)

ferrarithemescreenshots.gif




How to install:

1) Download the cab file attached below.
2) Install on your device Memory. Image files and TSK file will be installed on \My Documents\Themes\Ferrari\ folder.
3) Go to Settings\Today and choose Ferrari as your new theme.
4) Click OK.
5) Enjoy your new theme. :)
 
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nhatt

Senior Member
Aug 5, 2008
603
11
Nice theme, thanks for your sharing.
The implementation as it will also work with the tsk file?
 

MRFERRARI23

Senior Member
Jul 19, 2007
3,212
119
NYC AkA GOTHAM!
Here's my first try on making a WM6.5 Theme:

Screenshots:
(Sorry for the low quality GIF animation.)

ferrarithemescreenshots.gif




How to install:

1) Download the cab file attached below.
2) Install on your device Memory. Image files and TSK file will be installed on \My Documents\Themes\Ferrari\ folder.
3) Go to Settings\Today and choose Ferrari as your new theme.
4) Click OK.
5) Enjoy your new theme. :)

WHATT??? THIS THEMES FIRE!!! I LOVE FERRARI'S!!! :D Im going to dl this and use it once i get wm 6.5!!! :D
wait this is only for qvga??? hows wm6.5 for qvga???
 

htctoucher

Senior Member
Nov 5, 2007
1,060
1
nice thread~!

how does one make a tsk for wm6.5?
all i want to do is change font color and the like

ive made a pretty slick skin using the images but i just want to change text color and highlighted text color.. and ideas?

thanks
htctoucher
 

riyazhyder

Senior Member
Feb 9, 2007
117
1
WOW this is neat!!!

Greatbal,
This is lovely.:):).. wish I knew coding to play around:eek:... Do share your themes for the lesser privileged guys like me:confused:
 

greatbal

Senior Member
Mar 18, 2006
1,527
75
nice thread~!

how does one make a tsk for wm6.5?
all i want to do is change font color and the like

ive made a pretty slick skin using the images but i just want to change text color and highlighted text color.. and ideas?

thanks
htctoucher

a tsk file is just a cab file. I use WinCE Cab Manager to make my tsk files and cab files.

I'm still trying to figure out registry keys to change the colors. I found a few but not that much. I was able to change the some colors via Basecolor1, Basecolor2, Basecolor3 and Basecolor4. Also via ThemeValues. Please see the registry keys on post 1.

I hope anybody who has a more comprehensive detail on the registry keys to change so we can better control the colors of the theme would post them here.
 

nhatt

Senior Member
Aug 5, 2008
603
11
...
I hope anybody who has a more comprehensive detail on the registry keys to change so we can better control the colors of the theme would post them here.
Thank you for your feedback.
I also have some themes on the Kaiser thread and now also looking for this problem...:D
 

htctoucher

Senior Member
Nov 5, 2007
1,060
1
yeah i did the same opened it in wince cab manager

just.. there were so many color entries i didnt know what any of them corresponded to

also..
does anyone know if its psosible to get 4 columns of start menu icons..
i tried to edit the cpr file that corresponds changed it from 3 to 4 but then the start menu wouldnt load :eek:
 
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greatbal

Senior Member
Mar 18, 2006
1,527
75
yeah i did the same opened it in wince cab manager

just.. there were so many color entries i didnt know what any of them corresponded to

anyway, here is one i am workin on that im not done with but will release later on when i have more time to finish it up..

Nice.... :)

I'm still trying to play around color theme values and hopefully discover what they are for. apart from what I changed in my Ferrari theme, i don't have anything more at the moment. I'll update this post once I get more info.
 

bajok!

Senior Member
Mar 11, 2008
546
4
Caloocan
Salutations!

Pre, from SPB Mobile Shell --> M2D --> FE Widgets, now WM6.5 themes... what more can anyone asked?

Thanks for sharing...
Saludo ako sa 'yo, Greatbal!:D
 

xda2_haseeb

Senior Member
Aug 10, 2007
2,454
160
Lahore
Can i know which software is used to make WM6.5 themes? i Know all u need to know to be a PRO in making WM6.5 Themes, just what i cant find is a appropriate Software :( so i wuld like to knw the software u guys have used :D THNX.
 

pjsockett

Senior Member
Nov 29, 2007
282
68
yeah i did the same opened it in wince cab manager

just.. there were so many color entries i didnt know what any of them corresponded to

also..
does anyone know if its psosible to get 4 columns of start menu icons..
i tried to edit the cpr file that corresponds changed it from 3 to 4 but then the start menu wouldnt load :eek:

This thread has a VGA fix that you might be able to use to figure it out. It looks like an edit to the cpr files.

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=481379&highlight=theme
 

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    Hows it look? Thanks for the tutorial and sample theme. :D

    WMBlue - QVGA (yes i really do have a lame QVGA screen still... anyone want to buy me a FUZE or TP2? lol)

    There are no shots of the 6.5 menus as the rom I am running seems to have them disabled. (if anyone knows a fix let me know)