[Upd. 08 Jul 2011] Vostradamus Spb Mobile Shell Manager 5

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Vostradamus

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Feb 11, 2008
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Vostradamus Mobile Shell Manager 5.07
For Spb Mobile Shell 3.5.x


titleh.png




Featuring:
- Widgets Handling (Preview, Activation, Deactivation)
- Additional Lifestyle Panels (sliding background common to all such panels)
- Additional Professional Panels (fixed customizable background in every panel)
- Mobile Shell Panels Background customization
- Multi Language Support
- Contents Copy from one panel to another
- Panel Layout Backup
- Panels PageCount customization
- SpbWeather Panel Icon set Customization
- Mobile Shell Weather Panel Icon set Customization
- Bottom MenuBar customization
- Bottom MenuBar Backup (if you wish to save it before trying new ones)
- Quick links to standard Mobile Shell Panels
- Countless widgets (and growing!)





ChangeLog:
(08 Jul 2011)
Widgets Libraries:
New tiny little Widgets Library containing:
- new Battery widgets skin: Glass Wide - (made on request)



(09 May 2011)
Special Library: "Naong Special" (for vga and wvga only).
It includes the widgets from Naong's Mobile Sense theme and also his Mobile Sense Menubar (made into a 1 button advanced menubar)
All credits for the graphics go to Naong, of course.
Credits also included in the library itself.
The library does not contain preview images for the widgets, so don't worry if they do not show up in the "Preview Widget" menu of MsM: they will be there in the "Activate Widget" menu.

(21 Feb 2011)
Advanced Menubar Libraries:
New Advanced Menubar Library containing new "Curve Pink" adv menubar - (made on request)

(16 Feb 2011)
Widgets Libraries:
New tiny little Widgets Library containing:
- new Status widgets skin: Labels Pink - (made on request)

(14 Feb 2011)
Widgets Libraries:
New tiny little Widgets Library containing:
- new color for the Big Box Rounded Link skin: Pink, both normal and empty link - (made on request)
- new color for the Hearts Link skin: Pink - (made on request)

(31 Jan 2011)
Widgets Libraries:
New tiny little Widgets Library containing:
- new Weather skin: Location (only shows the set Location for MS weather widget, available in black and white text) - (made on request)

(29 Sep 2010)
Widgets Libraries:
New Widgets Library containing:
- new Link skin: DateLike (same graphics as the standard current date widget) - (made on request)
- New Colors for "Neon" Status Widget: Gold and Orange (made on request)
- New Colors for "Modern Combo" digital clock: Gold and Orange (made on request)
- New Colors for "Small Box Original" link skin: Gold and Orange (made on request)
- New Status Widget: Invisible 2 (same graphics as standard status widget, but visible only with incoming items. No counter) - (made on request)
- New additional versions for the "Glass" digital clocks, keeping the leading 0 on 1digit hours (made on request)

(05 Aug 2010) ---> Last update before my holidays :D
Widgets Libraries:
New Widgets Library containing:
- new Digital Clock set: HTCFont Large (White, Black, Blue, Cyan, Green, Red, Yellow) - (made on request)
- new Links set: Blocky (White, Black, Blue, Cyan, Green, Red, Yellow) - (made on request)

Menubar Libraries:
New Advanced Menubar Library containing:
- "Curved Black" advanced menubar - (made on request)

(30 Jul 2010)
MsM 5.07:
- Extended Advanced Menubar usage to 240x240 and 320x320 devices. All currently available advanced menubars converted to work on these devices too
IMPORTANT: installing version 5.07 alone is not enough to make menubars work on square screen devices, you also need to download and import either the latest menubar library or the updated full library
- Optimized menubar change script
- BugFix: sometimes while activating a menubar the available menubars could show up in the wrong order. Fixed
- BugFix: sometimes when activating the last widget of a category it could remain in the list even after activation. Fixed.

Menubar Libraries:
New Advanced Menubar Libraries containing all the current advanced menubars updated to work on square screen devices

Widgets Libraries:
New Widgets Library containing:
- New Status Widgets Set: Pro (same graphics as the Professional one, number box with different colors: Blue, Cyan, Green, Yellow) - (made on request)
- New Status Widgets: Empty (completely invisible status widgets, available in 2 sizes) - (made on request)
- New Status Widget: Plain (made on request)
- New Battery Widget: Plain Vertical (made on request)
- New Digital Clock Skin: Date Numbers (only shows the month/day numbers, no time) - (made on request)
- New Current Date Skin: Day Name (only shows the day name, no number or month) - (made partially on request)

(26 Jul 2010)
Widgets Libraries:
New Widgets Library containing:
- New Link Skin: Glass Circle, also empty (made on request)
- New Link Skin: Glass Hexagon, also empty (made on request)
- New Backing Panel: Glass Large (made on request)

Menubar Libraries:
New Advanced Menubar Library containing:
- "Curve" advanced menubar (made partially on request)

(19 Jul 2010)
MsM 5.06:
- Support for Advanced Menubars with MS icons
- BugFix: activating/deactivating the last widget of a category was making the last-but-one disappear from the list for no reason. Fixed.
- Added function for automatic scheduled change of Lifestyle Home wallpaper. It can be scheduled daily, weekly or monthly and it chooses a new random jpg wallpaper from a user-chosen folder.
Best (and easiest to find on the net) sizes for wallpapers are:
----- Desktop Wallpaper size if you have a widescreen device (WVGA – WQVGA)
----- Widescreen Desktop Wallpaper size if you have a non-widescreen device (VGA – QVGA)

Menubar Libraries:
New Advanced Menubar Library containing:
- "Spb Style" advanced menubar (same graphics of the standard spb one, but with 1 to 4 customizable links with spb icons)
- "Icon Buttons" advanced menubar (1 to 4 customizable glass buttons with spb icons)

(14 Jul 2010)
Widgets Library:
New Widgets Library containing:
- Black & White Hub Links skin set (Agenda, Apps, Games, Grandkids, Home, Internet, Media, Music, People, People2, Pictures, Settings, Video, Weather, Work) - (made on request)
- New Empty Link skin set: Neon Empty Big (White, Blue, Cyan, Green, Red, Yellow, Magenta) - designed by Jotha, sized to accomodate a "small" sized contact widget
- New Special Combined Widget: Neon Silhouette Combo (battery, analog clock, weather) - designed by Jotha

Menubar Library:
New Menubar Library containing:
- new manubar: No Text 3 Buttons (links to launcher, agenda, contacts) - (made on request)

(07 Jul 2010)
MsM 5.05:
- Enabled spb task manager during MsM installation
- Panel Wallpaper functions now remember the last selected folder
- Raised max selectable pagecount to 9
- Extended “Change Pagecount” function to Lifestyle Home and Professional Home screens

Widgets Library:
New Widgets Library containing:
- New Battery Skin: Status Pro 5% (looks like the "status pro" one, works better on devices with a 10% steps battery driver) - (made on request)
- New Status Skins: Glass Blue, Cyan, Green, Yellow (made on request)
- New Analog Clock Skin: Doc3000 gtx (thanks to Doc3000 for this clock) - (made on request)
- New Weather Skin: Neon Silhouette 2 - designed by Jotha
- New Contact Skin: Extra Small - fits nicely on empty glass and neon links - designed by Jotha
- New Battery Skin: Glass 2 (made on request)

(30 Jun 2010)
Widgets Library:
New Widgets Library containing:
- New Battery: White/Gray Dots (made on request)
- New Battery: Status Pro (made on request)
- New Link skin: Special Audio (to be used for the profile widget) - (made on request)
- New Panels: Time (2 sizes) - (made on request)
- New Digital Clock set: Reflection Medium (white, black, blue, cyan, green, red, yellow) - (made on request)
- New Digital Clock set: Date Only (white, black, blue, cyan, green, red, yellow) - (made on request)
- New Digital Clock skin: Glass Date Line
- New Current Date skin: Glass Square
- New Panel2: Glass Big Square (2 sizes)

- New: Full Libraries now contain everything (widgets, menubars, advanced menubars, ms weather icon sets, spb weather icon sets). Only things left out are the pic-sets (this is to avoid too large files to download)

(23 Jun 2010)
Widgets Library:
New Widgets Library containing:
- New Digital Clock: TimePanel (lookalike of the one in the Time panel) - (made on request)
- New Digital Clocks set: Neon 7 Segments Medium (white, blue, cyan, green, red, yellow) - (made on request)
- New Digital Clocks set: Neon 7 Segments Small (white, blue, cyan, green, red, yellow) - (made on request)
- New Hub Link skin: Grandkids - (made on request)
- New Status Widget skin: Dark Transparency with Red on incoming items - (made on request)
- New Battery: Neon Silhouette 2 (designed by Jotha)
- New Themed Widgets Set: Glass. The set includes:
--- Analog clock
--- Digital clock (2 sizes)
--- Battery
--- Status
--- Link
--- Empty Link
--- 2 Backing panels

(18 Jun 2010)
MsM 5.04:
- Added Task Manager to the panels list for the SPB Panel Wallpaper function
- Inject Any XML function now remembers the last used folder
- Added Lifestyle Home, Professional Home and all user-defined panels to the possible options for Advanced Menubars
- When selecting one of the above panels as a function for the menubar, MsM will ask if it needs to work in “Link” or “Carousel” mode. Difference is:
----- Link mode: opens like tapping on a shortcut. The panel can be closed with windows mobile “x” button. Do not use Search, Facebook and Twitter widgets on a panel you plan to reach this way ‘cause they would act weird
----- Carousel mode: opens like reaching the panel via carousel. The panel can’t be “closed”, if you wish to leave it you need to tap on another link or to use the carousel. Search, Facebook and Twitter widgets works normally on a panel reached this way.

Menubars Library:
New Menubar Library containing:
- "Invisible 2" menubar
- "Invisible Large 2" menubar
These are the same as the invisible and invisible large ones, but the invisible button links to the launcher instead of the carousel.

New Advanced Menubar Library containing:
- "ButtonsNumber" menubar. Thin, clean look for a menubar with up to 8 buttons!

(11 Jun 2010)
MsM 5.03:
- Update for MS 3.5.5 compatibility

Widgets Library:
New Widgets Library containing:
- New Hub Link Skin: People2 - (made on request)
- New Weather Skin: Neon Silhouette - (designed by Jotha)
- New Link Skin Set: Neon Silhouette 2 (new colors/silhouettes) - (designed by Jotha)
- Fix for QVGA "line" birthday widget where the contact text in case of no picture available was misplaced

Menubars Library
New Advanced Menubar Library containing:
- "NeonButtons" menubar

(08 Jun 2010)
Additional Languages:
Uploaded Dutch language file for version 5.02. Translations provided by Jaco van Dieren

(07 Jun 2010)
MsM 5.02:
- Added Advanced Menubars handling. Advanced Menubars are menubars with a variable number of customizable buttons (1 to 4 plus side buttons).
- Fixed a small issue which could sometimes prevent the correct creation of a subfolder during installation.

Menubars Library:
New (first) Advanced Menubar Library containing:
- "Simple" menubar
- "Star Wars" menubar

(03 Jun 2010)
Menubars Library:
New Menubar Library containing:
- new "Shelf" menubar
- new "Neon" menubar

(01 Jun 2010)
MsM 5.01b
Looks like I forgot a file while building version 5.01, here's the fixed version :p sorry for the inconvenience :)

(31 May 2010)
MsM 5.01:
- Added Full Backup/Restore function to backup the whole current mobile shell configuration: activated widgets, additional panels, menubars, custom backgrounds, custom widgets added through the manager and so on. Due to the wholeness of the backedup data, Backups created with this function will be restorable only on the same Mobile Shell version.
- Import Library function now remembers the last used folder
- Create Shortcuts – MS Panels function now also creates a shortcut to Mobile Shell Task Manager. This is required for the “thin 2” menubar to work
- Small fix on credits visualization

Menubars Library:
New Menubar library containing:
- "Thin 2" menubar - Same looks as the "Thin" one, different links. Requires running "Create Shortcuts - MS Panels" function in MsM first to enable the task manager. - (made on request)
- "Side Buttons Original" - Side buttons (carousel and menu) with the looks of the original ones, nothing in between them. Whole screen height available for widgets. - (made on request)

(26 May 2010)
- MsM 5.00 released



-----------------

If you like my work and think it's useful, please consider donating even a small amount, it will help keeping me (and my cat) motivated. I spend a lot of time on this stuff, and every sign of appreciation, no matter how big or small, is more than welcome :D

-----------------

Download links:

*MediaFire*
Vostradamus Mobile Shell Manager

if you have issues with the above link, try the following mirror:

*4Shared*
Vostradamus Mobile Shell Manager



Other stuff attached to this post:

- Widgets Creation Tutorial (by Jotha)
- Working with Changing Pics (by Jotha)
- Default PRO backgrounds (should you ever need them again after changing them)



FAQs: yeah, they live! :D
If you have a doubt or a question, please try reading the FAQs in the second post before posting: a lot of common questions and doubts have been answered in there already, so it will be easier for you all to look for your answers and you won't have to wait for someone's reply ;)



Special Thanks to the donors:

- Mike (powercat1) - (Twice!)
- R. Rojas
- A. Szadura
- O. A. Gomez Reyes
- C. Ciobanu
- L. Brunori
- A. Ottaviani
- M. Carlson
- M. Zimmerman
- B. Permuy
- Nickmo20
- K. Hockin
- C. Boerma
- dansia47
- poppscc
- D. Livanos
- W.T. Millea Jr
- Sulster (twice!)
- G. Blevins
- C. Tran (three times!)
- F. O. Önder
- V. Carletti
- A. Stephen
- M. T. Hernandez
- SG Technical Consulting
- Alienking70
- C. Morrison
- E. Fayolle
- La Baula Supportings
- J. Koutsouris
- Margez (real name removed on request)
- C.R. Moya
- S. Leding
- K. Oakeshott
- U. Passerini
- H. Dreesen
- M. Hankel
- H. E. Husmann
- W. Jackson
- H. Heigenhauser
- R. Haltmeier
- P. Chavez (twice!)
- A. Tomilov



Credits:

I placed the credits inside MsM itself, please bear with me if I don't write them in here too... trying to keep this post shorter than The Lord of the Rings :p
 

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jotha

Retired Forum Moderator
FAQ for Vostradamus MSM 5.0

Vostradamus asked me to compile some answers to frequently asked questions about his Mobile Shell Manager. Reading them carefully will help you avoiding unnecessary problems and help us avoiding unnecessary answers on unnecessary support questions. This is a compilation of questions posted to all versions of MSM (also from the original Thread). The answers however are always adapted to the latest version of MSM.

If you find it useful, please hit the "Thanks"-Button on the bottom of the FAQ. Thank you.

Installation:

- Will it work with my device?

MSM at the moment works only on Mobile Shell for Windows Mobile. It is not planned to port it on another platform.

It works
Perfectly with:
QVGA (320x240 Pixels)
WQVGA (400x240 Pixels)
VGA (640x480 Pixels)
WVGA (800x480 Pixels)

With Restrictions with:

Square 240x240 Pixels (Standard-Menubars do not work, Advanced menubars and all the rest work)
Square 320x320 Pixels (Standard-Menubars and maybe Weather Icon Set Change do not work, Advanced menubars and all the rest work)

Unknown with:

HVGA (480x320 Pixels) (We have no means of testing that. Could work like the square 320x320 Devices, but we can not guarantee that)

- What do I need for the first install

You have to download the Manager Installation File at first. It’s called “Vostradamus Mobile Shell Manager x.xx.zip”, where x.xx is the version number. If you unzip it, you have the cab-file for installation.

Then you need at least one of the following things:

If you want to use Vostradamus widgets you need a widget library. If you are using MSM 5.0 for the first time, you should download the complete package, named “MSM Full widgets library (xxx).wzg”, where xxx stand for your screen resolution. It is large, but it has the advantage of having ALWAYS all released widgets in it. If you are not sure which resolution you need, look some questions further. You can also go into the “Incremental libraries”-folder of your resolution and download only the base-library and/or an update-file of your choice. Which widgets are in which update-library can be seen on the widgets preview page. It is reachable via the first post of this thread.

If you want to use the MSM to change the Menubar of Mobile Shell, you have to download a Menubar library. They are in the “MenuBars libraries”-folder. Here there is also a base-library and eventual updates. In this case there is no difference between the resolutions. One size fits all :). Again you can see on the preview page (reachable via the first post of this thread) which Menubars are in which library.

If you want to use “ChangingPics”, you have to download one or more “Pic-Sets-Libraries”, again from the folder of your resolution. Because of the size, every Pic-Set is a different file. See the preview-page (reachable via the first post of this thread) for contents. If you don’t know what “ChangingPics” are, see the Chapter “Usage”.

- There are widgets for VGA and QVGA. Which do I need?

That depends on the resolution of your Phone:

1. Non-Square-Screens:

QVGA / WQVGA is for every phone with a screen width (in portrait mode) of 240 Pixels. Also Phones with a screen width of 320 (HVGA 480x320) could work with that resolution with some restrictions. (see first Topic in this chapter).

VGA/WVGA is for phones with a screen width (in portrait mode) of 480 Pixels.

2. Square Screens:

Phones with a square screen with a size of 240 or 320 Pixels should use the QVGA-Versions.


- Where do I store that?

Regarding the size if the libraries, which can reach more than 50MB, you should put them somewhere on the storage card. You will only need them during installation, so just remember where they are. After the installation you can delete them from the card. It would be wise to keep them somewhere on the PC though, to avoid having to download them again when you change phones for instance.

- How do I make the first install?

At first you have to install the Mobile Shell Manager itself. This is done by starting the cab-file with your preferred File Manager.
Please ONLY INSTALL THE MANAGER ON THE STORAGE CARD. The Widget and Pic-Set libraries will be installed into the manager-folder and can be huge! Your phone would run out of memory probably already during installation if you install it into phone memory. There is no need to install it into phone-memory, because only activated widgets will be copied into the Mobile-Shell folder in Phone Memory by the Manager itself.

After Installation, start the Manager via the Program Icon.

Before doing anything, please read the section about navigating in MSM further down in these FAQ.
The next thing to do is to import all the downloaded Libraries. Choose the first Menu-Item “Libraries” and pick “OK”. Now either choose “Import Library” or “Import Library Folder”. If you have more libraries to import and they are all stored in one folder, the second option does them all at once.
If you have only one library (an update for instance), use the first option. Depending of the size of the library this may take a while. (On a fast HTC HD2, the base widget library takes about 8 minutes).
Now you are set to activate the widgets/menu-bars/pic-sets you want to use.

- What is activation of widgets for and how do I activate widgets?

Activation of widgets makes them finally available in Mobile shell. It copies the graphics to the Mobile Shell folder on your phone, makes the necessary registry entries and injects the necessary definition-files into the appropriate files of Mobile Shell.
Activating widgets: Choose the Menu-Item “Widgets”. There choose “Activate”. In the following list choose what type of widget you want to use in Mobile Shell and press “OK”. If there are more widget groups for the same widget type (like Links1, 2, 3…) look on the preview page (reachable via the first post of this thread). Here the folder of each widget is described. Now choose the widget you want to activate. It takes some seconds and the activation is finished.

- Can I just activate all of the widgets in one step?

No, and that’s by design, because you wouldn’t want to (at least not with the devices available now). As you have seen downloading the widgets, even the compressed base widget-collection is more than 75 MB. Uncompressed in MS it would be even more, but this time not on the storage card, but in valuable Device-Memory, which would most certainly render your device unusable. Furthermore the skin list in MS would become ridiculous long, filled with skins you will not use. So look for the ones you probably use and only activate them. If you have found your optimal set, use the option “Save Widget-Set” to save that state. After a reinstall you can use “Restore Widget Set” to activate all of them at once.

- How do I update to a newer Manager Version?

If you have any widgets version 2.xx, please do the following before installing the Widget Manager:
- Uninstall all 2.xx widgets
- Uninstall Tools package too if you have it
- Delete the registry key “HKLM\Software\Spb Software House\Shared\Spb Menu\WidgetPackages\Spb.WidgetsZioGian”

If you have already installed any version of Mobile Shell Manager, download the new cab and install it. All of your settings will be preserved.

- I need to free memory. How do I get rid of widgets?

If you want to deactivate a widget, be sure that you do not use it anymore on any page or panel of Mobile Shell. Then, in MSM, choose “Widgets” and “Deactivate Widget”. From the list, choose the widget you want to deactivate and click “OK”.

Usage:

- How do I navigate in the Manager?

The Mobile Shell Manager is based on MortScript, a script language for Windows Mobile. Though being rather powerful, it has some restrictions. The most sincere for our purpose, is that we cannot intercept and react on the close “X” of Windows Mobile.
Therefore you MUST NEVER leave the Manager via the Close-X of Windows, but ALWAYS via the “Exit” Menu-Item in the Manager.
So always navigate back to the Start-Screen of the Manager, choose “Exit” and click “OK”. Then the Shell will be automatically restarted (if necessary) and all is well.
If you have accidentally closed the shell via the “X” look at the trouble-shooting section.

- How do I get those widgets on the screen?

As those “widgets” are in reality tweaked skins for widgets that already exist in Mobile Shell, you choose them via the “change Skin”-Option in Mobile Shell. So if you want a Vostradamus weather widget, just insert a weather widget via the normal Mobile Shell procedure. Then choose “Change Skin” and choose the Vostradamus widget you want. Of course it is only in the list when activated before (see “Installation”-Chapter further up the FAQ). A specialty are “Panels” and “Changing Pics”. As those do not exist in Mobile Shell, but are “tweaked” Date-Widgets, you find them as skins under the Date-Widget.

- What are “Changing Pics” for, and how do I use them?

“Changing Pics” is a “script enhanced widget” that changes a picture on the screen periodically. It uses a so called Pic-Set that can be provided by the user. Every info you need concerning Pic-Sets, you find in my Tutorial that is provided for download on the first post of this thread.

- What are Widget Sets and how do I use them?

Widget sets are groups of widgets that can be activated/deactivated en bloc. We have already provided some “widget sets” in the libraries, choosen after a common “Theme”, like “Neon”, “Transparency”, “Girls” and so on. Additionally the user can define all of the widgets he has currently activated as a “widget set” and thus reinstall that set very quickly. That comes handy, when you want to experiment a bit, but be able to get back to your standard widgets later.
Please be advised that this function does not save the widgets position, not even if they are really used on the screen somewhere. It’s just a list of the activated widgets. The commands for handling the widget sets are in the “Widget”-Menu.

- What are Panels and how do I use them?

Panels are additional “Pages” for Mobile Shell, adding space to put widgets there. MS and therefore also MSM have 2 types of Pages: Lifestyle and Professional.
The main difference between them is the handling of background pictures: All lifestyle panels share the same background picture. If you have 5 lifestyle pages aside, this picture is scrolled horizontally with the pages. Each professional panel has its own BG-Picture. Another difference is that from a Pro-Panel you can scroll down to the normal Lifestyle-Screen of MS (though not back “up”). From an additional Lifestyle-Panel you have to use the carousel or a link to go back.
To reach a user-defined Panel you can use the links that the manager provides under the “Extras”-Folder in Mobile shell. Here you find a group called MS-Panels in which they can be found.
Everything concerning Panels can be managed under the corresponding Menu-Item.

- MSkip has that second Fav-Contacts Page, why not MSM?

The aforementioned panels are a more than adequate replacement for that.
Just add a panel with 1,3,5 pages and call it "contacts" or whatever. Place a link to it on your screen and you are done.
You can even place an invisible link to it over the existing link to the "normal" favorites, replacing it completely.
If you use professional panels, you can even swipe back to Start with a "Down"-swipe.

- How can I change the background of the Standard Pro Panel?

The MS Standard Pro Panel initially does not show up in the list of Pro Panels if you want to change the background for those. After you used the function "Change Menu Bar" at least once, the Standard Pro Panel is available to change its background. So even if you want to keep your menubar as it is, but want to change the Standard Pro Panels BG do the following: Use the Function "Change Menu Bar" (even if you select the standard menu bar) and proceed to the Function "Change Pro Background".

- What problems can arise when using a "Full Backup"

The Full-Backup-Function does backup everything that is created AND managed by Mobile Shell. The most prominent things that are NOT backuped are assigned ringtones and contact pictures. They are part of pocket-outlook and thus not accessible for us. Also not backuped is the MSM-directory on the storage card (in fact the full backup is also placed in that directory). But that should not be a problem, because the card is not affected by a phone reinstall and it can easily be backuped by simple file-copy to your PC.
Possible Problems with and after restoring a full Backup:
- If between backup and restore you changed contacts that are used in Mobile Shell (in a widget or the favorites) they will dissapear. This is especially the case if you have made a new activesync connection because of flashing the phone or changing your PC. Then all contacts are gone from Mobile Shell.
- The same is true for links when you reinstalled the programs to a different place than before.
- If you have updated your Mobile Shell to a new version, a backup that was created before cannot be restored. (MSM can be changed of course).

- What are those "Invisible" widgets for?

Invisible widgets (available as links and contacts atm) are a means to create a link to a program or contact using another picture or icon than the provided one.
Imagine you want to use another sms-program than the one from Mobile Shell. Then you place an invisible link to your program over the status widget for SMS. A touch on the status then starts your program without showing its icon.
Another example: Create a panel with a background-picture of a family meeting. Then place invisible contacts of the different family members over the faces of the respective persons on the pic. Thus you can create a "different" contacts favorites page.
You can also place links you do not want to show everyone (maybe the link that unlocks a hidden and locked partition of your memory card, or a link to a textfile that stores some codes and passwords) invisibly on the screen or disguised as a link to something totally different.


Troubleshooting:

- I have updated Mobile Shell to a new version or reinstalled Mobile Shell. Now Vostradamus widgets do not work anymore. What can I do?

Mobile Shell does ovcerwrite its XML-Files during installation, thus destroying the modifications MSM has made to them. So every change MSM has made to the Mobile Shell must be made again. Use the “Restore XML-Function” in the Libraries-Item of the Manager. Then all of your widgets will work as previously.
Unfortunately a reinstall/update also deletes all information about additional panels you created, and for them there is no restore method :(. So you must recreate them.

-
I have accidentaly installed another Add-On to Mobile Shell (Mskip, Sense, …) after MSM. Now it does not work anymore. What can I do?

Almost every other Add-On to Mobile Shell simply replaces essential MS-Files with their own, thus destroying the modifications MSM has made to them. So every change MSM has made to the Mobile Shell must be made again. The first step back to normality is using the “Restore XML-Function” in the Libraries-Item of the Manager. Then at least the widgets should work again. Then you have to restore the menu-bar if you had a modified one. The next step would be to delete all “Changing Pics”-Widgets if you use some of them and to recreate them. Then they should work again. The worst would be that additional panels would most probably be beyond repair. So you’d have to recreate them. I have experienced that after recreation with the same name a single panel was exactly like I left it before deletion. But that is not guaranteed :), it could have been coincidence.
What I would do in this case is restore the xml, save the widgets-set, uninstall the manager and the shell and begin from scratch. But this time install the other Add-On (if you really, really need it) before the MSM. Please be advised that the same thing will happen if you uninstall that other add-on, as it most probably will replace the files of the shell with the original ones, thus also destroying the Vostradamus-Add-Ons.

- I have closed the manager via Close-X. Now nothing works anymore. What can I do?

For reasons mentioned before, leaving the manager via the Close-X of windows leaves the scripts in an unstable condition. You can either open the task manager and switch back to the Manager-Task (if still there), or you perform a soft-reset of the phone. Then all should be well again.

- I can't use any buttons in the picture preview

As the picture preview is an external program it has limited functionality in MSM. You can only view one widget (turn and zoom it) and close it again. This is because there is always only one preview pic in each widget folder, therefore the "forward" and "back" buttons do not find additional pics in that folder.

- I activated widgets, they show up in the change skin list, but when I use them, nothing happens

This can have 2 reasons:

1. You have downloaded and used the widgets library for the wrong screen resolution (QVGA/VGA). Please refer to the first section of this FAQ for the needed resolution and redownload this. Then deactivate all activated widgets, uninstall MSM, delete the Vostradamus directory on your storage card under "Programs". reinstall MSM, import the right library and activate the widgets.

2. There has been a problem with the import of the XML file. This seems to happen sometimes with certain phone-types/ROMs. You can easily repair this. Just use "Restore XML" under "Libraries" in the MSM.

About Additional Widgets:

- Can I create my own widgets and use them inside MSM?

You can create your own widgets if you have some graphics skills and basic knowledge of XML/ini-files. As an example we have provided a tutorial for creating status widgets and using them with the MSM. You can download it on the first post of this thread. If you master that one, the transfer to other widget types should not be so hard.

- Why are there no real “New” Widgets that add additional functionality in this Add-On?

Unfortunately Spb-Softwarehouse, the maker of Mobile Shell, has not provided a Software Development Kit or any definition of the interface to Mobile Shell widgets. Thus it is impossible for external developers to create really “new” stuff.

- Can I have status widgets that are invisible when there is a "0"

Unfortunately not. The status widget consists of a graphical part and a numerical part. The graphical part differentiates between "nothing there" and "something there", therefore that one can be made invisible when there is no entry. But the numerical part is either shown always or never. So you can't hide a "0" and show everthing else.
The only way to come near that wish would be a status widget without any numbers. You could only see whether there are entries then, not how many. You also can't choose the color of the numerical part, it's always white. Only God and SPB know why.

Other:

- Can I use MSM with other Add-Ons to Mobile Shell

Yes you should not run into troubles. But you have to consider the following. Contrary to MSM, most other Add-Ons work “destructive”, i.e. replace MS-Files with their own, thus also killing the modifications the Mobile Shell Manager makes. So, if you MUST use another package also, install that one FIRST, and THEN the MSM. Also, do not uninstall the other Add-On after installing the MSM.
There is no 100% guarantee, as we cannot guarantee that other Add-Ons play to the rules and do not change additional things and so cause trouble with MSM. So make a backup before you use MSM to change panels, backgrounds and menu-bars if you have another package installed also.

- How do I donate and why should I do that?

If you like Vostradamus’ work and think it's useful, please consider donating even a small amount, it will help keeping him (and his cat) motivated. He spends a lot of time on this stuff, and every sign of appreciation, no matter how big or small, is more than welcome ;).
If you worked some time with Mobile Shell alone, you will admit that his Add-Ons make the whole thing worthwhile. So give yourself a kick and send a buck for a can of cat-food and a beer.


- My question is not answered here, what can I do next

If you cannot find an answer to your problem here, and there is also none in the rest of the thread, feel free to ask here on the thread.

But PLEASE do not ask questions that are already answered 25 times on the thread or have nothing to do with the Mobile Shell Manager. You'll help us keeping the thread in a a reasonable length. Nobody wants to read through 150 pages where everything is explained 20 times.:)

Thank you.


Again: If you find this FAQ useful, please hit the "Thanks"-Button on the bottom of this post. Thank you.

Changelog:

08.10.2010
Added Section "About Additional Widgets"
Added Chapter "Invisible Status widgets" in "Additional widgets"

30.07.2010
Added Chapter "Will it work on my device" in "Installation"
Updated Chapter "Which Widget -Resolution do I need?" in "Installation"
Removed "Task-Manager does not work" because it no longer applies

25.07.2010
Added Chapter "My widgets don't show up" in Troubleshooting

17.06.2010
Added Chapter "Task-Manager Button in advanced menubars" in Troubleshooting

10.06.2010
Added Chapter "Additional Contacts Pages" in Usage
Added Chapter "After Updating/Reinstalling Mobile Shell" in Troubleshooting

01.06.2010:
Added Chapter "Invisible widgets" in "Usage"
Added Chapter "Picture Preview" in "Troubleshooting"

31.05.2010:
Added Chapter "Full Backup" in "Usage"

28.05.2010:
Edit "MSM and other Add-Ons" in "Other"

25.05.2010:
Posted original version
 
Last edited:
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schremer

Senior Member
Oct 19, 2009
126
28
Dear Vostradamus!

Thanks a lot for your work:) Greatly enjoying your widgets! Well done:)
 

ChrisGarner

Senior Member
Dec 7, 2009
89
0
Thanks for this new version! And also for these clear FAQ!
EDIT: i'm testing right now shell manager and i want to tell you: great great job!
One more question: Installing several widgets can increase usage of memory? (i mean ram memory...)
 
Last edited:

sulster

Member
Mar 8, 2008
11
0
This will be my first attempt spruce up Mobile Shell. Thank you for your work Vostradamus (scritches to your cat) and for your instructions Jotha. Assuming all goes according to plan, I will happily donate. Thanks!!
 

sulster

Member
Mar 8, 2008
11
0
Good luck and have fun ;)
Should you need any further info, don't hesitate to ask :)

("meowww" from my cat) lol :D

I do have a quick, newbie, question (sorry, very sorry) but should I "minimize" SPB Mobile Shell before I install your app? You know, unactivate widgets on that, etc? Seems like if it is running under MSM *and* it has widgets/photos/etc going, might take more memory...
 

Vostradamus

Senior Member
Feb 11, 2008
2,669
332
Genova
play.google.com
I do have a quick, newbie, question (sorry, very sorry) but should I "minimize" SPB Mobile Shell before I install your app? You know, unactivate widgets on that, etc? Seems like if it is running under MSM *and* it has widgets/photos/etc going, might take more memory...

nope, it should not be needed :) you can install it right away even with mobile shell up and running ;)
 

sulster

Member
Mar 8, 2008
11
0
nope, it should not be needed :) you can install it right away even with mobile shell up and running ;)

Okay, when I go to Import the Widget library, it tells me corrupted or not recognized. I downloaded from both sites and installed the Base Widget file. Am I totally missing something? I started to read the thread on the previous release, but that was SO long!

I have the .wzg files installed into a /Vostradamus folder on my Storage Card. It recognizes the files, but won't import them.

Thanks!!
 

Vostradamus

Senior Member
Feb 11, 2008
2,669
332
Genova
play.google.com
Okay, when I go to Import the Widget library, it tells me corrupted or not recognized. I downloaded from both sites and installed the Base Widget file. Am I totally missing something? I started to read the thread on the previous release, but that was SO long!

I have the .wzg files installed into a /Vostradamus folder on my Storage Card. It recognizes the files, but won't import them.

Thanks!!
uhm... maybe something went wrong during download... try redownloading the wzg file.
 

powercat1

Senior Member
Jan 15, 2010
53
7
Fantastic!

Vostradamus,

I have been away for a few days and only now checked your original thread and found this one. What can I say? As usual, this is all fantastic. A new thread was a terrific idea and some of the new functionality is incredible.

I love the combined/multi-functional widgets. It's a terrific idea and the ones you've done live up to your already very high standards.

Jotha - Thank you so much for all of your work in documenting all of this. I have a working document that I was hoping to get to Vostradamus to post. Your incredible work has made my document obsolete before I even sent it. The added touch of being able to see the widgets in Picasa is also an incredible time saver.

You two are very talented and two of the nicest people I have ever met in a forum. Thank you so much for all you do for the rest of us who don't have the same skill set as you do. I, for one, sincerely appreciate both of you!

Cheers,
Mike (powercat1)
 

Vostradamus

Senior Member
Feb 11, 2008
2,669
332
Genova
play.google.com
Vostradamus,

I have been away for a few days and only now checked your original thread and found this one. What can I say? As usual, this is all fantastic.

Thanks :) And welcome back :p

I love the combined/multi-functional widgets. It's a terrific idea and the ones you've done live up to your already very high standards.

Need to thank Jotha too about them: multifunctional analog and multifunctional digital solid and transparent are a "co-production" jotha+vostradamus lol :p

You two are very talented and two of the nicest people I have ever met in a forum.

Thanks heaps :eek:
 

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  • 3
    Thanks for answering. Now my question is: there's any invisible link in MsM? If so, where is it? How can I use it?
    Edit: I think "is there" would be better than "there's" in a question. Am I right?

    Sure there is, and more than one :)
    You can find them inside "links1" category (normal sized invisible links, with or without text) and inside "links3" category (huge sized and "hub" sized)
    This makes me think that I'd better add them somehow to picasa gallery, to make it easier for everyone looking up in which category they can be found :p
    I need to think of what picture to use though, lol, not so immediate with an "invisible" thing :D

    Yep, "is there" should be better (if I'm not mistaken at least: english is not my native language) :p
    2
    Hello everyone (special hello to Gianluca/Vostradamus for all the help and nice chatting^^),
    I have been missing from XDA for about 2 years now... I almost never touched my phone all this time too^^ (as I really had no need for a smartphone, I just made phone calls at most)
    So anyway, as I got some free time last week and I also will have a chance again to "need" a smartphone for the next couple of months, I decided to complete my Dusk Theme for SPB Mobile Shell.
    That was meant to be my final Dusk theme for my phone (after the other Dusk stuff I made in my sig) but then 2 years ago I left it half done and never touched it until now^^

    I know WinMo 6.5 is dead by now but maybe there is still someone like me who will keep his WM phone for 1 or 2 years more!
    So here it is a screenshot and a small installation guide.

    screen001ke.jpg



    Installation Guide
    0) Download the SPB Dusk Theme.zip file attached and unzip it
    1) In case you didn't already (O_O), you need to install Vostradamus Moblile shell Manager first: follow the MsM installation guide (you have to at least import the MsM Base MenuBars.wzg)
    2) In MsM, trough the Menu Bar option, activate the "Invisible 2" bar for the Lifestyle and the Professional layout; exit MsM
    2a) ONLY if you using WM 6.5.x: copy the LockScreen.xml and LockScreen2.xml (found in "---InvisibleBar2 fix wm6.5.x" folder) to your phone and trough MsM (Inject any xml) import those xml files. This will fix the screen size available for your widgets due to WM 6.5.x different taskbar height.
    3) Manually copy the file va_misc_now.dat (found in "---WirelessWidgets" folder) to SPB Mobile Shell installation folder and overwrite the existing file (you need to back up the original file first if you want to revert back to the original Wireless widget icons)
    4) Copy the folder "Dusk Widgets" to your "MsM installation folder"/Widgets Manager/Widgets (you can do the same for the folder "Calendar-Tasks ExtraLarge" if you want access to normal/compact/narrow extra tall calendars)
    5) Copy the file WidgetsTacchan23.xml to your phone and import it trough MsM (Inject any xml).
    6) You can now activate manually the Widgets you like with MsM from the category Dusk Widgets.

    Notes:
    - Links and Battery widgets are available in many colours while others are just in Black (Status, Wireless, Clock, Alarm, Date, Weather)
    - The special Link widgets "Link Dusk BarButton" is a normal Link button but with a smaller selectable size to allow it to be used at the very margin of the screen on the Bottom Bar panel
    - The Bottom Bar is made in a couple of variation and transparency; it's made from a Date widget
    - The folder Calendar-Tasks ExtraLarge contains the normal/compact/narrow calendars/tasks with an even greater height
    - The Wallpaper folder contains some wallpapers for both Lifestyle and Pro panels
    - Also added some extra sizes of the Invisible Link
    - ONLY for VGA/WVGA
    2
    sorted it i just found the original graphics and edited them :) next to try and edit the status icons:D do ya think it would be as easy as editing the slider image? i cant find a tutorial for the status icons, oh btw can i add summet to ya next release of MSM a feature to add a wallpaper to all SPB panels in 1 go and is there a way to have a taransparant image in a photoframe widget i tried a simple image on a transparant background but it showed up black instead ov transparant

    Sorry for the late reply, the last time I wrote I was almost going to bed lol :p

    Glad to read you figured it out! :)

    Dunno 'bout the status icons, I've never tried customizing S2U2 graphics so I don't know how they're handled... but if you can find the original graphics like you did for the slider I guess giving it a try should do no harm ;) (that's actually what I would do) :D

    an "all panels 1 click wallpaper change" function? Uhm... that could be a bit tricky, I'll try to think about it but I can't promise it atm :p

    Transparent images on picture frames: I'm afraid that's not possible :( it's a known limitation of the picture frame widget itself, it just can't handle transparency. Spb must really hate transparent PNGs... just look at that mess they made with those bmp+mask instead of using simple png images lol :p
    1
    Since you are in the graphic and programming world, would like to ask you if you know some good replacement for Omnia's original Dialer. I mean the same Dialpad but other GUI than the original one? I found some of them "dialers" but they all had a few bugs in them like smartdial, some buttons didn't work, etc. I did found one absolutely fantastic dialer Rugal Lite Dialer, I check everything and every button is working, but one thing didn't work, and thats Autolock Keypad like in the original Omnia (WinMo) Dialpad. I mean, thats the crucial part of every touch phone cuz if you don't have that Autolock for the keypad, you can easily End the call in the middle of the conversation cuz you gonna touch the touch screen with your face while talking, and Autolock Keypad prevent exactly that.
    Anyway, maybe you have some widget or maybe you can make some widget like Dialer replacement with Autolock Keypad enabled :)

    Uhm.... I'm afraid I don't know any dialer replacement for the i900... back when I was using it, the only mod I applied to it is exactly what you want to preserve: I patched the dialer to disable the autolock :p Being a resistive touchscreen, I never found myself ending a call by mistake 'cause I just didn't press it much against my ear/face :) On the other hand, the autolock was a pain in the a.. while recharging my prepaid simcard, 'cause it was easily locking between a menu choice and the other or even while typing the recharge code.

    About the widget: unfortunately that can't be done... you can't "create" new widgets, as in new functionalities, for mobile shell... you can only create skins for existing ones :(


    P.S. Hows Genova these days? cold? I watched in sunday Genoa beats Udinese 3:2, very tight game. :)

    Yep, it's a bit cold, but as long as the wind is not too strong it's not bad. :)

    You like soccer? I'm not that much of a soccer fan, the only soccer matches I watch (and not even all of them) are during the world cup, just out of curiosity, but other than that I don't really like it much (sounds strange said by an italian, I know lol) :p
    1
    FAQ for Vostradamus MSM 5.0

    Vostradamus asked me to compile some answers to frequently asked questions about his Mobile Shell Manager. Reading them carefully will help you avoiding unnecessary problems and help us avoiding unnecessary answers on unnecessary support questions. This is a compilation of questions posted to all versions of MSM (also from the original Thread). The answers however are always adapted to the latest version of MSM.

    If you find it useful, please hit the "Thanks"-Button on the bottom of the FAQ. Thank you.

    Installation:

    - Will it work with my device?

    MSM at the moment works only on Mobile Shell for Windows Mobile. It is not planned to port it on another platform.

    It works
    Perfectly with:
    QVGA (320x240 Pixels)
    WQVGA (400x240 Pixels)
    VGA (640x480 Pixels)
    WVGA (800x480 Pixels)

    With Restrictions with:

    Square 240x240 Pixels (Standard-Menubars do not work, Advanced menubars and all the rest work)
    Square 320x320 Pixels (Standard-Menubars and maybe Weather Icon Set Change do not work, Advanced menubars and all the rest work)

    Unknown with:

    HVGA (480x320 Pixels) (We have no means of testing that. Could work like the square 320x320 Devices, but we can not guarantee that)

    - What do I need for the first install

    You have to download the Manager Installation File at first. It’s called “Vostradamus Mobile Shell Manager x.xx.zip”, where x.xx is the version number. If you unzip it, you have the cab-file for installation.

    Then you need at least one of the following things:

    If you want to use Vostradamus widgets you need a widget library. If you are using MSM 5.0 for the first time, you should download the complete package, named “MSM Full widgets library (xxx).wzg”, where xxx stand for your screen resolution. It is large, but it has the advantage of having ALWAYS all released widgets in it. If you are not sure which resolution you need, look some questions further. You can also go into the “Incremental libraries”-folder of your resolution and download only the base-library and/or an update-file of your choice. Which widgets are in which update-library can be seen on the widgets preview page. It is reachable via the first post of this thread.

    If you want to use the MSM to change the Menubar of Mobile Shell, you have to download a Menubar library. They are in the “MenuBars libraries”-folder. Here there is also a base-library and eventual updates. In this case there is no difference between the resolutions. One size fits all :). Again you can see on the preview page (reachable via the first post of this thread) which Menubars are in which library.

    If you want to use “ChangingPics”, you have to download one or more “Pic-Sets-Libraries”, again from the folder of your resolution. Because of the size, every Pic-Set is a different file. See the preview-page (reachable via the first post of this thread) for contents. If you don’t know what “ChangingPics” are, see the Chapter “Usage”.

    - There are widgets for VGA and QVGA. Which do I need?

    That depends on the resolution of your Phone:

    1. Non-Square-Screens:

    QVGA / WQVGA is for every phone with a screen width (in portrait mode) of 240 Pixels. Also Phones with a screen width of 320 (HVGA 480x320) could work with that resolution with some restrictions. (see first Topic in this chapter).

    VGA/WVGA is for phones with a screen width (in portrait mode) of 480 Pixels.

    2. Square Screens:

    Phones with a square screen with a size of 240 or 320 Pixels should use the QVGA-Versions.


    - Where do I store that?

    Regarding the size if the libraries, which can reach more than 50MB, you should put them somewhere on the storage card. You will only need them during installation, so just remember where they are. After the installation you can delete them from the card. It would be wise to keep them somewhere on the PC though, to avoid having to download them again when you change phones for instance.

    - How do I make the first install?

    At first you have to install the Mobile Shell Manager itself. This is done by starting the cab-file with your preferred File Manager.
    Please ONLY INSTALL THE MANAGER ON THE STORAGE CARD. The Widget and Pic-Set libraries will be installed into the manager-folder and can be huge! Your phone would run out of memory probably already during installation if you install it into phone memory. There is no need to install it into phone-memory, because only activated widgets will be copied into the Mobile-Shell folder in Phone Memory by the Manager itself.

    After Installation, start the Manager via the Program Icon.

    Before doing anything, please read the section about navigating in MSM further down in these FAQ.
    The next thing to do is to import all the downloaded Libraries. Choose the first Menu-Item “Libraries” and pick “OK”. Now either choose “Import Library” or “Import Library Folder”. If you have more libraries to import and they are all stored in one folder, the second option does them all at once.
    If you have only one library (an update for instance), use the first option. Depending of the size of the library this may take a while. (On a fast HTC HD2, the base widget library takes about 8 minutes).
    Now you are set to activate the widgets/menu-bars/pic-sets you want to use.

    - What is activation of widgets for and how do I activate widgets?

    Activation of widgets makes them finally available in Mobile shell. It copies the graphics to the Mobile Shell folder on your phone, makes the necessary registry entries and injects the necessary definition-files into the appropriate files of Mobile Shell.
    Activating widgets: Choose the Menu-Item “Widgets”. There choose “Activate”. In the following list choose what type of widget you want to use in Mobile Shell and press “OK”. If there are more widget groups for the same widget type (like Links1, 2, 3…) look on the preview page (reachable via the first post of this thread). Here the folder of each widget is described. Now choose the widget you want to activate. It takes some seconds and the activation is finished.

    - Can I just activate all of the widgets in one step?

    No, and that’s by design, because you wouldn’t want to (at least not with the devices available now). As you have seen downloading the widgets, even the compressed base widget-collection is more than 75 MB. Uncompressed in MS it would be even more, but this time not on the storage card, but in valuable Device-Memory, which would most certainly render your device unusable. Furthermore the skin list in MS would become ridiculous long, filled with skins you will not use. So look for the ones you probably use and only activate them. If you have found your optimal set, use the option “Save Widget-Set” to save that state. After a reinstall you can use “Restore Widget Set” to activate all of them at once.

    - How do I update to a newer Manager Version?

    If you have any widgets version 2.xx, please do the following before installing the Widget Manager:
    - Uninstall all 2.xx widgets
    - Uninstall Tools package too if you have it
    - Delete the registry key “HKLM\Software\Spb Software House\Shared\Spb Menu\WidgetPackages\Spb.WidgetsZioGian”

    If you have already installed any version of Mobile Shell Manager, download the new cab and install it. All of your settings will be preserved.

    - I need to free memory. How do I get rid of widgets?

    If you want to deactivate a widget, be sure that you do not use it anymore on any page or panel of Mobile Shell. Then, in MSM, choose “Widgets” and “Deactivate Widget”. From the list, choose the widget you want to deactivate and click “OK”.

    Usage:

    - How do I navigate in the Manager?

    The Mobile Shell Manager is based on MortScript, a script language for Windows Mobile. Though being rather powerful, it has some restrictions. The most sincere for our purpose, is that we cannot intercept and react on the close “X” of Windows Mobile.
    Therefore you MUST NEVER leave the Manager via the Close-X of Windows, but ALWAYS via the “Exit” Menu-Item in the Manager.
    So always navigate back to the Start-Screen of the Manager, choose “Exit” and click “OK”. Then the Shell will be automatically restarted (if necessary) and all is well.
    If you have accidentally closed the shell via the “X” look at the trouble-shooting section.

    - How do I get those widgets on the screen?

    As those “widgets” are in reality tweaked skins for widgets that already exist in Mobile Shell, you choose them via the “change Skin”-Option in Mobile Shell. So if you want a Vostradamus weather widget, just insert a weather widget via the normal Mobile Shell procedure. Then choose “Change Skin” and choose the Vostradamus widget you want. Of course it is only in the list when activated before (see “Installation”-Chapter further up the FAQ). A specialty are “Panels” and “Changing Pics”. As those do not exist in Mobile Shell, but are “tweaked” Date-Widgets, you find them as skins under the Date-Widget.

    - What are “Changing Pics” for, and how do I use them?

    “Changing Pics” is a “script enhanced widget” that changes a picture on the screen periodically. It uses a so called Pic-Set that can be provided by the user. Every info you need concerning Pic-Sets, you find in my Tutorial that is provided for download on the first post of this thread.

    - What are Widget Sets and how do I use them?

    Widget sets are groups of widgets that can be activated/deactivated en bloc. We have already provided some “widget sets” in the libraries, choosen after a common “Theme”, like “Neon”, “Transparency”, “Girls” and so on. Additionally the user can define all of the widgets he has currently activated as a “widget set” and thus reinstall that set very quickly. That comes handy, when you want to experiment a bit, but be able to get back to your standard widgets later.
    Please be advised that this function does not save the widgets position, not even if they are really used on the screen somewhere. It’s just a list of the activated widgets. The commands for handling the widget sets are in the “Widget”-Menu.

    - What are Panels and how do I use them?

    Panels are additional “Pages” for Mobile Shell, adding space to put widgets there. MS and therefore also MSM have 2 types of Pages: Lifestyle and Professional.
    The main difference between them is the handling of background pictures: All lifestyle panels share the same background picture. If you have 5 lifestyle pages aside, this picture is scrolled horizontally with the pages. Each professional panel has its own BG-Picture. Another difference is that from a Pro-Panel you can scroll down to the normal Lifestyle-Screen of MS (though not back “up”). From an additional Lifestyle-Panel you have to use the carousel or a link to go back.
    To reach a user-defined Panel you can use the links that the manager provides under the “Extras”-Folder in Mobile shell. Here you find a group called MS-Panels in which they can be found.
    Everything concerning Panels can be managed under the corresponding Menu-Item.

    - MSkip has that second Fav-Contacts Page, why not MSM?

    The aforementioned panels are a more than adequate replacement for that.
    Just add a panel with 1,3,5 pages and call it "contacts" or whatever. Place a link to it on your screen and you are done.
    You can even place an invisible link to it over the existing link to the "normal" favorites, replacing it completely.
    If you use professional panels, you can even swipe back to Start with a "Down"-swipe.

    - How can I change the background of the Standard Pro Panel?

    The MS Standard Pro Panel initially does not show up in the list of Pro Panels if you want to change the background for those. After you used the function "Change Menu Bar" at least once, the Standard Pro Panel is available to change its background. So even if you want to keep your menubar as it is, but want to change the Standard Pro Panels BG do the following: Use the Function "Change Menu Bar" (even if you select the standard menu bar) and proceed to the Function "Change Pro Background".

    - What problems can arise when using a "Full Backup"

    The Full-Backup-Function does backup everything that is created AND managed by Mobile Shell. The most prominent things that are NOT backuped are assigned ringtones and contact pictures. They are part of pocket-outlook and thus not accessible for us. Also not backuped is the MSM-directory on the storage card (in fact the full backup is also placed in that directory). But that should not be a problem, because the card is not affected by a phone reinstall and it can easily be backuped by simple file-copy to your PC.
    Possible Problems with and after restoring a full Backup:
    - If between backup and restore you changed contacts that are used in Mobile Shell (in a widget or the favorites) they will dissapear. This is especially the case if you have made a new activesync connection because of flashing the phone or changing your PC. Then all contacts are gone from Mobile Shell.
    - The same is true for links when you reinstalled the programs to a different place than before.
    - If you have updated your Mobile Shell to a new version, a backup that was created before cannot be restored. (MSM can be changed of course).

    - What are those "Invisible" widgets for?

    Invisible widgets (available as links and contacts atm) are a means to create a link to a program or contact using another picture or icon than the provided one.
    Imagine you want to use another sms-program than the one from Mobile Shell. Then you place an invisible link to your program over the status widget for SMS. A touch on the status then starts your program without showing its icon.
    Another example: Create a panel with a background-picture of a family meeting. Then place invisible contacts of the different family members over the faces of the respective persons on the pic. Thus you can create a "different" contacts favorites page.
    You can also place links you do not want to show everyone (maybe the link that unlocks a hidden and locked partition of your memory card, or a link to a textfile that stores some codes and passwords) invisibly on the screen or disguised as a link to something totally different.


    Troubleshooting:

    - I have updated Mobile Shell to a new version or reinstalled Mobile Shell. Now Vostradamus widgets do not work anymore. What can I do?

    Mobile Shell does ovcerwrite its XML-Files during installation, thus destroying the modifications MSM has made to them. So every change MSM has made to the Mobile Shell must be made again. Use the “Restore XML-Function” in the Libraries-Item of the Manager. Then all of your widgets will work as previously.
    Unfortunately a reinstall/update also deletes all information about additional panels you created, and for them there is no restore method :(. So you must recreate them.

    -
    I have accidentaly installed another Add-On to Mobile Shell (Mskip, Sense, …) after MSM. Now it does not work anymore. What can I do?

    Almost every other Add-On to Mobile Shell simply replaces essential MS-Files with their own, thus destroying the modifications MSM has made to them. So every change MSM has made to the Mobile Shell must be made again. The first step back to normality is using the “Restore XML-Function” in the Libraries-Item of the Manager. Then at least the widgets should work again. Then you have to restore the menu-bar if you had a modified one. The next step would be to delete all “Changing Pics”-Widgets if you use some of them and to recreate them. Then they should work again. The worst would be that additional panels would most probably be beyond repair. So you’d have to recreate them. I have experienced that after recreation with the same name a single panel was exactly like I left it before deletion. But that is not guaranteed :), it could have been coincidence.
    What I would do in this case is restore the xml, save the widgets-set, uninstall the manager and the shell and begin from scratch. But this time install the other Add-On (if you really, really need it) before the MSM. Please be advised that the same thing will happen if you uninstall that other add-on, as it most probably will replace the files of the shell with the original ones, thus also destroying the Vostradamus-Add-Ons.

    - I have closed the manager via Close-X. Now nothing works anymore. What can I do?

    For reasons mentioned before, leaving the manager via the Close-X of windows leaves the scripts in an unstable condition. You can either open the task manager and switch back to the Manager-Task (if still there), or you perform a soft-reset of the phone. Then all should be well again.

    - I can't use any buttons in the picture preview

    As the picture preview is an external program it has limited functionality in MSM. You can only view one widget (turn and zoom it) and close it again. This is because there is always only one preview pic in each widget folder, therefore the "forward" and "back" buttons do not find additional pics in that folder.

    - I activated widgets, they show up in the change skin list, but when I use them, nothing happens

    This can have 2 reasons:

    1. You have downloaded and used the widgets library for the wrong screen resolution (QVGA/VGA). Please refer to the first section of this FAQ for the needed resolution and redownload this. Then deactivate all activated widgets, uninstall MSM, delete the Vostradamus directory on your storage card under "Programs". reinstall MSM, import the right library and activate the widgets.

    2. There has been a problem with the import of the XML file. This seems to happen sometimes with certain phone-types/ROMs. You can easily repair this. Just use "Restore XML" under "Libraries" in the MSM.

    About Additional Widgets:

    - Can I create my own widgets and use them inside MSM?

    You can create your own widgets if you have some graphics skills and basic knowledge of XML/ini-files. As an example we have provided a tutorial for creating status widgets and using them with the MSM. You can download it on the first post of this thread. If you master that one, the transfer to other widget types should not be so hard.

    - Why are there no real “New” Widgets that add additional functionality in this Add-On?

    Unfortunately Spb-Softwarehouse, the maker of Mobile Shell, has not provided a Software Development Kit or any definition of the interface to Mobile Shell widgets. Thus it is impossible for external developers to create really “new” stuff.

    - Can I have status widgets that are invisible when there is a "0"

    Unfortunately not. The status widget consists of a graphical part and a numerical part. The graphical part differentiates between "nothing there" and "something there", therefore that one can be made invisible when there is no entry. But the numerical part is either shown always or never. So you can't hide a "0" and show everthing else.
    The only way to come near that wish would be a status widget without any numbers. You could only see whether there are entries then, not how many. You also can't choose the color of the numerical part, it's always white. Only God and SPB know why.

    Other:

    - Can I use MSM with other Add-Ons to Mobile Shell

    Yes you should not run into troubles. But you have to consider the following. Contrary to MSM, most other Add-Ons work “destructive”, i.e. replace MS-Files with their own, thus also killing the modifications the Mobile Shell Manager makes. So, if you MUST use another package also, install that one FIRST, and THEN the MSM. Also, do not uninstall the other Add-On after installing the MSM.
    There is no 100% guarantee, as we cannot guarantee that other Add-Ons play to the rules and do not change additional things and so cause trouble with MSM. So make a backup before you use MSM to change panels, backgrounds and menu-bars if you have another package installed also.

    - How do I donate and why should I do that?

    If you like Vostradamus’ work and think it's useful, please consider donating even a small amount, it will help keeping him (and his cat) motivated. He spends a lot of time on this stuff, and every sign of appreciation, no matter how big or small, is more than welcome ;).
    If you worked some time with Mobile Shell alone, you will admit that his Add-Ons make the whole thing worthwhile. So give yourself a kick and send a buck for a can of cat-food and a beer.


    - My question is not answered here, what can I do next

    If you cannot find an answer to your problem here, and there is also none in the rest of the thread, feel free to ask here on the thread.

    But PLEASE do not ask questions that are already answered 25 times on the thread or have nothing to do with the Mobile Shell Manager. You'll help us keeping the thread in a a reasonable length. Nobody wants to read through 150 pages where everything is explained 20 times.:)

    Thank you.


    Again: If you find this FAQ useful, please hit the "Thanks"-Button on the bottom of this post. Thank you.

    Changelog:

    08.10.2010
    Added Section "About Additional Widgets"
    Added Chapter "Invisible Status widgets" in "Additional widgets"

    30.07.2010
    Added Chapter "Will it work on my device" in "Installation"
    Updated Chapter "Which Widget -Resolution do I need?" in "Installation"
    Removed "Task-Manager does not work" because it no longer applies

    25.07.2010
    Added Chapter "My widgets don't show up" in Troubleshooting

    17.06.2010
    Added Chapter "Task-Manager Button in advanced menubars" in Troubleshooting

    10.06.2010
    Added Chapter "Additional Contacts Pages" in Usage
    Added Chapter "After Updating/Reinstalling Mobile Shell" in Troubleshooting

    01.06.2010:
    Added Chapter "Invisible widgets" in "Usage"
    Added Chapter "Picture Preview" in "Troubleshooting"

    31.05.2010:
    Added Chapter "Full Backup" in "Usage"

    28.05.2010:
    Edit "MSM and other Add-Ons" in "Other"

    25.05.2010:
    Posted original version