[XAP] Custom Theme & Accent Colors for Samsung Phones (1st & 2nd Gen)

WARNING: Just like any other tools using the Samsung Diagnostic app to make registry changes there is a chance that your 3G/4G connections could get all bungled up. There are fixes known but you are doing this at your own risk so keep that in mind.

I know that there are easier ways to set theme and accent colors for 1st gen Samsung devices and if you want to use those go ahead but as far as I know there are currently no real easy ways to do this on 2nd gen devices so that's why I'm doing this.



As long as your device is unlocked in some way (Developer/Chevron/WindowsBreak/Other) you can get custom theme and accent colors on your Samsung phone.

1.) First install the WP Dev Tools and unlock your Samsung phone.

2.) Use Microsoft's Application Deployment Tool to send the XAP to your phone. Don't run it, delete after it has been deployed.

3.) Install the Diagnosis app by typing ##634# on the phone keypad.

4.) After the Diagnosis app starts type *#9908# and select 'Extra Accents' press 'Save' then 'Close' and RESTART your phone.

5.) Your phone now has more theme options!

6.) (optional) Press the 'thanks' button at the bottom of this post if it worked for you.

FOR COMPATABILITY REASONS EXTRA ACCENT COLORS ONLY APPEAR WHEN USING ENGLISH (US)
Current Extra Accents: GRAY, HTC GREEN, NOKIA BLUE, ZEBRA (black /w light/blood/deep sea/jungle, white /w dark/darker)

Current Themes: Darker, Blood, Deep Sea, Jungle

I also have an 'All Themes' xap now that will install all the accents/themes in one shot. In this xap 'Darker' is now 'Night'



!IMPORTANT UPDATE INFO!: I have edited all accents/themes in an effort to eliminate an error that can cause 3rd party apps to stop functioning and crash the theme system. A side effect of this is that custom accents will show up ONLY when the language is set to English (US). If you would like an additional language to be supported please post your language code and I will try to make a xap for you in my free time, for example English (US) is 0409.

Also, I have figured out how to move files with provxml's so custom accents will work with 3rd party apps with no additional steps needed on both 1st and 2nd gen devices. Do NOT re-apply any of these if you already have working custom extra accents via the old xap's or you will get duplicate entries in your accent colors and it could even crash the theme system.

IMPORTANT: If you updated to 8107 via Zune you may have also updated your phones firmware. If this is the case you will not be able to use this hack. I would suggest rolling back to 7720/7740 and updating via CAB Sender using the cabs in Heathcliff74's thread.

MORE IMPORTANT INFO: Custom themes also apply extra accent colors. You may also notice with custom themes that the keyboard color doesn't change when a new theme is applied. If this happens just restart your phone and the color should be correct. Currently 3rd party apps when using any of the original accents and a custom theme will default to a blue accent, this has been fixed in the 'All Themes' xap, since there are quite a few file operations when you click 'Save' wait a few seconds before selecting 'Close' in order for the settings to apply.

NOTE: For 2nd gen Samsung phones you may need to download the Wireless Manager from the Marketplace to restore your 3G/4G.

THANKS: Heathcliff74 - File deployer, reeg420 - custom theme starting point, daniel-t & poloche - info about 3rd party app accent fix

To make your own accent colors you can edit the Extra Accents.xml file found in the XAP attached to this post (simply open the XAP like a zip file and browse to the file)

TEMPLATE

Values stored under "HKLM\ControlPanel\Themes\1\Accents" are for the 'Dark' theme

Values stored under "HKLM\ControlPanel\Themes\0\Accents" are for the 'Light' theme

Values stored under "HKLM\ControlPanel\Themes\AccentsDisplayName\0409" are the accents display name. This is a single value for both 'Dark' and 'Light'

To change colors you first need to know the color's HEX value. Then you need to change the HEX to an Integer for the xml. What I find easiest is to just use the Windows Calculator (Windows 7) with the 'View' set to 'Programmer' and 'Basic' then on the calculator tick the 'Hex' and 'Dword' then enter in the Hex value, for instance for gray it would be FF333333, then tick 'Dec' and then copy that value (-13421773) and paste it into the xml.

Now for my example here I put 'Gray' as accent #4, this is normally reserved for the OEM to add a custom color to thier devices, the other default accent colors are 0,1,2,3,5,6,7,8,9,10 and I am not sure but I belive 11,12,13 are normally reserved for the MO so just to be safe if you are adding colors and don't want to risk messing anything up I would start at 15 and go up from there. So, just to be clear, don't set values for anything lower than 15.


Blood Theme Preview:

Creating Custom Accents

1. Pick A Custom Color(s) Using THIS, write down/save hex value(s) (ex. 333333, ignore # sign)

2. We now need to convert those codes to an integer. To do this we need our Windows 7 calculator (Have not tested with other Windows versions). "Voluptuary" did a great job of explaining this so most of this info is from him:

-Open Windows 7 calculator
-Set "View" to Programmer and Basic
-Select Hex and Dword on Calculator
-Enter Hex color with FF in front (ex. FF333333)
-After Hex value is entered, select the Dec. option on Calculator, this should now represent the
value you need, write down/save value.
-Repeat above steps for all colors desired

3. Download "ExtraAccents.xap" file from 1st page. Open file with "Winrar". Extract xml file from provxml folder.

4. Open xml file with "Notepad" application. In this file you will see lots of possibly unrecognizable text, that’s fine, we are only worried about a portion of this. Find the line:

<characteristic type="HKLM\ControlPanel\Themes\1\Accents">

The values under this header are Accents. The values should read:

<parm name="4" value="-13421773" datatype="integer" />
<parm name="14" value="-16757606" datatype="integer" />
<parm name="15" value="-9849841" datatype="integer" />
<parm name="16" value="-2105377" datatype="integer" />

Replace the "<parm name=" values 4, 14, 15, 16 with 17, 18, 19, 20 (these are available slots, remember what slots you use as you will overwrite accents if continuing to use same slots; ex. if you use 17, 18, 19, 20, the next 4 accents you create should be slots 21, 22, 23, 24)

**NEVER USE SLOTS 0-15 FOR THESE VALUES OR YOU WILL BREAK YOUR PHONE.

-Next, you want to replace the -13421773, -16757606, -9849841, -2105377 values with the integers you got from step 2.
***NOTE: The (-) is required (ex. -12345678)

5. Repeat step 4 under the header:

<characteristic type="HKLM\ControlPanel\Themes\0\Accents">

-The reason for doing seemingly the same step twice is that you MUST create accents for both light and dark themes.

6. Under the header,

<characteristic type="HKLM\ControlPanel\Themes\AccentsDisplayName\ 0409">

-Once again replace the "<parm name=" values (4,14,15,16), with your desired values.
-You should see the names of accents: Gray, Nokia Blue, HTC Green, Zebra. Replace each with name of your choice.

DO NOT ALTER ANY OTHER TEXT IN XML FILE OR YOU WILL BREAK YOUR PHONE!!!!

7. Save xml, open "ExtraAccents.xap" with "Winrar". Navigate to "Provxml" folder. Replace existing xml file with edited one you just created. Deploy to phone using "Voluptuary's" guide on first page.

voluptuary said:

I just wanted to post to let everyone know that I'm not simply ignoring everyone, but as far as a guide on full theme+xaml edits I am not going to make one.

My reason for this is simple, odds are if you need a guide on how to edit and what files to edit when you inevitably bungle up your phone you aren't going to be able to fix it yourself. Conversely, all the info needed to edit full themes+xaml's can be found in this forum, most of it in this thread. If you can manage to figure it out yourself odds are when you inevitably bungle up your phone you will be able to fix it yourself.

I really don't want to be responsible for people messing up their phones and then needing to be walked through how to fix that. But feel free to pull apart the xap's I posted and trying to figure it out on your own. Just remember what you did so you can undo it should things go down hill.

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Now you are like the U.S. government, trying to protect us from ourselves I appreciate the response. I will try and do some reading this weekend and make an easy guide for others.

DavidinCT said:

Nice but, you can do this with Advanced Config and even create your own colors or pick from the 100 or so pre-defined colors. Even installs in the Settings menu..

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Thanks for posting without reading the first post in this thread.

Protip: Water is wet!