WM 6.5.3 & IE6 - registry settings that greatly impact usability

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trueg

Senior Member
Feb 12, 2008
844
44
Victoria, BC
www.computerabuser.com
There are two sets of registry settings that I think greatly impact the usability of IE in WM 6.5.3 (and possibly newer builds).

Enable Auto Font Resize

With the introduction of WM 6.5.3, Microsoft made several changes to Internet Explorer. A big one is the ability to automatically resize fonts.

Example:

WM 6.5
sshot001-1.jpg


WM 6.5.3
sshot001-2.jpg


Notice that the useless links at the bottom of the page have giant fonts. Once you zoom in, they take up most of the screen.

I personally hate this feature and I disable it.
Code:
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main
Enable Auto Font Resize = dword:00000000   ;Default = 1

Result:
sshot001-3.jpg



Viewport Settings

Notice in the above screenshots that in WM 6.5 the text is clearly readable, though not all of the page fits on the screen.

The changes in 6.5.3 now allow the entire page to fit, but the text is smaller and less readable. Perhaps you would assume that this is unavoidable if you want to fit the entire page, but that is not the problem.

IE is actually very good at page rendering if it knows what size of screen you have.

Microsoft sets the default viewport size to 800x600. This means that IE will render the page for an 800x600 screen and then zoom out to fit the entire page. Note that the default for WM 6.5 is 1024x768.

Check out what happens if you change the viewport settings to match your screen size......

WM 6.5.3 - default viewport settings (800x600) - VGA screen
sshot002.jpg


WM 6.5.3 - modified viewport settings (640x480) - VGA screen
sshot003.jpg


These were taken with the default zoom settings.

With the correct viewport settings, you can now easily navigate a web page while zoomed out.

Landscape vs. Portrait

Unfortunately, IE6 is not intelligent enough to change page render settings based on orientation. If you specify viewport settings of 640x480 on a VGA screen, it will look great in landscape but not in portrait.

Viewport settings - 640x480 - Portrait
sshot006.jpg




In order to avoid zooming/scaling in Portrait mode, you would need to specify a max width of 480 pixels.



Viewport settings - 480x640 - Portrait
sshot007.jpg



With a width of 480 pixels, you will still avoid zooming/scaling in landscape mode but formatting will appear a little off since the target width is less then the available screen width.


Viewport settings - 480x640 - Landscape
sshot008.jpg




In the end, only the width value actually matters since it is assumed that you will have to scroll down to view the entire page.

An argument could me made to simply set the width to 480 pixels to prevent scaling in Portrait and Landscape modes.

Either way, the registry values are here....
Code:
Default:
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main
Viewport Height = dword:00000258(600)
Viewport Width = dword:00000320(800)

Landscape optimized (VGA)
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main
Viewport Height = dword:000001e0(480)
Viewport Width = dword:00000280(640)

Portrait optimized (VGA)
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main
Viewport Height = dword:00000280(640)
Viewport Width = dword:000001e0(480)


TG
 
Last edited:

zzyzx80

Senior Member
Mar 7, 2009
65
1
hi,

I applied the following setting to my WinMO6.5 and my IE displays much better now. It was previously optimised for landscape at height = 768, width = 1024.

Portrait optimized (VGA)
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main
Viewport Height = dword:00000280(640)
Viewport Width = dword:000001e0(480)

Thanks for sharing.
 

trueg

Senior Member
Feb 12, 2008
844
44
Victoria, BC
www.computerabuser.com
I agree about cooking the changes in, I have done so in my personal ROM.

Another one I like is
Code:
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main
DisableAnimations = dword:00000000   ;Default = 1

This enables a small toolbar animation. It doesn't seem to effect performance and it adds a little eye candy.


Also, I added CABs to the main post for anyone uncomfortable playing in the registry.
 

trueg

Senior Member
Feb 12, 2008
844
44
Victoria, BC
www.computerabuser.com
Well if you use width = 480, then pages will look great in portrait mode and possibly a little narrow in landscape.

width = 800 will look great in landscape, but portrait will be zoomed out and less readable unless you zoom in.
 

incite40

Member
Apr 7, 2010
15
0
Registry Edits

Having problems with a registry edit staying saved. I have a cooked ROM from Hydros that works great but I want the left Soft Key to lock instead of Contacts. I change the registry and it works for a while until I soft reset or turn the phone off and power it back on...then it reverts back to the original settings,

What am I doing wrong?

thanks
 

motorg

New member
Feb 1, 2010
3
0
Have you figure out a way to set the default zoom level with 6.5.3? It seems to default in the middle, but I want to be able to control this.