[REG HACK] Enable instant resuming on WP7!

[Jaxbot]

For those of you with Windows Phone 7 devices, you know the drill. Open an app, get a message, click on it, and then wait 10-15 seconds to go back to what you were doing. Well, thanks to this registry key I found, those days may very well be over
Here's a video of it in action:

As you can see, this allows you to switch between applications without having to wait on the "Resuming..." message. Of course, there's some side effects, but I assume everyone on here knows the drill. Here's the key:

HKLM\Software\Microsoft\TaskHost\DehydrateOnPause

Set it to 0 to disable dehydration. (Defaults to 3)
You don't even have to restart, just load up an application and lock the device to see the results. Cool, huh?

Now for the side effects:

First off, obviously, this probably won't help your battery much. But it actually might not be that bad, because the applications are still frozen in the background, just not dehydrated (evident with Fruit Ninja where the game pauses AFTER being returned to).
Second side effect involves the camera. With this enabled, sometimes the camera will let you take one picture, and then lock up entirely. This one is tricky, because it happened at first for a while, and then went back to being completely normal (can take pictures, view pictures, etc). Experiment a little with it, and tell me what happens.

The third also only appears sometimes (the same sometimes as when the camera started working again, hint hint), and is not that big of a deal. Basically, sometimes your icons won't load, for whatever reason. Again, this only happens sometimes, and doesn't really effect your device usage.

Side effects aside, this works without any hassle and is completely reversible. Just keep in mind that it is a hack, and you know the deal with those. As usual, it's at your own risk.

Try it out and share what happens.

More info: http://windowsphonehacker.com/articles/exclusive_instant_resuming_on_windows_phone_7_hack-03-19-11

 

[domineus]

now that's how it should've been to begin with
about how long does the tombstone state take place before immediately having to restart a program
eg
I'm playing fruit ninja -> I get a text message -> after 15-25 seconds -> return to fruit ninja

after the second delay can I go back to the program, or are we still restricted to 15-25 second delay

 

[Jaxbot]

now that's how it should've been to begin with
about how long does the tombstone state take place before immediately having to restart a program
eg
I'm playing fruit ninja -> I get a text message -> after 15-25 seconds -> return to fruit ninja

after the second delay can I go back to the program, or are we still restricted to 15-25 second delay

The only time there is a delay is when you launch the application from the start menu (or games hub). When returning to an application, there is no delay.

 

[domineus]

The only time there is a delay is when you launch the application from the start menu (or games hub). When returning to an application, there is no delay.

I'll try on an hd2 of my brothers...any other registry tweaks you've found for optimizing performance?

 

[Jaxbot]

I'll try on an hd2 of my brothers...any other registry tweaks you've found for optimizing performance?

I actually found this when looking for the NoDo startup improvements in the registry, and got sidetracked by something much better I'll be sure to dig around some more once I get more time on my hands.

 

[kwill]

Nice find. Definitely hate the pausing of apps and having to wait for resuming.

 

[A Dustman]

edit: nevermind

 

[premikkoci]

It´s great. If I have a game running on the device it will not consume power battery?

 

[diboze]

thanks for this really great find

 

[gremmmy]

Wow!! Thanks for this register hack. Works like a charm on mine omnia 7

 

[fiinix]

Did some tests:

- Test 1

* Silverlight
* 5000 ms pingback

Hello (ping): @ 08:47:39 (app start #1)
Hello (ping): @ 08:47:44
Hello (ping): @ 08:47:49 (home key)
Hello (ping): @ 08:47:54
Hello (ping): @ 08:47:59
Hello (ping): @ 08:48:04
Hello (ping): @ 08:48:09
Hello (ping): @ 08:48:14
Hello (ping): @ 08:48:19
Hello (ping): @ 08:48:24
Hello (ping): @ 08:48:29
Hello (ping): @ 08:48:34
Hello (ping): @ 08:48:39 (Fruit Ninja #2)
Hello (ping): @ 08:48:44
Hello (ping): @ 08:48:49
Hello (ping): @ 08:48:54
Hello (ping): @ 08:48:59
Hello (ping): @ 08:49:04
Hello (ping): @ 08:49:09 (started new app #3)
Hello (ping): @ 08:49:14
Hello (ping): @ 08:49:19
Hello (ping): @ 08:49:24
Hello (ping): @ 08:49:29
Hello (ping): @ 08:49:34
Hello (ping): @ 08:49:39
Hello (ping): @ 08:49:44
Hello (ping): @ 08:49:49
Hello (ping): @ 08:49:54
Hello (ping): @ 08:49:59
Hello (ping): @ 08:50:04
Hello (ping): @ 08:50:09
Hello (ping): @ 08:50:14
Hello (ping): @ 08:50:19 (started new app #4) (first app killed #1)

- Thoughts: #1 dead, #2 alive, #3 alive, #4 alive

- Test 2:

* XNA

void Update(GameTime gameTime): is not called anymore.
void Draw(): is not called anymore.

- Summary:

All "System.Threading.Timer" are kept alive and will continue "ping" till override'd by new apps.

Threads: Paused ("Timer"'s still alive)

This "tweak" will actually drain the phones battery much faster.

 

[Marvin_S]

the next step would be, if i click on f/e the facebook tile that ill will open the app where i left it, instead of the beginning but this would probably be much harder to accomplish.

Anyway this is perfect man, I like this tweak works nice.

 

[evolutionqy7]

What happens if u change the value to 1 or 2?

Sent from my OMNIA7 using Board Express

 

[nok_fusion]

What happens if u change the value to 1 or 2?

Sent from my OMNIA7 using Board Express

i try 1,2 it do the same thing like the value fixe at 3 no changes

 

[poy41]

What happens if u change the value to 1 or 2?

i was woundering this too...

but changing from 3 to 0 works fine on my lg q7

edit:

i try 1,2 it do the same thing like the value fixe at 3 no changes

nevermind lol.

 

[minep]

Nice Job! Working fine. Befor it E900 battery keeps max 2 days.

 

[nok_fusion]

for those who like me do the trick for multitasking, not to consume more battery than usual, just press the arrow "back" on your Windows phone until whether you're on the Home screen and nothing behind it washables.
it will effectively kill any application running in the background while waiting for a true "task manager"

 

[Marvin_S]

is there anybody who can yet confirm the battery drainage?

My omnia 7 is just messed up today, so i have to send it back to service. It keeps saying my phone is connected to the power while its not, and the lock button locks the screen than the screen just unlocks itself automatically. Great features haha. But I applied the hack before I did the factory resets to see if it solved the problems. However I believe the hack is totally unrelated to my issues, but I can not confirm if the battery drains significantly faster with this hack enabled.

But it would be very cool if somebody can tap into the back-list so the order can be changed so you can open whatever app you want to go back to. Or modifie the action of the tiles, so when you click the tile and you had that same app in the back-list, it will resume to that state (like fake multitasking) and when its not in the backlist it will just load the app normally.

 

[evolutionqy7]

Ok so with that who wants to write a task switcher for the homescreen

Sent from my OMNIA7 using Board Express

 

[Jaxbot]

Did some tests:

- Test 1

* Silverlight
* 5000 ms pingback
*clip*

- Thoughts: #1 dead, #2 alive, #3 alive, #4 alive

- Test 2:

* XNA

void Update(GameTime gameTime): is not called anymore.
void Draw(): is not called anymore.

- Summary:

All "System.Threading.Timer" are kept alive and will continue "ping" till override'd by new apps.

Threads: Paused ("Timer"'s still alive)

This "tweak" will actually drain the phones battery much faster.

Wait, can you clarify the experiment some more? Whenever I ran a timer in the background, it would freeze the timer until I returned to it. Did you find some sort of way to actually execute code with another application focused?

Also, I think by increasing the QuantumNumber value under the same key will allow you to keep more applications open. Not sure though.