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November 30, 2007

Windows Mobile 5 Registry Hacks
Posted by Jess in Tech Talk

I LOVE Windows Mobile. It does what I need it to do, and that's enough for me. I had a Dell Axim with a huge VGA screen, and traded it up for a Treo 700wx smartphone with Sprint (unlimited data: $15/month, wow!).

That said, there were definitely some things that have always irked me, but there is ALWAYS a way.

Here are my favorite hacks and tweaks for my Treo, running WM5.

First off, you'll need a registry editor. Without hesitation, I recommend MemMaid, which allows all sorts of neat things you can do, including editing the registry.

Secondly, you'll need to know that editing the registry will usually require a soft-reset, but only after a certain amount of time has passed. WM5 doesn't commit the changes to memory immediately. So if you make your change and then immediately soft-reset, you'll notice your changes are gone. Wait about five minutes, and THEN reset.

1. Get rid of that annoying Sprint logo that takes up so much screen real estate!
There is an easy reg hack for this, but it takes away from the speed dial screen, which won't come up anymore either. However, thanks to a renegade developer, we can use the HideLogo free utility to remove the bar AND still allow us to use speed dial.

2. Enable ClearType. This isn't a registry hack at all, but it just looks better. You'll find this in the OS settings.

Settings-->System-->Screen

3. Make your scrollbars a little less thick. There's no need for a scrollbar width to be 20 pixels, not when your screen is that small to begin with. I set mine to 10 and it's perfect.

HKLM-->System-->GWE
cyHScr : Horizontal scrollbar height
cxHScr : Horizontal scrollbar width
cyVScr : Vertical scrollbar height
cxVScr : Vertical scrollbar width

4. Download the Crossbow theme for WM5. I don't know what it is about the theme, but the contrast works great with the ClearType, and it looks nice and sharp. You'll notice the clarity immediately, especially next to another phone that doesn't have the theme and ClearType enabled (I've tried it).

6. Get rid of the "Message Sent" notification after sending a text message. This one is just plain irritating. (

HKLM-->Software-->Microsoft-->Inbox
Add a new key called "Settings".
In that key, add the following new String Value:

Value Name "SMSNoSentMsg"
Value data: 1

Ahhhhhhhh...

Read the entire thread over at TreoCentral to find some more cool stuff you can do...

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