Creating Today Theme OEM's for your Custom Rom - Tutorial
About this Tutorial
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This tutorial will show you how to add your favorite Windows Mobile Today Theme (.TSK files) to your ROM. You can use it to set system colors and
system...well, anything that get's changed when you install a new theme.
Here is a breakdown of the first four reserved posts in this thread:
Post #1 - Tutorial
Post #2 - Tutorial
Post #3 - User created theme downloads
Post #4 - As I finger out what each registry key is I'll try to break them down and explain what each one sets. (I haven't done this yet, but in time...)
A little preparation now, can save you a lot of time later.
This tutorial ASSUMES you have working knowledge of cooking your own rom. I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANYTHING THAT HAPPENS TO YOU OR YOUR DEVICE by reading this tutorial! This tutorial will work with most windows-mobile based kitchens, Apache, Titan, Vogue, PPCKitchen and others.
Credits
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I would like to thank PPCGeeks and all those that made the kitchens possible! You all know who they (you) are! And a special thanks to Aceszhigh for providing the tutorial basics on WinCeRegeditor, and xda-developers.com and their Wiki Tutorial on Ervius's Package Creator!
Terminology used in this tutorial:
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OEM - Similar to a .CAB file, this is the method used to add files/programs to a cooked Rom. This is copied to USER_OEM if using the ppckitchen, or into your OEM folder if you are using another kitchen.
GUID - GUID (or UUID) is an acronym for 'Globally Unique Identifier'. It is a 128-bit integer number used to identify resources.
RGU File - The file in the OEM that contains the registry entries.
.TSK File - A package that contains the Color/Background theme information for Windows Mobile.
The following files are inside:
--STWATER*.GIF - The Image that contains the background image for the Start Menu.
--TDYWater*.GIF - The image that contains the background image for the Today Screen.
Tools that you will need:
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1.
CeRegEditor
2.
Ervius's Package Creator
Usefull/Related Tutorials:
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To help you with this, I recommend the following Tutorials:
1.
Ervius's OEM Package Tutorial: This will show you how to use this so you can extract the contents of your .tsk file.
2.
Tutorial: Integrating Custom Registry Settings into a ROM w/ ProvXML - Lazy Man's Way by AceszHigh: Good sniplet on exporting registry values using CERegEditor
3.
Tutorial: Adding Registry Entries to your Rom (RGU Method): This will help you with creating the RGU file and inserting your registry entries.
The steps involved with this Tutorial:
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This tutorial will teach you how to incorporate Today Themes into your cooked rom. I will show you how to how to process .tsk files so that you can jazz up your Rom.
So here are the steps involved:
1. Download and install CeRegEditor and Ervius's Package Creator
2. Copy your target .tsk file to an empty directory.
3. Process your .tsk file and create your OEM
4. Install .tsk file to your device and export Registry entries
5. Incorporate Registry entries to your OEM's RGU file.
6. Copy to your kitchens OEM or USER_OEM directory.
7. Build your Rom and FLASH!
8. Upload your new OEM and share with the community!
9. A special note on how to bypass the default theme set by your provider in your stock rom.
First a look inside a TSK file:
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The standard TSK files are:
tdywater.gif = The GIF that displays on the home screen
stwater.gif = The GIF that displays as the background for Windows Start Menu
More advanced TSK packages also contain images for QVGA and VGA themes:
QVGA Themes (Portrait and Landscape):
tdywater_240_320.gif
tdywater_320_240.gif
stwater_240_320.gif
stwater_320_240.gif
VGA Themes (portrait and landscape):
tdywater_480_640.gif
tdywater_640_480.gif
stwater_480_640.gif
stwater_640_480.gif
Note: Spb Software also has incorporated some extra gif files that enhance/compliment their programs. You can delete them if you don't use them...
Let's get the party started:
1. Download and install CeRegEditor and Ervius's Package Creator
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This is fairly basic, download and install these two programs. CeRegEditor is a standard windows installer, and the link to Ervius's Package
Creator, just unarchive this download to it's own directory.
2. Copy your target .tsk file to an empty directory.
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It is easiest to create a new directory for processing new OEM's. I have like five directory's for creating OEM's, one of them specifically for doing .tsk files.
Tip: Ervius's Package creator will create the OEM in a new subdirectory off this "work" directory you create.
3. Process your .tsk file and create your OEM
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Here is the fun part. I found that a .tsk file is just a form of a .cab file. So here is what we want to do:
(1) - Rename your .tsk file to a .cab file. (example: rename "metal.tsk" to "metal.cab")
(2) - Process the .cab file with Ervius's Package Creator to create your new OEM. (I have linked the tutorial above...)
(3) - Rename the .cab file back to a .tsk file and copy inside the new OEM. (You'll want it if you change your theme and want to change it back)
That's it for this part! Now you have created an OEM with all it's components for your kitchen, and seperated out the tdywater*.gif, and
stwater*.gif files needed. The basics....
Note: I've tried OEMizer and it does not work with this method at the time I wrote this tutorial.
Note2: If you do not want to mess with Ervius's Package creator, you can install the Today Theme to your device and just copy the stwater*.gif and tdywater*.gif's from your device (located in \windows) to one of the OEM's already completed in post #3. You will still need to export your registry entries and replace the ones in the existing RGU. (and don't forget to delete the existing *.gif files too)
NOTE: As always, I post the basics then pretty it up over a couple of days...so be patient! 
Note: Attached is a dummy provisioning file to add to your OEM that will bypass the stock one if needed. See Step #9 for more information...