*click thumbnail for larger view
Step 1: Find a 480x640 wallpaper you want to use
Step 2: Open image in photo editing program (photoshop in this example)
Step 3: Open appropriate .psd (if using photoshop) or make your own template for taskbar/softkey bar. For WM
6.5, you need a template of
480x52 pixels.
I highlighted the entire 480x52 pixel template and moved that selection to the top of the 480x640 wallpaper. For
6.5.x, you need a template of
480x36 pixels and you select/copy the top 480x36 pixels of your wallpaper.
Step 4: Copy the top 480x52 pixels into the 480x52 template and save the file as
vgahd_taskbar.png.
Step 5: Open appropriate .psd or make canvas for the softkey bar.
WM6.5 uses the
same 480x52 pixel template. For
6.5.x, you need a
480x68 pixel template. Copy the bottom 480x52 (6.5) or 480x68 (6.5.x) pixels and paste them into the template. Save that file as vgahd_softkeybar.png.
Step 6: Save the 480x640 wallpaper as vgahd.png.
Step 7: Make a copy of vgahd.png (ie vgahdtemp.png) and rename it to
homebackground.img with
no .png extension.
Step 8: Copy vgahd_taskbar.png, vgahd_softkeybar.png, and vgahd.png to
\Program Files\VGAHDwall (you will have to create the VGAHDwall directory there).
Step 9: Copy homebackground.img to \windows on your device (overwriting the current one).
Step 10: Install the WM6.5 VGAHDwall.cab (WM 6.5) or WM6.5.X VGAHDwall.cab (WM 6.5.x) to your device and soft reset. These cabs contain the appropriate registry settings for taskbar/softkeybar and sense background (assuming you copied files to the correct directories
). They also contain the better background mod by amarullz (3 manila files) and the modifed bg4all (1 manila file).
Steps need to be done in order.
If you switch to a different .tsk, you will need to install the cab again to make the taskbar and softkeybar show your image.
If you want your start menu background to match, go to settings->Today->check box at bottom ("use this picture...") and pick vgahd.png. You will need to copy vgahd.png to a directory that it searched (ie \My Documents\My Pictures).
For a better look, you can replace stwater_480_640.jpg and stwater_640_480.jpg with your custom image. In the mushroom example in post 1, I saved vgahd.png as stwater_480_640.jpg. Then I re-sized vgahd.png to 640x480 (did
not constrain proportions) and saved it as stwater_640_480.jpg. Copy both stwater_xxx_xxx.jpg files to \windows and soft reset phone. This will make the landscape start menu and titanium wallpapers look better.
Another tip to easily copy and overwrite files to \windows is to use
cfcgui by chainfire. Just open the program and drag the files you want to copy to the white box in the upper left that says "drop files here....". It will copy files and restart sense for you (will still need to soft reset phone for taskbar/softkeybar and start menu to show).