HTC Home Customizer
 

HHC is now v1.0 Final and this version of the program is seriously outdated. Some functions do not work at all. Please visit www.pocketemu.com to download an updated version of HHC. This information is left here for archival purposes only and should be considered obsolete.


This program will let you customize, backup and restore the HTC Home Plugin. Currently it lets you customize the background, clock, tab icons, and weather icons separately. Please leave your feedback as I am constantly trying to add/update the feature set. Please view the readme for details.

ATTENTION
The install cab has been removed from the package, however you now have the option to download the home plugin based on your WM version. This is NOT guaranteed to work, but seems to work for the vast majority. You may still install your own version prior to running the customizer, however only the downloaded versions are guaranteed to work with all options.

Also, there is now a 2.0 version of the Kaiser Home plugin with several fixes (working profiles, contact # selection, etc.), however it's only available for WM6. This is the version the customizer will download and install for you if the plugin is not detected (on WM6). The links below are the 1.5 version if anyone would like to use that instead.


v0.8 *UPDATED 8/19/2007*

FEATURES
-New cab installer and two versions, HHC and HHC Lite!
-Change the "appearance" of the Home Plugin (background, clock, icons, weather icons)
-Options to change tab order, music player, and today postition locking
-Backup/restore of your appearance and settings (launcher shortcuts, contacts, weather settings, cities database, plugin options)
-Option for alternate weather selection (custom cities!!!)
-Option to create/delete shortcut to the program
-Custom theme support
-Support for plugins that install to \HTCHome and \Windows
-Live appearance set downloads and previews
-Live download of Home plugin and Audio Manager based on WM version detected.
(You can still manually install another plugin before running the customizer if you wish.)

NOTE ABOUT LIVE DOWNLOADS
Live downloads are very primitive currently, although very functional. Please leave your feature requests for this module in this thread, as they will be added to v1.0 when released.

If you lose your data connection while downloading a file through the customizer, you may experience a delay of up to 5 minutes before the customizer recognizes the connection is lost. This issue will be also be addressed in v1.0.

Here is a direct link to the preview site: Appearance Previews


THEMES
OK, here's how themes work. The "Theme" is broken down into four "Appearance" options. They are Background, Clock, Icons, and Weather Icons. I split those up for two reasons. First, I haven't found any (I'm sure they're out there) alternate weather icons, so copy the sames files over again is redundant and wastes times. Second, it gives you a little more control over the customization of your themes. What the program does is it takes the names of the four Appearance options you have set and save those parameters to the themes.ini file with the name you have given it.

You can then go back and reload that theme (four image sets) anytime you wish from the Themes menu.


INSTALLATION
YOU MUST HAVE THE HTC HOME PLUGIN INSTALLED TO USE THIS PROGRAM. If you would like to use the Tab Order function, you must have a version of the plugin that supports it.

YOU MAY OPTIONALLY INSTALL THE HTC AUDIO MANAGER to use with the Music tab.

HHC is now packaged in a CAB installer. You can install/uninstall this like any other program now. If you have a previous version with a custom backup or appearances, you can copy them into the new installation folder as the folder structure has stayed the same.

If you do not have a Home plugin installed, the customizer will prompt you to download and install a compatible version. You may decline, however you will not be able to use it unless you have one installed.

You can also download a version of Audio Manager for your WM version from the HTC Options menu.

Neither the Home plugin or the Audio Manager are guaranteed to work with your device, however these packages have worked for many people.


USAGE
1. Go to Start -> Programs and launch the HTC Home Customizer.
2. Use the program.
3. Close the program. Once complete, the plugin should reload automatically and you should see your changes if you made any.

WEATHER
Thanks to N2A on XDA forums, you can now pull your local weather. Based on his patch, I've implemented a switchable setup for your weather. You may continue to use the default or switch to a custom db where you can enter the cities you wish, most US cities by zip code only! Please see this link for more details about zip/location codes you will need to enter. You will only need your zip/location code, as the program will handle all the database and reg entries for you.

If you are having trouble with local weather over your phone's data connection when selecting a custom database, try this via wifi (tested) or activesync (untested):
1. Disconnect your phone's data connection.
2. Enable the alternate internet connection and open PIE.
3. Browse to http://htc.accuweather.com, you should get N2A's "error page" (at this point, your weather should now update)
4. Disconnect the alternate connection and re-enable your phone's data connection
5. Try to update the weather tab, you should now get your local weather if everything is setup correctly.

If it's still not working and your on WM6, use the cab from N2A's post above. The cab he provides is more reliable than the "Pocket Hosts" method he describes, which is what the customizer now uses


CHANGELOG for v0.8
-Some packages have been removed to reduce download size.
-New Download Packages option - Can download extra packages from online repo at any time
-Option to preview the packages in IE, then go back to the customizer to download
-Removed extra prompt when plugin DLL not found
-Fixed install background confirmation to say background instead of clock
-Change language of HTC Home plugin (sorry not the customizer itself, just the plugin)
-Added a bunch of artwork to online repository
-Added option to show/hide titlebar clock
-Added prompt to soft reset device if a change that requires it has been made
-Added option to change the localization of the plugin
-Added live download of plugin if not installed with check based on WM version
-Added live download of audio manager (optional)
-Added more description to some prompts
-Added more (still not done) error-checking with program functions
-Most important feature of all: HHC has an icon!!! (A crappy one, but an icon!)
-Probably some other stuff I can't remember right now


MINOR BUGS/ISSUES
Occasionally the program will lock up or soft reset the device. This has only happened after repeatedly opening the program. I've only heard this from one other user, so I think it might have something to do with another package. I'm still looking into this issue.



SCREENSHOTS
http://www.digitaldeviation.com/file...ots/dlmenu.png http://www.digitaldeviation.com/file...s/previews.png

Here are some screenshots of the included artwork (WM6 on left, WM5 on right):
http://img72.imageshack.us/img72/1396/captureoy4.png http://img72.imageshack.us/img72/6805/capturewm5bj8.png


SUPPORT
Please use these links for checking on and reporting problems.

HHC Updates
v1.0 BETA Bug Reports/Problems
HHC & HTC Home FAQ
HHC Supported Devices (WIP)

Nicely done. Does it also backup the quicklaunch shortcuts?

Not yet, I didn't even think about that, something for me to work on tomorrow!

Backup of settings is in place - thx for the idea stroths. I also added a menu system. Being as though I have not been "legitimized" here on the forums, here is a zip file with screenshots of the program and included color icon set.

[Screenshots removed, see first post]

Not bad at all! i like it thanks :)

I tried it and it worked great. I do have one other request for an addition. You can use the HTC Audio Manager or the built in Windows Media Player for the music tab. You must change the registry entry below to choose between the two.

HKLM\Software\HTC\Music Plug-In\
Change the "MusicPlayer" value to 1 for WMP or 2 for the HTC Audio Manager

It would be nice to have a menu selection that would change the registry key.

Done. :D

Very nice...just tried the .3 version and it works great. Thanks for the fast turnaround time. One other thing you might think about is having your app set the today registry entry for this plugin to Enabled 0 if its currently enabled. Then your app could run and set it back to "1" on exit.

That's a feature I've been wanting to implement since I started this. The main problem is that if the plugin is loaded on the today screen, the icons are locked and cannot be overwritten. That's why the program won't run if the plugin is enabled. If I had a way to refresh the today screen and clear the loaded plugin after setting the Enabled option to 0, then I would totally do that. I'm still doing research on how I can accomplish this with MortScript ATM.

BTW, I really appreciate the feedback since this is a newly ventured "hobby" of mine.

I haven't tried this, but I think it will resolve your issue. Below is from the mortscript manual:

9.22.7 Heute-Bildschirm aktualisieren (RedrawToday)

RedrawToday

Redraws the Today screen. Useful if you did any modifications in the registry..


If I am reading the mortscript manual correctly, you should be able to disable the today plugin via the registry, RedrawToday, then do the rest of your magic.

EDIT: Check out this post for a good example

http://discussion.treocentral.com/sh...&postcount=117

I didn't catch that before, I'll work on it right now...look for version 0.4 soon. Any other suggestions from anyone while I'm at it?

While I think the changing the plugin to a type "4" to make it moveable is a good idea for some, I prefer mine at its static location. Could you make it an option "Make Home Plugin Moveable" rather than mandatory?

Thanks for taking the time to create this and build in the improvements.

Stroths - Previous two requests, done. I'm done for the night, hope everyone likes it!

By the way, you can overwrite your previous install with this one and keep your settings and backup icons.

Great work! I linked to your thread from my post over at pdaphonehome

http://pdaphonehome.com/forums/ppc-6...tml#post640532

One of the mods asked if I would post a copy of your app there so they don't have to sign up here to get it. Do you mind if I do that?

---------------

Another feature possibility would be to add the HTC Audio Manager cab to your zip and give an option to install it and also set the reg key to default to the HTC Audio Manager when you use the music tab. The only problem with this is that it would add another 1mb to your zip file. The cab file can be downloaded at the link below if you are interested.

http://rapidshare.com/files/36721305...nager.cab.html

---------------

A guy over at XDA found a workaround for those whose city was not listed in the HTC Accuweather database. It basically adds an entry for htc.accuweather.com to the registry to point to an alternate IP address. He uses a freeware app to make the changes to the registry, but mortscript could do it pretty easily. You could then put an entry that states something like "Toggle Alternate Accuweather Database". Turning it on would go to the alternate IP and turning it off would just delete the redirect hosts entry in the registry. What do you think?

XDA Weather Changing Link
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=319187

How to Add a Host Manually with the Registry
http://windowsmobilepro.blogspot.com...n-windows.html

---------------

One last thing I can think of (for now) :) is an option for it to add a shortcut to itself in \Windows\Start Menu\Programs. It would allow users to easily launch your app. If you do this, you should look into an icon.

You are more than welcome to post it on PDAPhoneHome or anywhere else for that matter. As I have to run to work, I'll look over the weather stuff tonight. I'll be trying to add some more options this weekend, but reality might keep me busy for the next few days.

One note on the cab install, another option I've thought about, but to me kind of defeats the "ease of use". This will add an extra step before restoring after a hard-reset, however would make it much easier to reconfigure the settings later. I'm thinking about just having the program itself create a shortcut, that way after you've run it once, you'll have an icon in the start menu. I'm open to suggestions on this one.

emunutz


Thanks very much this. It has been working great on my Mogul since I installed last night. I am looking forward to any additions you might add, including the weather one as I live in a city not listed.

Have you run into any cases with v0.4 where it would not install the color icons? I tried this in the latest version on my Mogul and it did not install them. I got the prompt stating it did, but the \htchome directory contained all the old icons.

Have you run into any cases with v0.4 where it would not install the color icons? I tried this in the latest version on my Mogul and it did not install them. I got the prompt stating it did, but the \htchome directory contained all the old icons.

Does anyone know if you can change the Icons of your apps on the quicklaunch tab?

More specifically, can you change the default applications? I have absolutely no use for the comm manager icon, the backlight icon, the lock icon and the program launcher icon... Would love to be able to add custom ones here... Can someone point me in the right direction?

On my Mogul, I have colorful icons for the 6 tabs using 0.4 version. In case of conflicts with other programs or previous versions of the home plugin, I ran this script right after I updated the rom so there was nothing else on the phone at the time. I even did a soft reset after the rom update so the Sprint customization was not installed as well.

If I understand you correctly, you want to remove some or all of the default quicklaunch shortcuts and add your own. If that is the case, then 5th slot on the 2nd row of the quicklaunch which will be an icon with an X in the middle of it. Now start clicking the icons you want removed and they will delete. Then click the empty spaces to add new shortcuts.

Thanks for taking the time to respond. I had actually figured it out about 10 seconds after posting that. i tried to come back and edit my question to describe what I had done, but I kept on getting an "Internal Server Error" when trying to post. Is anyone else getting a lot of these "Internal Server Error" messages?

any idea if this will work for 6700 or make it to work for 6700?

thanks

To my knowledge, the HTC Home Plug only works on WM6 at this time.

you're right. I tried it on my Titan with WM5 and it didn't work until i upgraded to WM6

The three tab home plug is working with WM5. There is a thread around here somewhere......

http://www.ppcgeeks.com/htc-home-3-b...m-5-t7143.html

I just tested it out and all went ok. I installed Original->Color->Original->Color and all was well. I've got a question, after you tried the color install, did the plugin re-enable itself? Also, if you are still having that problem, could you check to see if the plugin was actually disabled after launching the script (while the program is running of course)?

I'm still at work so I can't debug yet, but keep sending the feedback, I'm checking often. :D

Need help installing!!
 

I downloaded the file from my computer and extracted it but i dont know what to do now

Re: Need help installing!!
 

Once the folder is extracted, copy it to your device (preferably to a Storage Card) and run the homecust.exe inside. The program will handle disabling the plugin and the launch a menu with the program options.

Check it out...transparent icons

http://forum.xda-developers.com/show...&postcount=814

Stroths,

That one looks nice. I tried another trans. set about a week ago and it didn't look that good, so I gave up on them. I've been thinking about doing custom color sets for the bg images and clock, but I have no time to convert and tweak them.

If you or anyone else wants to do some collaboration and volunteer some Photoshop skills, I'd love to add a "themes", "clock color", and possibly "weather icons" option to the customizer. A perfect compliment to the tab icon feature and something that would make this a killer app/script.

BTW, I'll probably hold off on a new release until I hammer out the next feature set.

Thanks for some great work emunutz...

Best HTC Kaiser homeplug by far!

Here are some color replacements for the digits

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=314510

Noice.. I tweaked my digits a bit :lol: :D along with few other things :P
heh u can tell diff just lookin at my avatar and pic below

http://img162.imageshack.us/img162/723/tweakedee1.png

wamu how did u get rid of the clock on the top bar?

emunutz, thanks for the hard work and sharing with us.

Hmm could beee spb pocket plus.. dindt really pay attention when clock was there

Thanks for the comments all. I do take them into consideration as I want this to be usable for everyone, not just "my way or the highway".

I'm working hard to hammer out the next version, but I have a question. Should I keep all the icons together as one option, or break them apart like weather, music, launcher, etc...?

What would you all like to see?

NEW STUFF (so far) for v0.5
-Appearance option - Broken down to background, clock, and icons.
-Combined similar options into their own menus
-Added option to create/delete a shortcut in the Programs folder
-Cleaned up some useless files

EDIT: EDGE23, the home plugin cab that comes with my app disables the clock in the titlebar. To manually change, the reg key is:
[HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Shell]
"ShowTitleBarClock"=0

0 to disable
1 to enable

Does this HTC home work faster than the stock Sprint screen?

if not the same, then faster. it does save space on the screen instead of having treo pic dialer, ilauncher, date, weather panel and phonealarm, plus kick ass on looks.

emunutz, thanks for the tip. im going to have to change the clock manually.