Low Memory Warnings on Windows Mobile 5 Smartphone?

Editor’s Note: This article was originally published way back on January 23, 2007 on my personal blog. There have been some changes since then and my personal blog is, well..  more personal focused. Mobile Jaw is where I post mobility related information. It was recently brought to my attention that a number of people that are still looking for this solution. So I decided to raise it from the dead and post it here for everyone to enjoy. So.. Enjoy!

Running low on memory with your Smartphone? Well, you’re not alone.  This is one of the most commons problems people seem to have with their device.  So what’s the cause? Well, for whatever reason, Microsoft didn’t put a limit on the maximum size for IE Mobiles cache files. This means that after a little surfing, you’ll start seeing errors about running low on memory.

There are a couple things you can do to minimize this problem.  The first, is to clear your IE Mobile cache files.  Just launch IE Mobile and the push Menu / Options / Memory – then select Temporary Files and press Clear.  You might also want to clear Cookies and History, but they don’t tend to add up to much at all.

Once it’s cleared, I would suggest moving it out of main system memory and onto the storage card. This will allow it to grow and not interfere with the devices day to day operation. To do this create 3 folders on your storage card: \Storage Card\Temp\Temporary Internet Files and \Storage Card\Temp\Cookies and \Storage Card\Temp\History Once you have these created, open your handy-dandy registry editor and browse toHKEY_Current_User\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Folders and modify the key values to match the new folders you’ve just created.

Another thing you can do is to move the storage of email and attachments out of main memory and on to the storage card. This change involves making changes to the registry, so you’ll want to be extra safe when making this change. First thing you need to do is create a couple folders on your storage card. The first folder should be \Storage Card\Mail\ and the second folder should be\Storage Card\Mail\Attachments\ You can call them whatever you want, but I would recommend using the standard names. Once these are created, you’ll need to edit your registry.  Open your favourite Windows Mobile registry editor and browse to HKEY_Current_User\Software\Microsoft\MAPI and create 2 new string values.  The first should be called PropertyPath and should have a value matching the mail folder you created.  The second should be called AttachPath and should have a value matchings the attachments folder you created.  So PropertyPath = \Storage Card\Mail and AttachPath = \Storage Card\Mail\Attachments

It’s too bad that Microsoft couldn’t have better management of IE Mobiles temp files.  If they could keep those under control, then you wouldn’t need to do any of these hacks. I hope these tips help make your Windows Mobile experience more lovable.

How To Tweak Windows Mobile 6.5 Today Screen

With the launch of Windows Mobile 6.5, Microsoft brought the XML based today screen that has been used on non-touch devices, to the touch world of Windows Mobile. While it’s not the exact same XML template, it still allows us to get our hands in there and do some cool customization. And customize we shall do!

The first thing you’ll need to do is find a tool that allow you to set the file permissions on the device. There are a number of tools out there, find one that allows you to toggle the read-only setting of files. If your Windows Mobile 6.5 device is from HTC and is sporting HTC Sense interface, you’ll need to turn that off. If you’re not sure how, check out my post from last week for details.

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Changing the Startup and Shutdown Animation

MobileJaw reader Tisha, asked about how to remove the AT&T animation that takes place on startup and shutdown of your device. This is the same animation used on any of the Windows Mobile 3G smartphones that AT&T carries – the one where 3G clouds fly by and leaving a trail that transforms into the cellular reception bars. On other carriers this a different animation or sometimes just an image that shows the carriers logo or something simple like that.

The steps below will walk you through removing this animation and there’s even details about what you need to do to display your own graphic. One special note – If you have a Samsung Jack or Propel Pro, you can not remove the startup animation. If you do this, the screen driver fails to load and you can no longer see anything on the device. You can, however, connect to the device using Pocket Controller Pro and reinstate the startup animation and all will be fine again. Again, this is only a problem on the Propel Pro and the Jack. All other devices have not displayed this behaviour.

1) The first thing you need to do is remove the application lock from your device (Windows Mobile Standard or non-touch devices only). To do this, check out my other post about Removing Application Lock.

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Disable the Sent TXT Message on Windows Mobile

As my SMS’ing has increased over the last little while I’m getting more and more annoyed with the message sent notification that shows up on after sending a text message on a Windows Mobile Smartphone. Yes, I know that it will actually go away by itself if you leave it alone, but I’m a mover and shaker and I want move along to another task. Having that message pop up is just annoying.  So, without further ado, here’s the registry hack you’ll need to do in order to stop that message from showing.  This should work on pretty much any Windows Mobile Standard / Smartphone (non-touch screen) device.

First thing is to fire up your favorite registry editor. Your phone doesn’t have one installed, so you’ll have to get one and install it first.  I recommend PHM - it’s good and it’s free. In your registry editor, go to HKLM \ Software \ Microsoft \ Inbox. Create a new key with the name of Settings. Then select that key and create a new String value (you should now be under the new key Settings, that you just created) and set the name as SMSNoSentMsg and the value as 1  Reboot your phone and that’s it.

Changing Menu Layouts Between Numbers and Letters

Some Windows Mobile devices are configured to show the menu items prefixed with a number, while other devices will use a letter of the alphabet. Sometimes the letter is in front of the menu item, while other times they underscore a letter in the menu item. Typically, devices with a front facing keyboard are using the letter option. While candy-bar phone are displaying the number option.

On the original BlackJack, Samsung used the number option. This made for quick and easy menu selections when combined with an oversized region for the number keys. On the BlackJack II, Samsung changed the number layout to 1 number to 1 key and switched the menu to the letter format. While I’m pretty good with the alphabet and QWERTY layout, I still find it faster and easier to navigate the menu’s using numbers and not letters. Thankfully, there’s a way to switch the layout to reflect your preference.

Break out your registry editor of choice and follow along!

1. Browse to HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Microsoft \ Shell
2. You should see a Value by the name of HasKeyboard. If you don’t see this, switch from KEYS to VALUES and it should display.
3. Change the value data in HasKeyboard to reflect your preference. Setting it to 1 will show letters and setting it to 0 will show numbers.
4. Save your changes and your done. No rebooting required.

Changing the Media Net and Cellular Video Buttons on the BlackJack II

A little while back I spent some time looking around for a way to change the destination for the AT&T Media Net dedicated button on my BlackJack II. There was a couple different solutions but they all seemed to be way to complicated or involved unnecessary executables that would reside in memory on the device. So after a short browse around the device, I’ve figured out how to modify the Media Net button along with the Cellular Video buttons on the BlackJack II. There’s no registry editing required, and no need to download a third party application that will intercept your key press’s and then launch the application or link of your choice.

The following steps outline how to change the Media Net button.

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Change the Maximum Size for Ringtones

I’ve never had a problem loading my ringtones onto my Windows Mobile devices. Typically I use files that a small and sharp so they can easily grab your attention. Recently I was point to some free ringtones being offered by Cisco (Thanks Clinton!) and I thought I would give them a try. Only problem was that they don’t show up in the list of ringtones available on the device. I know that they have been put in the right folder as all the other sounds I have loaded the device with are displayed just fine.

The problem is that there is a limit on the maximum file size for ringtones. I would imagine that this is done to prevent the phone from having to load a 10MB MP3 every time there was an incoming phone call. I can understand that, but at the same time the 307200 bytes just doesn’t seem like enough. Especially since these Cisco ringtones started at 450+KB.

Thankfully the solution isn’t a hard one. Simply modify a registry setting and away you go. Best of all, you don’t have to restart your phone after making this change. Grab your favourite registry editor and you’ll be off and running in no time. For people that like to work from their desktop, I would suggest a tool like SOTI’s Pocket Controller. Otherwise, grab PHM registry editor and you can modify this setting directly from the device.

1. Browse to HKEY_Current_User / ControlPanel / Sounds
2. Under the Sounds key, you should see a value by the name of FileSizeLimit
3. Highlight the FileSizeLimit value and edit it
4. The default Value Data for this value is 307200 – at least that’s what I see on my BlackJack. Change this to a value that better suits your needs. I would recommend a reasonable amount as you don’t want to use all system resources to load up your ringtone. I would think that 807200 would be a reasonable size for most people.
5. Save your changes and you should now be able to select those larger files as your ringtones.