Customize the New Sliding Panel Home Screen on Windows Mobile 6.1

I’m sure that everyone with a Windows Mobile 6.1 Standard (non-touch screen) device has been busy playing with the new sliding panel home screen. The question routinely comes up on how to modify the panels and their order as well as add new panels. The answer was easy – simply edit the corresponding xml and registry settings. Unfortunately, the answer may have been easy, but actually doing it can be difficult for some.

Enter CHome Configurator from mind of tlogix over at Smartphone: Nuts & Bolts. This utility will ease the pain of customizing the new sliding panel home screen to your liking. CHome Configurator allows you to add new panels, and modify or delete existing panels without having to mess around with xml files and registry settings. Best of all, this utility is FREE! So you can easily and affordably customize your 6.1 home screen. Now, I would love to see a home screen theme that takes advantage of the sliding panel design. Who’s up to that challenge?

Once you’ve download the 2 CAB files (one for the application and another for the Icon Pack), copy them to your device and install them. Both of these CAB files are pretty small and I would recommend installing them to the device and not the storage card. I’m sure it might be possible to place them on the storage card, but you wouldn’t want to risk any problems using the home screen if the storage card becomes corrupt or is removed.

So, download CHome, customize your home screen and share with us the changes you made. I’ll be playing around with it over the course of the next couple days and I’ll post back with the additions and changes that I’ve made.

One thing to note; If you are running a Windows Mobile Professional device, this application will not work for you. The sliding panel home screen is available on Standard (non-touch screen) devices only. This is due to the fact that Pro devices do not use the same XML based configuration for the today screen.

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