Windows CE Programming

Uuups, sometimes we are looking for a way to do simple things and do not remeber how easy it was.

Question: How can one hide/show the start icon in taskbar of Windows Mobile 6.1 (and before)?

Answer: Use the API provided by Microsoft for this: SHFullScreen! No need to use FindWindow and subclass, very simple use.

Ah, remeber that this will NOT work on Windows Enbedded Handheld 6.5.3 or Windows Mobile 6.5.3 or whatever you call it. The API will simply not do it’s work.

Here is a C# example for SHFullScreen usage.

Continue reading ‘MobileDevelopment: Using shFullScreen API to show hide Start icon’ »

As described in this post, I was looking for a way to get a proper view of pages designed for QVGA screens on devices with higher resolutions like VGA.

1) SAP ITS mobile screen on VGA Internet Explorer Mobile

2) SAP ITS mobile screen on VGA display with viewport width=240 and zoom=2

Continue reading ‘Internet Explorer Mobile – QVGA web site do not scale well to VGA screen’ »

With Windows Mobile 6.5.3, sorry, Windows Embedded Handheld 6.5.3 we have the Internet Explorer Mobile 6 engine.

Although it may look nice for the one or other, the rendering, especially the zoom in and out is unusable for commercial use. The IT departments of Warehouses and Stores designed there mobile web pages for a fixed size layout of 240×320 (QVGA). Using IEM (Internet Explorer Mobile) these pages do not show well. Either they are to small to read or, if zoomed in, the user has to scroll here and there. Not very usable. Event the Fit-To-Screen option does not help.

The predefined viewport or 1024×768 may be good for browsing non-mobile web sites but I was unable to find a suitable setting for mobile sites with a fixed QVGA or VGA layout.

Here comes the tipp found at xda-developers: change the default viewport size to match your needs:

Default:
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main
Viewport Height = dword:00000258(600)
Viewport Width = dword:00000320(800)

Landscape optimized (VGA)
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main
Viewport Height = dword:000001e0(480)
Viewport Width = dword:00000280(640)

Portrait optimized (VGA)
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main
Viewport Height = dword:00000280(640)
Viewport Width = dword:000001e0(480)

I assume you will find these better for commercial use than the desktop settings.

Unfortunately these settings are not used on every windows embedded device. So, you may give it a try and if it works for you, fine. I tested one device and iexplore.exe did not care about these entries. I checked with RegLoggerCE and found that iexplore.exe on that device does not query the above settings. For anyone interested, here is the log file of registry access of iexplore.exe captured with regLoggerCE: [Download not found]

This time I combined a set of functions to clear the Start Menu and the Today/Home Screen:

Before

After

Continue reading ‘Windows Mobile: Kiosk mode – Clear Today and Programs’ »