Start Menu Icon

Question

Hi,

The icon size of Start Menu Items is dependent on resolution : for instance on 240x320 devices, icon size is 45x45; on 320x320 devices, icon size must be 60x60.
To get your icon taken into account in the Start Menu, you must provide an additional reg key:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Security\Shell\StartInfo\Start\MyApp.lnk] "Icon"="\Windows\myapp.png"

My first question is : how to take resolution into account in your setup file while you can only put a path to one PNG file in the registry ?

I've tried to embed the different sizes (45x45, 60x60 90x90) in an ico file (in PNG format), done with IconWorkshop software, but it didn't seem to work (at least in 6.5 simulators). In this case, the icon displayed is one included in the program resources.

My second question is : when specify the path for that icon, how can we be independent from the ROM language ? For instance, I  would like to have my icon in [\Program Files\MyApp\myapp.png] ; but on a Spanish Professional Device this path is \Archivos de programa\MyApp\myapp.png. Can we put something like %CE1%\MyApp\myapp.png in this key ?
As a workaround, we can put this icon in \Windows\ directory, put is \Windows\ always writeable ?

Regards,

Jice

Answer 1

What do you mean by "setup file"? A setup.dll could probably check which resolution the device is running and put the appropriate file in the link.

%CE%-strings should also work in a setup.dll.

While you probably can put files in the Windows directory I don't think that follows best practice, and not sure if it is in accordance with the guidelines either.

Answer 2

Yikes, I just added the other sizes to the ico file too and the apps are now submited :) So it doesn't work this way?
Can we have exact details of how we should do this correctly?

Answer 3

Thanks for the reply Andreas and mastersdom,
By 'setup file', I mean the cab file to install your application. setup.dll could probably work but I was wondering it there is a 'simpler' solution (like embeding all the png in the ico files..). On the 6.5 emulators, the ico solution doen't seem to work but maybe I've missed something.
Masterdom, do you have test it , on a device or on emulator ?

Answer 4

I am using real devices with cooked versions of 6.5 on rather than the emulator.
I am using the 'VS2008 Smart Device Cab File Project' which would seem to be the obvious tool for creating Cab files for smart devices.

Answer 5

Hi  Jice,

We are working on a blog post (Part 2 of Creating Custom Icons for Windows Mobile 6.5 - http://windowsteamblog.com/blogs/windowsphone/archive/2009/07/24/creating-custom-icons-for-windows-mobile-6-5.aspx) to address these questions. Please watch the Windows Mobile blog for updates (should be next week).

Thanks,
Vijay

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Vijay-MSFT

Answer 6

The blog post Vijay mentions is now available and can be found here: http://windowsteamblog.com/blogs/windowsphone/archive/2009/08/04/using-custom-icons-in-windows-mobile-6-5.aspx

Thanks,
Mike

Answer 7

I have noticed something that might be a bug at the emulators of 6.5.
I use the '[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Security\Shell\StartInfo\Start\MyApp.lnk] "Icon"="\Windows\myapp.png"' solution and it successfully adds a png icon on the start menu. What I found out is that when I add many bmp files in the same cab where "myapp.png'' is stored the solution doesnt work and the old .ico is displayed in the start menu.  Then if I remove these bmp files the solution works and the new png file is displayed.

Does anyone else experience this issue?

Answer 8

Two questions:

1.  Is using the .png file needed or can you just have all of the appropriate sizes included in your .ico file? From the documentation it seems that the .png file is not needed if all of the required .ico file sizes are met.  If this is correct what is the advantage of .png over .ico?

2.  Does using the .png method require submitting your application in as "Privileged"  rather than "Unprivileged"?


Thanks,

Nevin

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Nevin Morrison

Answer 9

Nevin -

If you will be distributing your application via Windows Marketplace, then per the submission requirements, you need to use a PNG file for the Start screen icon. Additionally you need to include the required large and small icons in your EXE (ICO).

Yes you should submit your application as privileged since the PNG procedure involves writing to a protected registry location.

Thanks,

Mike

Answer 10

Mike, I think for clarification that you should state that this needs priviledged signing only for Smartphone/Standard if I am correct.

Otherwise, given the statement above, everything should be submitted as needing priviledged signing.

Answer 11

KarenV - Yes you are correct. Signing privileged is only required for Standard devices. To write to the protected registry keys on Professional devices, the CAB needs to be signed (normal is sufficient) - which is done via the Marketplace submission process.

Thanks for pointing that out,
Mike

Answer 12

KarenV - Yes you are correct. Signing privileged is only required for Standard devices. To write to the protected registry keys on Professional devices, the CAB needs to be signed (normal is sufficient) - which is done via the Marketplace submission process.

Thanks for pointing that out,
Mike

Any way to make this automatic when the OS target includes 6.5 and platform is SmartPhone and not PPC?

I can see people having their money wasted by something that could be automated easily.

Answer 13

Hi Giorgos,

Did you discover anything else about this issue?  Does the number/size/order of files in the cab affect whether the .png ends up getting used?  I've run out of other possibilities trying to get the stupid .png to display.

Answer 14

Or is it Paint.Net vs. Photoshop, compression on the .CAB, bitdepth of the .png, or the phase of the moon?

Answer 15

And this didn't work:

  Regarding the PNG not appearing in the Start screen after installation, I have seen this if the Manufacturer name in the CAB file contains a space. (See the Manufacturer property in the CAB file Visual Studio project.)

http://windowsteamblog.com/blogs/windowsphone/archive/2009/08/05/using-custom-icons-in-windows-mobile-6-5.aspx?PageIndex=2#CachedIcons

Answer 16

jaybo_nomad - Regarding the issue of your PNG not being displayed until you do a soft reset, see my blog post here on how to resolve it.
http://blog.mjfnet.com/Blog/2009/11/06/WindowsMobile65StartScreenPNGIconDisplayProblem.aspx
Thanks,
Mike

 

Answer 17

Also here: http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/mktplace/thread/c294f9ac-bd2a-4176-a31f-0c6efd21af72