[Xperia Z Themes and Apps] Dev Jaskirat:
Hey Guys DJ here! I thought to make this guide for all people who want smaller onscreen keys/softkeys/navigation bar [the home,back and recent apps keys] on their Xperia Z. People would say that you could've provided some framework-res.apks with different sizes of softkeys! But they would be size specific and people have their own choices hence I am telling you guys how to make them yourselves! By the way this works on all android 4.+ devices!

What's the advantage of doing this? You get a bigger screen as your apps get rescaled automatically!

First of all Your Xperia Z should be rooted ,DEODEXED and unlocked! You can refer to DoomLord's tutorial for that!

You should have the knowledge on how to use flashtool or how to create nandroid backups in clockworkmod recovery incase something goes wrong!

Disclaimer:

You are doing this on your own risk , blah blahblahblahblahblah! :P

By the way cmd means command prompt window! ;)

Let's Begin:

First of all make a backup of your rom by going into the recovery ! Its good to have one incase something goes wrong!

To DO on your XZ-

1) Install root explorer

2) Navigate to system/framework/

3) Copy 'framework-res.apk' and 'SemcGenericUxpRes.apk' from that location to your SDcard.

4) Now connect your XZ to your PC.

To DO on your PC-

1) Install apktool v3 [you can find it easily on google! ]

2) After you are done with installing apktool open a cmd window in that location [ you can do that by right clicking in that window while keeping the shift key pressed, then click on the open command window here option from the drop down menu which appers].

3) Copy framework-res.apk and SemcGenericUxpRes.apk from your SDcard to your PC to the location where your apktool files are present.

4) Now in the cmd window which you opened earlier you need to type some commands -

apktool if framework-res.apk

now press 'enter key'

then

apktool if SemcGenericUxpRes.apk

press enter

The above 2 lines have installed the framework-res.apk and SemcGenericUxpRes.apk to your system which the apktool will later use as resources to decompile the framework-res.apk

now we need to decompile the framework-res.apk, for this type

apktool d framework-res.apk framework-res

it will perform a series of functions just wait for it till its finished!

when its done you will see that there is a new folder 'framework-res' in the window[location] where you have installed the apktool!

navigate to framework-res/res/values/

open dimens.xml using noteped++[yeah forgot to say that you need to install this too! ]

look for the lines 'navigationbar height' and navigationbar width'

the default size would be 48! just reduce it to what ever you want! 28 is recommended by me ! height = 28 and width= 24

Save the changes.

Now switch to the cmd window again

We are going to re-compile the framework-res.apk-

type-

apktool b framework-res framework-res-new.apk

when its done then you will have the new framework-res-new.apk with smaller softkeys!

5) Now copy it to your SDcard

6) Disconnect your XZ

7) Open root explorer in your XZ.

8) Copy the 'framework-res-new.apk' to your system/

9) Long press it and click on permissions

10) set it to rw-r--r--[1st row + + - ; 2nd row + - - ; 3rd row + - -][+ means ticked and - means unticked]

11) once done , rename the 'framework-res-new.apk' to 'framework-res.apk'.

12) Copy it to system/framework/

13) Press Yes when it asks to replace the original.

14) Then reboot your XZ [it might force reboot itself].

15) Done! now you have smaller softkeys! Enjoy!

Please report the results as I don't have an Xperia Z but this method has been tried and tested on my Xperia Neo V by me!

Press the thanks button below if you found this helpful!