[JASJAR, XDA Exec, MDA Pro General] craigiecraigie4:
There are way too many posts on this board from ppl who r saying "Piece of crap, I'm gonna take it back and stick it up my provider's...". This post is for you!

I'm no expert (just a disciple of ppl like buzz, vj, etc), BUT I am not afraid of a hard reset or 30, and as a result I've tested everything below, and most of the stuff throughout this forum. I've also followed everything on every forum since being the 10th person in my country to get a JasJar. I welcome critisism, corrections and additions. Please post replies by refering to the step you would change, or insert after. Let's try to stick to proven alternatives and additions though, so that this thread can become somewhat of a 1-stop point for new users (and existing users who do not have the time to learn this alone - and let's face it anyone who has a Universal already, is probably pretty hard working, and already spending an awful amount of time justifying their acquisition in front of their BlackBerry collegues...)

This is written with a single thought in mind; what the hell would my wife do if she got one of these. No-one could blame her for tossing it inside of a week, but with a few changes it's perfectly functional - in fact with a few more changes (also listed below) it's quite desirable.

By the end of this process, your Universal should have a reasonable suite of apps, perfect functionality around all issues solved to date (I've not covered networking tho), a screen flip speed of 0.5s or less, and free program memory of over 20Mb

So here goes, a step-by-step process to get your Universal 100% functional, proven and tested on the

HTC Universal iMate JasJar

, but should all work on any MDA:

ROM Upgrade: First thing's first. Upgrade to the September-30 ROM (JASJAR_WWE_11353_137_10301.zip). It's available somewhere on xda-developers, or on clubimate for imate users. This is a no-brainer - no posts on this board or any others indicate it's a waste of time. Many posts cover O2 users flashing to this ROM, with great benefits. There are ways to re-install the O2 graphics and apps - if you want ;-) If you have ANY issues with your Universal, bite the bullet and do this; you'll see that the following setup process is not as brutal as you'd expect (I can run thro it in about half an hour - but I've done it many times and have all the apps lined up and ready).

Optional soft reset: Some pppl like to soft reset BEFORE the device installs the default apps. On this ROM, there's no performance improvement, no memory imporvement that can't be covered later (backgammon etc), and potentially some important losses that I didn't hang around long enough to discover.

Sync: Now sync with your PC to get your contacts, calendar and tasks. This is only here to get you up and running asap.

Pocket Mechanic: Download (www.antontomov.com) and install this essential app. You have a few days on trial, and it's necessary for the next steps

Notification Queue: This can be done later, but it's nice to get familiar with this process whilst your queue is small. Using PM, open the notification queue. You may already (yes!) find some duplicate (yellow icon) sddeamon entries. These seem to replicate during an activesync. You can/must delete all duplicates from time to time. You will also, in future, find some "\.\\Notification.....SCRIPT..." entries. Keep an eye out for these. Most mature within minutes of you finding them, so let them expire. Many are future-dated and tightly back-to-back. These can nearly always (I've never had a regret) be deleted without repercussions. If you don't manage these, they tend to breed, and anyone with XDA experience knows what happens when your queue fills up (failed alarms etc). I'm unclear as to where these come from - undoutedly an app that is not behaving elegantly (regular registration checks etc), and if you follow the steps on this post you should NOT find any - ie the apps here do not seem to be culprits. But, keep an eye open...

Registry cleanup: Again, this can be done later, however you'll soon see the beenfit of doing it now. Using PM, run registry cleaner. You'll get around 6 entries, all of which can safely be deleted. If you did not follow step 1, you may have to examine eahc entry to see if the O2 ROM is messier. The beauty of this step is that from now on, you can safely clean everything that PM finds in the knowledge that it's a leave-behind from an app you installed, and now you can install, de-install, and provided you clean up the directories (easy) you KNOW for sure that you've completely gotten rid of the failed app. Winner!

Task closer: Now it's time for your task manager. There's a lot of coverage on this, and any of the following seem to do the trick, ranked in order of simplicity thro to possibly problematic:[list:333ba237cf]

Magic Button (free, includes battery line on top of screen)

GSPocketMagic++ (free, includes cascading menu. Some MDA Exec users claim that it closes something awful that O2 installs, and solves a 7 second flip issue. SEVEN SECONDS!!! If you implemented step 1, you should not have this problem to solve anyway)

spbPocketPlus (not free, and do not allow it to show any storage meters. There are some bad posts on spb, but I've found it just as good as the above, altho it takes up slightly more memory)

WisbarAdvance2 (not free, HUGE footprint, definite performance issues BUT it skins your Universal SO beautifully, that I've gone with this and WAD - desktop plugin)

[*]Basic apps: Now there are a few no-brainer apps to install, that no-one disputes and that are all free. NO BRAINERS:

Total commander (free, replacement for file explorer - way way better)

TCPMP (free, replaces media player, more formats, full screen, way way better)

Batti (free, battry bar on top of screen like spbPocketPlus, small footprint, but if u r using MagicButton you already get this)

TRE (free, registry editor, necessary to run .reg files covered later)

IIWPO (free, AWESOME concept; If your owner info is changed, it SMS's the number you've set with new SIM number and new 'owner' details. Great if someone steals your Universal. Don't bother if u r not happy with a little installation effort)

BT icon (free, on this board somewhere, gives u an icon on your today tray that shows BT status and allows u to jumps to settings>connections>BT)

BT switch (free, on this board somewhere, several apps that turn BT on, off, or toggle)

Battery Uptime (Optional: free, today plugin that tells u the battery status BUT it's way more useful: you get to see actual running time vs uptime, and remaining running time. This gives u a good feel for your battery consumption rate under different scenarios and helps overcome a LOT of concerns around thinking you are draining faster when actually you are just using the device more)

apReminderPlus (free, AWESOME repeating alarms. Beauty of this is that is seems to be independent of WM5, in that it keeps an eye open for any alarms, and pops up to do its thing if it sees one. WAY beter than built in repeat system, and makes me feel good that I have alarms covered off in case the old wm2003 bugs start to appear again)

VJSMS (free, on this board, gives u 1-click to send an SMS. Note that .lnk file should read as follows INCLUDING inverted commas:

\Storage Card\Program Files\VJApps\vjsms.exe" "123

Change path and number of course. Number can also be a name.

Sad to report that VJDailer doesn't work on the universal. This would be awesome

[*]Settings: Time to do your basic settings:

speed dials

power and backlight

voice dials

Owner info

ringtones and notifications

DO NOT set regional settings if u r using PI (below)

[*]PIM: OK, time to replace the CRAP calendar built into WM5. CRAP CRAP CRAP! Disgracefully, embarassingly CRAP. Hell, symbian ship better default apps with the OLD Psion S3 and S5 than this! Now, I use PocketInformant. Latest release works well on JJ with 2 livable issues: Landscape flip screws up Monday/Tuesday in week view, and you MUST NOT set any regional settings what-so-ever, else you get the blank calendar view bug. AgendaFusion is due for a WM5 release any day now. Other than that, I don't think there is much that works on the Universal - correct?? :?:

[*]Reg fixes: Now there are a few no-brainer registry hacks that you should run. You can find these as cab files on this board, as registry keys under the wiki page, else as .reg files on one of my earlier posts (fastest method):

Buzz's BT headset (prevents BT from turning off over night - no brainer! Thanks buzz!!)

"Always on GPRS" (search this board - keeps GPRS/UMTS turned on - awesome!)

Date & time in title bar (why not)

Menu and popup fonts 700 vs 900 (it's cosmetic, but on our nice VGA screens, it seems daft to have a look n feel that's SO QVGA)

PIE homepage (prevent 'e' button from going to clubimate page)

Terminal services cache (increased cache uses memory during terminal services, but it's WELL worth it to eliminate black blocking issues)

Turn IR off (unless you have a good reason for keeping it on)

[*]Extra apps: There are several very useful apps, that work reliably and do not have an adverse impact on your Universal.

eWallet (not free, desktop sync does not work, but rest is very useful)

Pocket sudoku (not free, but it's SO much fun!)

Mobipocket reader (skinny version is free, for mobipocket ebooks - ebooks fully being 25% of your devices functionality along with PIM, phone and internet access. Google beta 5 version with full VGA support)

uBook (more eBook formats. Not free but usable. VGA support)

1-calc (cos built in calculator is SO crap)

GPRS traffic monitor: We need a GPRS/3G monitor. spbGPRS monitor does NOT track the usage of yoru device as a 3G modem - which is where u chew up traffic costs. IP Dashboard has similar issues.

[*]Memory:Now, I'm the first to say that I don;t fully get this yet. There are a few things that the posts suggest should reduce program or storage memory - but don't really seem to do so. Try them and let me know results with more scientific before and after checking please:

Remove backgammon & skype, and re-install to SD card

Remove the 1Mb .tsk themes from the \Windows directory. You cannot delete them, you have to create new files that are smaller and copy them into \Windows and overrwite the larger files. Search this board for some sample small files provided. I didn't find that I got any memory back...???

Ditto for .cab files in \Windows

Do not use these big theme files - by using smaller themes you should get more program memory.

A couple of dudes have started threads on getting more memory and clearing out \windows files - but there are no good responses yet...

[/list:o:333ba237cf]

Right, that's it! As I said above, I welcome input and feedback - but let's keep it hi quality so that this post perhaps gets stickied and we can get less of the "Buy my JasJar before I post it on eBay posts". Of course there are a load more apps you can add, but most give issues (eg TomTom) and posts on this board cover working around them for ppl who have to have these apps. This was a good, strong, basic config.

Hope this is helpful to some.