yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] wacky.banana:
Shantz,

Another brainwave/suggestion came to mind while I was in work today. Would be useful if the tool could either play animated themes or be able to recognise an app that is capable of playing animated themes and randomise between this and static themes.

Might be a bit of a tall order and I'm not fussed if its too much work and you don't fancy the coding. I use a mix of these themes but have to load up Animated Today if I want to see my animated themes. let me know what you think

On a different note you got your bike sorted yet?

Cheers

WB
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] shantzg001:
hey wb,

am sans bike yet :(

neways, i have never used animated themes so dont know what exactly needs to be done to start an animated theme, can the animated today exe take a parameter or smthing to start a theme, cuz am anyways including a "run an exe on theme change" feature in the next version...
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] wacky.banana:
Shantz,

The link below should give you some info. The app is a fairly simple one.

I guess the ability to run an exe file or file as an option from the Changer Tool is potentially a viable way forward.

Cheers

WB

http://www.gigabytesol.com/anitoday.htm
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] shantzg001:
@wb: I know about the app, but I was saying that I don't know exactly how it works, i.e., when u set a theme using this do u just run the exe along with a parameter (the path of the theme), or is there smthing else to be done..Sorry I cant check the working of this right now as the storage space on my device is critically low right now (< 3 mb). Can you check out the working innards of this app and let me know. I've started making the updates to the prog and will try to include it in the next version if you can find some things out..

PS: oh yeah, I got the bike back, burnt a deep hole in my pocket (12K Indian Rupees = 300$ approx) but its back into a fit shape just like before.. :)
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] wacky.banana:
Shantz,

$300 to fix the bike? Ouch!! Anyway at least you are back on the road and mobile again.

In terms of your question, which I hope I have interpreted correctly, where Animated Today is concerned, what happens is within the tool there is a SELECT option to choose the animated theme you want to run. Although the animated themes can be stored anywhere on the PPC, they all show up within the Windows Mobile Today Appearance tab option where all themes, whether animated or not, are shown.

You then simply choose a theme to run under AT from the Windows Today themes (Appearance) tab and that's it. If its an animated theme then AT will run the animation; if its a non animated theme then AT will simply show it as normal.

I guess there is hidden content within the AT programme that is responsible for running the animation within an animated theme. Now if you knew what that was you could simply get the Change Tool to select and run any theme. If the elected theme is animated then the Change Tool simply runs the animation.

Don't bust a gut on this as running animated themes is not one of my burning requirements. However the ability to change themes was my key requirement which you seem to have sorted.

Thanks mate. Give me a shout if you need more info. Hope this helps.

Cheers

WB
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] shantzg001:
@wb: By "Windows Mobile Today Appearance tab", do you mean the default today settings page (Today->StartMenu->Settings->TodaySettings)??

And can you attach any animated theme file here please?
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] wacky.banana:
Shantz,

Yes, I mean exactly that. The Select option within AT drops you straight into Windows today, as I explained, then picks up and runs the animation. I will either put up an animated file in a minute or point you to a website with loads on.

I will be back in a tick.

Cheers

WB

Shantz, you have a PM off me.
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] shantzg001:
hmmm, wb, it looks like it should work like normal themes...can u just tell me one more thing..for setting any today theme, do u always have to go thru the "animated today" program to the today settings, or u can normally follow the start menu->settings link to choose it and the flash theme is automatically set properly..
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] wacky.banana:
Shantz,

I can set my themes through either method. i use AT because there is a little icon at the bottom of my screen, saving me a load of taps (I'm a lazy git).

I guess what happens is when you select an animated theme through the Windows Today menu then Animated Today takes over and runs it.

Interesting thing is when your Change Tool kicks in it simply loads in the next non-animated theme.

Hope this helps.

WB
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] shantzg001:
The tsk file that i dled from the site u mentioned was like a regular theme file, it just had 3 extra files for animated today and no reg entry etc as such (the three files were the real animation to be done)

I think there can be only two ways in which AT is working:

1. It is always running and whenever it finds the animation file it runs it

2. It is always running and is hooking onto the change theme window and whenever you change a theme, it captures the messages generated and does something with it..

If thw way of working is 2), then we cant do anything abt it..

Anyways, you said that the change tool loads in the next non-animated theme, do u mean it "jumps over" the animated theme? I dont think it should do that. Even if animation doesnt work, it should not jump over the animated theme, it'll indeed try to install the animated theme, which results in either of these 2 things as seen by user:

1. No change in the theme for that particular cycle, so basically u miss a cycle (i.e. if your interval is 1 min, and then you encounter an animated theme, then user will basically see the change in theme after 2 minutes instead of 1 min because one cycle was missed due to animated theme)

2. There is a change in theme (many themes that i dled had normal theme components as well as animated components), so even though animation doesnt work, normal components should result in a change of theme.
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] wacky.banana:
Shantz,

From the options you present I would say that option 2 is the more likely. I know that in the past where I have had animated themes on the PPC but AT has not been installed then I have had an error message along the lines of " you require xxxyyy to run this file" or such like.

In terms of the behaviour of the Change Tool I think that option 1 is what is occuring. I do know that some themes have taken longer than the set time to change. This would suggest that the tool is meeting up with an animated theme within its cycle, recognises it cant run it and therefore does not initiate a change, ie it sticks with the previous theme, then runs the next theme in sequence when it gets to it.

If you want me to do some proper analysis on this let me know what you need and I will work on it.

Cheers

WB
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] 200mpx:
It seems that I have find a conflict between this cool app and wisbar advance beta 5. Sometimes the changing of wallpaper (tsk) hangs up device with WA3 b5 installed.

Was late for work today because of that :)

Will try to find more to be sure that it is wa3. With beta 3 everything was ok
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] 200mpx:
Now with a little testing I can say that it is not WBA3.

The app hang up device when it changes tsk thems and there is another program running at the same time :(
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] SeanFromSoCal:
Yeah I've too noticed that it could freeze the device during the theme change. It is most likely attributed to some partially corrupted theme files.

I used a PC-based theme creator software to load each theme up in like a "theme playlist" and while it adds them it tests them. A surprising amount came up as being corrupt. Once I've seperated out those bad themes, its running a lot smoother.
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] 200mpx:
Unfortunately I have no possibility to test my themes :( but all of them were downloaded from pocketpcthemes.com

For instance it is very sad but I can not use this cool app because of device freezes :(
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] shantzg001:
Hmm, 200mpx, can u attach any such theme files for which u r sure that the device is freezing, (if possible attach more than 1)..I'll take a look..

@Sean: Am not sure how that software predicts whether a theme is corrupted. Can u also pls attach such a file?
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] 200mpx:
Here is all my themes.
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] shantzg001:
@200mpx: Do u have prob with all these files? If not, then pls point out the specific ones, it wont be possible for me to go thru all of em..

@others: Updates almost done, testing on emulator. Dont have my phone for a cpl of days so cant test on device, maybe will release a beta version for u guys to test tmrw...
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] 200mpx:
I'm not sure about skins that causes problemes. I paid attention to the fact of freeze, not to the skin on which it happened.

But I'm almost sure about StarFormation, SpaceRing and SpaceTown. Try these ones.
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] shantzg001:
@200mpx:ok, will let u know..btw ur request feature of "period-based" rotation will be there in the next release
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] SeanFromSoCal:
Well Shantz,

I loaded all my themes onto Pocket Theme Manager 2 and it has a scrollable list like a "playlist". On the right side there is a preview window. When I move from theme to theme, some themes do not update the preview window. It will still show the background image from the previously viewed theme but I do notice the system colors are changed to a new spectrum.

I consider these bad themes. When I ever I place them on the PPC and switch them they will get "stuck". I cannot switch the theme with the PPC Theme Manager and sometimes even with Setting Today.

I even believe my Windows Mobile Green rom-installed theme is "bad". It gets stuck when I switch to it. And when it is applied and I have your theme changer running to change the theme it will change the background image, and system colors, but not update the Start Menu background. It continues to show the green spiral. Only when I delete all the theme-related GIF/JPG in the Windows folder then it'll change the Start Menu bg properly.

Attached is an example of a bad theme I found on pocketpcthemes.com
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] 200mpx:
SeanFromSoCal

Could you please verify my themes?
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] shantzg001:
Added v1.50 to post #1.

Changelog:

1.50 - 29-July-07 ->MAJOR UPDATE

i) Added option to specify a mask to avoid files having that mask

ii) Added option to specify the time period during which the mask has to be considered

iii) Added code to ensure that if mask is empty and a period is chosen, then no rotation is done during that period.

iv) Added option to run a user specified file after every cycle interval.

v) Fixed bug where the jpg and png options were not working earlier.

vi) Clicking help button now opens help in Pocket Internet Explorer.

vii) Fixed many more subtle bugs that manifest themselves and very peculiar situations.

viii) Optimized the code a bit at a few places.

ix) Also see "Known Issues" section above.

x) Removed the "append to previous info" box as now the app remembers old info correctly.
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] wacky.banana:
Hello mate,

I see you have been busy again. Will test this later. Am rebuilding my phone for the 3rd time following an upgrade to WM6. Trying to resolve a number of issues at the moment.

Will come back to you once I have tested it.

All you have to do now is to whip the vibrate job into shape and we are sorted (no rush mate, only jesting). :)

Cheers

WB
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] shantzg001:
wb, check ur timing thread...
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] shantzg001:
@200mpx: I cudnt find anything wrong with ur theme files but Ill go over them once more today..

@SeanFromSoCal:I think I know why u get the prob of "stuck" pictures. I had a couple of those themes as well. There can be two types of probs:

1. Pictures do not change but colors change.

2. Main picture changes but start menu doesnt change.

The WM natively has a bug that sometimes causes these situations for some particular themes, but in my program I've already taken care of that. The theme alien itself seems to be ok but might cause probs for other themes later on (if using WM native prog, my prog can take care of this as well.). Lemme run a few more tests and ill get back to u on this..

PS: Your program might be saying that are corrupt because there is indeed some info missing from the colors registry setting but my program takes care of that as well as most of the themes are not properly made in this regard (WM native program will also take care of this situation and thats why I was saying that my program now performs almost same as WM native program in this regard)...
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] wacky.banana:
Shantz,

YHPM.

WB
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] 200mpx:
Shantz

It's seems that my problem is related to the 5th beta of WisBar Advance 3. Have made a hard reset today and restore my old backup with beta 3 of WBA3 - all day I use your 1.5 version and everything is ok!
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] BigDede:
Hi Shantz

I was trying your software on my HTC X7500 WM6 device.

To resume, I use SPD Diary which is my main today plugin.

SPD Diary has many native tabs (calendar/contacts,notes etc ...) and provide the option to create custom tabs by user.

User can add any plugin inside these custom tabs which result actually in having many virtual Today screen (one for Calendar, one for contacts, .... plus the extra cutom tabs where I have for example PhoneAlarm, SPD Weather, Resco Explorer Plugin, SPD Backup Plugin etc ...)

My idea was to keep one custom tab in SPD Diary empty, where I can display the photos slideshow using your program ...

I followed your instructions on the first page of this topic, and when I clicked on the start application link, my device Freezes.

By the Way i'm using Wisbar Advance 3 beta5 as well.

Any hope to get this work???
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] shantzg001:
@200mpx, bigdede: I dont use WA, so cant really "debug" it that way. I cud install it to debug but right now i have just abt 3 MB of storage space on device..Anyways, I'll take a look at the WA site to see if I can garner some info about its working, see its changelog etc, maybe that gives some clue, otherwise will install and debug after a few days when I reflash my phone...
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] 200mpx:
shantzg001

Thank you in advance for taking look at wba3!

Another issue: it seems that the period of non-cycling if I left mask empty does not work. Here is my settings and on my wake up today I find out that the wallpaper is changed
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] wacky.banana:
Shantz,

Update on ver 1_5. Now that I have it working I set it up to run Animated Today as the chosen exe file. What I was expecting to happen was that the tool would kick in AT, which itself would either have been preset to run an animated theme or allow you the option to go into AT as normal and set an animate theme.

What I got was an error message as follows:"Fatal Error: an application has prevented AT from closing in a timely fashion". I have no idea what's going on here; however I will do some more testing and let you know.

WB
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] daxliniere:
Maaaaan, I still can't get it to work on my Hermes :( :(

WB, can you please send (or attach) 2 or 3 images that you use so I can test that it's not my images that are making it not work?

If set to 30sec interval, the screen does *something*, but nothing changes. (Yes, I have left it for a while to make sure it hasn't, by pure fluke, picked the exact same image again :) )
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] shantzg001:
@200mpx: Man, I got lucky that I investigated the bug reported by you today BECAUSE........the bug is something that will manifest itself only on the last day of the month...:)

Anyways, I have got hold of the bug and will send out a release with the fix.. I'll wait for a cpl of days to see if there are any other things to be incorporated before putting in the fix.

Meanwhile, you need not worry as the bug will vanish by itself tomorrow,i.e., 1st of august.. (See I've created a magical app, that has its own kind of "disappearing act" :) lol )
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] shantzg001:
@wb: cant say anything abt the improper closing of AT right now but my app only starts the app and doesnt close it (Im running oxios memory cleaner on each cycle and it works fine and the dialog remains there even after my app exits.) lemme know if you find smthing else..

@dax: Can you attach a screenshot of ur settings and also paste the registry values contained in "HKCU\Software\ShantzTodayChanger"?
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] wacky.banana:
Dax,

Will come back to you in a minute on how mine is setup.

Shantz,

Like I said earlier I'm not that fussed about the exe file add-on although you running a memory cleaner is a good idea. Will let you know if I have other issues.

Cheers,

WB
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] wacky.banana:
Dax,

I have attached a zip of some of my themes. I also had some trouble with ver 1.5 of the changer but eventually got it to work.

First thing is if you have a storage card (micro sd) on your hermes then create a sub directory on it (call it dax_themes). Put all of your themes in this directory.

Next double click on the Shantz changer zip file you downloaded earlier. You will be left with a number of files, the most important being ShantzTodayChanger and TdyChangerCfg.

Double click on the ShantzTodayChanger file and you will get a further 2 files called StartTdy Chngr and StopTdyChngr.

Take the whole Shantz directory and sit it on your main memory on the Hermes.

Next click on the TdyChangerCfg file. This is the one that is most important and causes the most problems. Configure the file as follows:

- Chose .tsk as your theme type.

- Next, underneath the .gif circle is a little tick box (very hard to see). Put a tick in this box, then move down one and o the left to a greyed out box with 3 dots in it.

- Click on this and find the directory in which you just put your themes (ie the one we called Dax_Themes from earlier). Important note: when you get to this directory you MUST clik on a file within it for the tool to accept the directory choice.

- Move down to the box alongside the words "cycle time in seconds". In that box type in 60,, ie 60 seconds (this is so we can make sure the tool is working ok).

- Important note: click on the APPLY greyed out box to fix the settings , NOT the x button of the tool. You will see a messag saying "Shantz Changer Set", or something similar.

- Exit the applicatin using the X button and the themes should now work.

Hope this helps.

Cheers

WB
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] shantzg001:
wb:u explained it quite well. I must that is even better than what I have written :)

But yes, a couple of things in that:

1.

Actually there are 2 more files that are important.

i) gsgetfile.dll -> If you unzip on PPC, you might not be able to see it in explorer depending on ur settings, so be sure to move the entire unzipped folder and not just the two exe files to whereve u want.

ii) readme.htm: well, not having this will not stop the changer from functioning, but the help button will open pocket IE with a blank page :)

2.

No need for doing this for the automatic change.

I have left the shortcut code in there just so that if you so desire some time to change the theme\image instantly without waiting for the cycle, then u can just click on the StartTdyChngr shortcut to do that instantly (The interval counter will restart at this point). So you need to click on ShantzTodayChanger.exe only if you want this functionality of instant theme change.
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] wacky.banana:
Shantz,

Re your response above, just discovered what the start and stop files are for! :)

Anyway do I recall you saying some time in the past that the tool will survive soft resets? if yes then I had a situation yesterday when the tool did not restart after Spb backup closed down application threads prior to backup (Spb Backup does this if you tell it to, prior to a full backup being kicked off).

I am still looking into this so don't go rushing off making any changes just yet. Will let you know after I have done some more testing. Howver do let me know if you designed th tool as I have described else I will be testing for nothing. :)

Cheers

WB

PS: Feel free to use my explanatory words in my previous post in your help file if you think it will help.
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] shantzg001:
@wb: I've already updated the help file a bit for the next version, taking cue from ur explanation.. :)

Moreover, abt the soft reset thing, SPB closing down threads doesnt matter for the app as it is not continuously running. BUT if the closing down started at the moment the app had started to cycle the theme, then there would definitely be a problem because it might be closed down before it is able to set a notfication for the next cycle..
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] wacky.banana:
Shantz,

I have been testing Spb backup since upgrading to WM6 to confirm whether it works or not. As I said earlier one of the features of Spb backup is that it will close down threads and applications before backup, which makes sense.

I have very short cycle times in my changer so the chances of me hitting the Change tool app through testing as it has been in the process of changing themes have been high.

I guess the simple way out is to have an addendum in the help file that explains this phenomenom to people. What I have done is to setup a shortcut on my Tytn PPC desktop, click on that, and 2 secs later Changer tool is reset.

My other question is this: if the change tool is setting up a notification for when the next change is due, I guess that notification will be set within the system notification queue? If yes does the tool clear out all previous notifications to stop the notification queue from being overloaded and locking up the PPC?

Thanks for all your hard work on this tool, btw. Much appreciated.

Any more news on the vibrate thing?

Cheers

WB
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] shantzg001:
wb, it deletes the old notification and then adds the new one so there is no cluttering the notifications queue. There is another feature where u can "reschedule" the old notification itself and point to a new time, but during internal testing before releasing 1.0, I found out that this was quite buggy and sometimes such "rescheduled" notifications didnt work. So I followed this method of first deleting the old notification and then adding the new one..

BTW, I'll add the issue to either known issues section or end notes section in the help.

Abt the vibrate thing, I should have smthing for u arnd weekend time..weekdays right now are too tiring..all these rains cause a lot of traffic jams and its gets quite late by the time I reach home.
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] wacky.banana:
Ok cheers. Whenever you are ready.

WB