Develop Bugs

Remove honeycomb from Start menu?

Is there some way to remove the Honeycomb effect (offset fonts) from the Start menu?
Also, I'd like to have more control over the order of things in the Start menu. Are there any tweaks that provide this control?

i really wish microsoft would do something about the start menu. its not honeycomb anymore without the honeycomb. its just staggered and it doesnt make sense anymore. if you want to place icons in certain order you have to press and hold and move up and down. its tedious but thats the way it works. switch to htcs manila start menu if you want it different.

This article actually suggests the staggered layout is more finger friendly than a regular grid. Not sure I buy it. Like most people, I think it makes the menu look jumbled.
http://onlygizmos.com/windows-mobile-65-honeycomb-menu-is-more-than-just-looks/2009/03/
Its true that the lack of sorting and re-organizing features for the Start Menu is annoying and a bit puzzling.
Don't know of any hacks for changing the staggered layout.
But reStart and Icon Changer are XDA user-developed programs that allow you to re-order icons, or change them. I've tried reStart with limited success. For some reason, the icons don't always end up where you put them on the list. I haven't tried Icon Changer yet, but intend to.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=481379
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=567080

Seriously, this is the best Microsoft could do with a start menu? This is what was supposed to compete with the fluid cleanliness of iPhone's home screen? Ridiculous.
I avoid the "Start" screen at all costs and use Manilla whenever possible.

I organize the Start menu into folders and then alphabetize the icons with re/Start.
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As I always say, QuickMenu. You can make the individual items as large as you want to make it increasingly touch-friendly, and it makes sense, includes the ability to end programs, recent launched, links to settings, etc..

I've been using an app called Panoramic Launchpad downloaded from Microsoft Marketplace for a few bucks. It's been working great, you can reorganize any icon you want on the fly by hold and drag. The only downside is it takes up about 8MB of RAM the last time I looked.

adp9626 said:
I've been using an app called Panoramic Launchpad downloaded from Microsoft Marketplace for a few bucks. It's been working great, you can reorganize any icon you want on the fly by hold and drag. The only downside is it takes up about 8MB of RAM the last time I looked.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
8 megs!?!?! Hahahahah, refund.

i actually wasnt a fan of the old start menu. the drop down didnt make sense. going straight into all programs did so microsoft threw you in there. and the honeycomb prototype design was super snazzy. http://stevewiilliams.files.wordpress.com/2009/04/win-mo-6-5.jpg i think htc did a good job at replacing that through the manila start menu in tf3d 2.0. but it doesnt really fit in with sense 2.5 so rather than updating it, they just dropped that all together. seems no one can make a good looking cohesive start menu.

Are you saying that Sense doesn't have a Programs tab?

i was actaully saying it didnt have manila start menu but yeah it doesnt look like it has a programs tab either.

Looks like the original question hasn't been answered yet - how do you get rid of the honeycomb? I tried the Showaco start menu program (from the folks that did REstart) but it did not work on my Sprint TP2 with 6.5.

AWESOME START
That's what I use, it creates a drop down listing which you can scroll through, if you tap and hold you can set to the top or down. I think if you pair this with ReStart you can get a pretty workable start menu.
I first found the cab on xda, but cannot remember which thread, so I apologize to the dev.
Hope this helps.

Awesome Start shows a list rather than icons. That still doesn't answer the question in this thread. How do we show the start menu with icons like normal, just not honeycombed?

vogelap said:
Is there some way to remove the Honeycomb effect (offset fonts) from the Start menu?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Awesome Start removes the Honeycomb effect
vogelap said:
Also, I'd like to have more control over the order of things in the Start menu. Are there any tweaks that provide this control?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ReStart provides more control over the order of things in the Start menu
►@Madmartian, I do not know for sure how to fix the honeycomb effect (perhaps the Cookies tweak, but I do not know for sure), but I think the OP was answered.

Re: Default Windows Start Menu Alternative: Winstart
Many users in the NRG Rhodium thread recently recommended Winstart for WM 6.x. The paid version ($5) offers more RAM savings & tweaks vs the free version. And it works w/ or w/o Sense.
*****

Slow Start Up ?

Anyone have any tips to increase the start up time after a reset/boot up? It takes longer than usual to load HTC Touch Flo and get to the home screen with the clock etc. Just before the Touch Flo home screen loads, it hangs a bit and lags at the background that you usually see when you go to the Start Menu, and the silver HTC lettering is at the center of the screen. After the Touch Flo home screen loads and I see the clock etc. it still takes a while to start up because the task menu at the top right corner (to close programs) is still not present. Then it eventually does load
Any tips would be appreciated!

I would like to know this too
please

I can tell you the answer, but I don't think you are going to like it. Turn off TouchFlo. IMO it is a very poor interface to begin with. And it eats up way too many resources for an always-on app. Which then leads to the obvious, spb Mobile Shell. This is a highly functional, fairly customizable interface with a definite sex appeal built in. But it is a memory hog like no other app. And the more you customize it the slower your startup will be. I ran it for about 4months and could not stand the slow startup and operational lags. Now I run spb Pocket Plus. And my device has no lags whatsoever and the startup time is easily half of Mobile Shell or Touchflo. My device is now highly customizable and as fast as can be...much more so than with either of the two aforementioned apps. Sure, it is not as sexy as Mobile Shell, but take these points into consideration.
Allows for 6 finger-friendly tabs to run across the top of the home screen. More tabs can be added but they get smaller and harder to click after the 6th tab. This gives much quicker access to the different tabs than the flick-scrolling left and right in mobile shell.
If you add a nice background image and change the Pocket Plus icon settings to "large" and to not "show label", you will get a good-looking interface. See below.
While displaying large icons you can get 36 icons/apps per tab. I choose to spread mine out so it is not so tight and still get 16 per tab, plenty enough for me.
You actually get some customization that you cannot get in Mobile Shell. For example, see my second pic below which shows my internet tab. I can have my different browsers as large icons at the top, and then have my shortcuts to actual web sites as smaller icons with descriptive text. This allows me to launch 20+ of my favorite sites from the home screen.
It gives you built in access to certain system settings as well as many plugins (but the plugins will slow down the interface, so I do not use any). See my third picture that shows my "Settings" tab.
You can add any program, file or shortcut that resides in your "My Documents" folder or "Start Menu" folder. Pocket Plus along with Rhodium Keyboard Controller allows me to get to anything on my device withing 2 or 3 seconds.
Also comes with an Alt-Tab program switch feature, a Safe mode as well as several other add-ins that may be worth your while.
You can spend half your life using all of the Mobile Shell tweaks to get your device to do exactly what you like or you can spend 30 minutes setting up Pocket Plus and getting twice the responsiveness as well. Now, understand that Mobile Shell users are as rabid as iPhone users. So they are going to follow up my post saying that Mobile Shell has no lag on their device and is just as fast operationally. It just isn't so. Run a process tool like MemMaid or dotFred while Touchflo is running, then Mobile Shell, then Pocket Plus. No comparison. Do yourself a favor and try Pocket Plus. If you own a TP2 device then you are really too old to be seduced by form over function, aren't you? Pocket Plus gives you a happy medium for both.
One last point. No matter what home screen or launcher app you use, you will always get hammered in the reboot time, responsiveness and battery life departments if you are using the gimmicky widgets that are contiuously pushing info and searching for updates. I quickly got over the novelty of Weather, Stock, Sports apps and the like after I realized how poorly they were making my device perform. With Pocket Plus and 3G I am only a click away and a 5 second wait from getting all of that same info without it being always on and dragging my system to a crawl. Be smart and your device will once again perform as good as any other on the market.
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ChasDun:
This might sound crazy, but I recently did a hard reset to get rid of a lot of junk and it worked fine. After I loaded TomTom Navigator 7 I started seeing this problem. Someone on the Tmobile forums said that another reason is that TouchFlo loads all the music & photos you have when it is loading at start up. They said to un check the music tab and photos tab on HTC touch flo. Do you think TomTom might have to do with it?

ChasDun said:
You can spend half your life using all of the Mobile Shell tweaks to get your device to do exactly what you like or you can spend 30 minutes setting up Pocket Plus and getting twice the responsiveness as well. Now, understand that Mobile Shell users are as rabid as iPhone users. So they are going to follow up my post saying that Mobile Shell has no lag on their device and is just as fast operationally. It just isn't so. Run a process tool like MemMaid or dotFred while Touchflo is running, then Mobile Shell, then Pocket Plus. No comparison. Do yourself a favor and try Pocket Plus. If you own a TP2 device then you are really too old to be seduced by form over function, aren't you? Pocket Plus gives you a happy medium for both.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually, I have both MS and Plus. I use some of the components of Plus, but MS is my primary interface. I just prefer it. However you are correct about less memory; Plus is using only the stock WM 6 interface. The biggest issue I have with mine is how much CPU time the built in WM apps (messaging, word, excel) use, and how long it takes for the CPU to return off 100% once these apps are used. And don't get me started on how those apps leak memory...

[Future Release] Tile Concept

So I was thinking the other day that there is no reason why some tiles couldn't be smaller. It would be cool if you could long hold a tile and have an option com up to split it into a half tile. Other hub like tiles could be further subdivided. I use IE to demonstrate this, but the music up could allow you to pin a favorite artist or two to it. Or the game hub could likewise use 1/2 tile to display game invites, and then two 1/4 tiles to link directly to your two favorite games. What are your thoughts?
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Edit: here is what it would look like in your hand:

+1!
I would love to see this

like this too...

Here's what I've been wanting MS to do, 1/4, 1/2, 3/4 and full width sizes

If only Microsoft would actually come in here and read some of this stuff...

Genius!
Sent from my HD7 T9292 using XDA Windows Phone 7 App

I realy like it too. Eather I don't understand why there is no option to make smaller icons at the beginig of WP7.

There should be an option when pinning to the home screen which size you want. It would call for more work on the dev's part to add all of the extra icons in their apps that encompass all of the sizes, but WP7 is already easy to work with.

this will be great..... i hope MS will look at this and add this to the mango update...

hmmm, honestly dont really like the split tiles. Just doesnt look as clean and simplistic as the original. I like the interface as it is now, however adding more options or subdivisons(and not separate tiles) within a single tile would be welcome.

hey, they're almost icons, keep going!

PsychoAssasin said:
hmmm, honestly dont really like the split tiles. Just doesnt look as clean and simplistic as the original. I like the interface as it is now, however adding more options or subdivisons(and not separate tiles) within a single tile would be welcome.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You are probably one of 1000 who don't like this opinion. So if you don't like, just use biger icons. Us who like smaller, than could use smaller.

I really like this layout. It adds diversity to the screen and also allows you to see more at the first glimpse. I would really welcome this, but I am pretty confident we'll never see this

I would love this layout as an option! Make it so that to add it you would need to go into the app settings, then people wouldnt complain about it being mandatory.
Edit- Imagine this concept with a facebook app, you could have different parts of the tile split into different functions, like one could be facebook chat with notifications, just a straight notifications one and then another with new messages. So, each would have seperate notifications and tapping it would take you directly to it.

brilliant!

The concept is nice, but I like the original tiles any smaller and it will look like icons

I would bet the OP used to have a HD2 because this reminds me of a great mod everyone was using to be able to accomodate more icons to the homescreen. While it was awesome for Winmo 6.5 I don't really like it for WP7 because the tiles are not just icons, they're supposed to display information.
I've just read the comments over this concept at WPCentral and this is what I had to say...
I think the people who see an issue with the tiles don't actually see where the real issue is. The real issue is some(most) tiles only act as counters and are the ones wasting space. However we have to keep them on the start screen because there isn't a notification center.
I said that before, Windows Phone needs to go the Meego route and have a 3rd page that's just for notifications (and maybe one more useful feature like data/wifi toggles as someone suggested).
Example: I currently have Accuweather and AlphaJax pinned to my start screen. Accuweather is an informative tile that shows useful information at a glance. AlphaJax doesn't do anything. It just shows a number that tells me it's my turn to play, it's just a counter. AlphaJax could be on my notification page and moved away from my start screen in favour of a more informative app like prime tv.
Think about it, how many of your "live" tiles are just counters?
Also I'm not too keen on the "they could still make it and make it optional". It's not like it would require a snap of the fingers, there's still lots of work to be done (including changes to the core UI) for something people might use. All these resources would be better used in creating something like a notification page.

Looks too cluttered, smaller icons will be harder to hit on smaller screens, more frustration which will be blamed on "Windows Mobile".

I definitely like this idea of adjusting the live tile size, more options and choice is always good. That coupled with adding extra pages to help categorize your apps would make the UI that much better for notifications and wifi/bt/etc toggles or even just a page with live tiles dedicated to news or games or whatever. I would have thought that MS who prioritize efficiency would give us the option of additional pages so we don't have to endlessly and skillfully scroll down our home screen to find what we want 'quickly'

Love it. Ability to fit a few more things on the home screen without scrolling would be awesome.

quick toggle concept

you guys
you all know that if we press either volume rocker on our sweet wp7 devices, a bar slides down with volume level and ring/vibrate/silent icon
i think that there's a lot of wasted blank space between those. i know that if you listen to music/radio the play controls jump there, but if you don't, there's nothing much going on over there
do you like the idea to put the quick on/off toggles (wi-fi, cell data, location etc.) in that space? check out the attachment
the icons would of course have to have 2 looks to distinguish if a feature is on/off. furthermore, if you listen to music/radio, there would be a couple of icons in that space and they wouldn't fit in 1 view, so all of them would be scrollable (left/right), e.g. you pause the music, scroll right to toggle bluetooth, scroll left to unpause etc.
and lastly, the user should have the option to decide what toggles he/she would like to display there
p.s. i'm very sorry for crudely using paint but i wanted to share this with you asap, otherwise i'd forget

I got the idea. Already thought about it. Maybe in a custom rom?

these kind of shortcuts should be done by MS, because WP7 is full of tiny features that make huge difference and enormously improve using the OS, i'm surprised they won't be in mango

Yeah, it should. I agree with you, and probably everyone does.
Don't know why MS didnt do it.

Having them at the top with those small icon feels cluttered.
I think I would preffer something like a long swipe to the right on the startscreen and there you have them...
Either it pops out on top of the screen, or moves everything a little bit to the right, like the pictures below.
And since its a togglebar it has autohide.
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↑This needs to be in Mango

nizzon said:
Having them at the top with those small icon feels cluttered.
I think I would preffer something like a long swipe to the right on the startscreen and there you have them...
Either it pops out on top of the screen, or moves everything a little bit to the right, like the pictures below.
And since its a togglebar, it should disappear by it self after a few sec.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
this is very sweet but i fear that the long swipe would not register 100% of times for everybody, a fool-proof gesture is needed here. here's an idea:
the icons would slide into view after touching anywhere below the little right hand arrow, there's plenty of space there. after toggling sth they would hide themselves after 2 seconds

pikacz said:
this is very sweet but i fear that the long swipe would not register 100% of times for everybody, a fool-proof gesture is needed here. here's an idea:
the icons would slide into view after touching anywhere below the little right hand arrow, there's plenty of space there. after toggling sth they would hide themselves after 2 seconds
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This one makes great use of the so far wasted space on the right, the os could really do with these as it makes a big difference in the speed of shutting things down.

That is not a good idea since people touch there when they swipe up and down, and also when they swipe to get to the app-list. And its not intuitive and logic to have a press function in the empty black space without a button. Also, we already have the app-list to the right of the screen, its more logic to add new feature to the other side where we dont have anything.
You have to distinguish the action as much as possible so it doesnt confuse users with other actions and features.
We swipe to get the battery-life and reception to show, why not swipe to see the toggles?

i like our little brainstorm you're right, it's not intuitive to tap a blank space, so i guess an additional button under the arrow icon would be a better idea. mango added an additional button on the app list used to search through apps (also under the arrow icon, so the toggle button would be quite consistent)
i know that we use that blank space to slide from the home screen to the app list (i however start sliding from anywhere on my tiles), and when we do that we keep our finger on the screen and move it, so i think this gesture wouldn't be registered as an accidental tap. either way, the additional toggle button i mentioned above solves everything

A button is defenitely better in that case.
Anyway, MS needs to give us something along these lines.

I'm not good at photoshop, but.. it would be nice above the app list. When you slide to your app list, it shows above it the toggles.

Funny, I was just posting these Meego videos in another thread to show the notification system... I could see all the toggles being at the top of the notification page where Meego has the weather.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhMvSEZ6Csw
http://www.youtube.com/user/MichaelxHell#p/u/8/YkYzvMkt9ec
As for the original post, unfortunately it wouldn't be very intuitive to use the volume rocker to access wifi or Bluetooth.

I would pay $0.99 for that,especially from an xda member.
Sent from my 7 Trophy using XDA Windows Phone 7 App

[Mango] Making Transparent Lockscreens

As i am sure many of you know you can force Windows Phone 7 to use transparent lock screens.
How you do it is you send the image to yourself in a email, open the image and tap "use as Wallpaper". You can not send it over Zune because Zune does not currently see .png files.
But since Mango people have been having trouble with transparent lock screens, it glitches, it loops.
The main thing is that these glitches are predictable and with a bit of thought you can still make some pretty decent transparent lock screens. Now im sure more creative people then i will make better use of this but there are two main set ups i have found to make good Mango transparent lock screens.
Note: All images shown are mock ups, it is faster for me this way then it is to load them and take pictures off the phone or emulator. Your results may very, and your final result maybe different for i did not test this with Zune cover art, or anything that used the top of the lock screen like media players.
One is the vertical loop, best used with logos or vertical repeating text or whatever you don't mind repeating vertically. Since the Rangers are going to the World Series(and will win) and i am a big Texas guy i will show you using the Texas Rangers logo, what you do is generally block off and fade out the top third of the screen and the bottom 8th or so.
Here you see the transparent image, the white is the transparency to save space:
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You do not make it white, you use png transparency, it is white for illustration purposes.
Left is when locked :: Right is when tapped
Keep in mind this of course is not the only way to do it. By covering all the way across the top forces the loop to repeat down. By covering the top 1/3 helps keep it from looping the date and time, and if i remember the bottom section keeps it from looping the notifications and battery at the top.
Now that's all fine and good but logos and repeating it like that can be boring, so what else can you do? Well with a bit of thought and creativity (or lack of) there are more designs you can do.
Basically you take this looping idea and view it as the back ground and take a focus image to the left side. You use the left side to cover the time and data messages. I have done some where it creates the mirror look as above, also where i tried to make it create an illusion, or where i separated the side to make it loop like it was snowing.
These follow this outline where you still take block out the top and bottom but now the left as well:
This is a outline so your sizes will change.
Here are a bunch of them, these are ideas so nothing is finished. So in other words dont email me if these specific ones don't work for you, use them as ideas, make them your self and make them your own. Though if you make any cool ones let me know.
Sorry, but not really, that all but like two of these are anime based.
Rangers:
Windows Phone:
Asuka:
Rei:
Portal 2:
Portal:
This one i tried to make like a sword has cut it when tapped:
This one i tried to use her arm to look like its her other arm, even though i know its kind of backwards:
This one i lined it up to where the snow would loop:
Perfect Blue:
Evangelion Logo:
Nerv logo:
Laughing Man:
Rena:
See transparency is not so hard, and i am sure with more creativity then i have some one will come up with some awesome designs.
Oh if you want to get the images i listed here you can find them here: http://www.rklenka.com/software/winphone7/transparent/
Or i can post individual links, or zip them all up, the point is to get your creative juices going

thanks, works great. Using your Portal example now.

testing it now..
UPDATE : works , video below

Actualy does not work properly.

mrdaco said:
Actualy does not work properly.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
you have to send the png to yourself

If you Download one of the photos mentioned above and follow his instruction you will find it works brilliantly.
You send the image to yourself in a email, open the image and tap "use as Wallpaper". You can not send it over Zune because Zune does not currently see .png files.

I am glad you guys like it, i have lurked around here for years so its nice to be able to contribute. In fact i had to go around and make 8 random posts just so i could make this one with images.
I know with my lock screens i made above are not %100 perfect, especially when you start using the Zune player with the lock screen or with notifications. But im sure the more creative ones here will take the idea and run with it.
Thanks for the feature on your blog theOne

Nice, good job

Sweet, think you could make one with the wp logo?

That that i am doing requests but here you go

If your open to requests ide love a Phoenix coyotes transparent wallpaper with their logo.
Sent from my HD7 using XDA Windows Phone 7 App

Hello,don´t know wether this thread is in any actuality but i wanted to send them to me and save as wallpaper,seems that it won´t work after all,yes i´ve send it to me,and tapped save as backscreen ,the next problem i´m having is to create new ones,so how did you done them,i have paint,but i don´t know how to create a working one