Installing WinFX [ .NET 3.0 ]

Recently I was trying to get my hands dirty on Sharepoint Portal 2003. However for the portal to install correctly, what we need is WinFX.

WinFX is not bundled with the SPS 2007 DVD. Its a additional download. Once you click the download link, a small exe of 1MB is saved on your computer. This "exe" file, when executed, connects to the internet to download additional 24MB files. These files are part of WinFX setup.

However, at India, where bandwidth is still an issue - the "exe" may not be a feasible way to distribute your apps which use WinFX as a platform. The user will have a machine connected to the internet to get the redistributables. An internet connection might not be available at every location, hence it makes all the more sense to "extract" the files and burn them on CD.

Here is what you will have to do, when the exe is installing WinFX, it has temporarily extracted all the files to the "Temp" folder under "Documents and Settings\Local Settings". You should copy the folder names "WinFX" from the "Temp" folder, copy it to another location and you are done.

However this is to be done before the setup is complete, else the setup might delete the files it extracted.

Changing Splash Screens of a Windows Mobile phone

I was always fascinated by those funky operator logos that used to appear on Nokia phones. You had those dirt bikes, your names, cakes, etc and various not-to-be-mentioned logos. I always wanted something like that on my smartphone.

I realized there is no way to get a operator logo on the smartphone (Rather I just couldn't find a way). And hence nevertheless, I have been trying to find out a way to change the Splash Screen / Shutdown screen to something custom (like my pic ;) ). Something which gave a "personal" feel to my phone. Finally, I was able to achieve that :).

For all you Windows Mobile Freaks, and for all of you who didn't know how to change the splash screens, here are the steps to do it:

• Create your jpg /png images with size 176 x 220 (in pixels).
  
• Copy them to some folder in the phone memory (eg \my documents). Make sure its not on the Storage Card.
  
• Open the Registry Editor and add a registry key 'Splash Screen' (or whatever you want it to be) to [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft].
  
• Navigate to [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\splash screen] and add string values 'CarrierBitmap', 'CarrierShutdownBitmap', 'MSBitmap' and 'MSShutdownBitmap'.
  
• Edit added string values, so that they point to the images. Make sure you use full paths to the images even if they are placed in \Windows.
  
• Restart the phone.

BTW this also applies to Pocket PC - however I am not sure of the size for the image. If you can figure that out yourself - its great - else let me just post it here in couple of days.

PS: Thanks to Anando, he pointed out that this would work only with non-QVGA display devices. So there is a different resolution for QVGA and Pocket PC Devices.