BSquare Power Handlehd shell hacking

I recently got a Power Handheld on ebay. It's a fantastic device but I hate those OEM shell UIs that they throw in (the vodafone dodgy taskbar & homescreen thing). So I had a bit of a hunt round to see how the UI was taking over what seemed to be the standard CE shell. It turns out that a DLL is injected into explorer.exe on startup.

After a bit of reg-hacking i got to the Windows CE shell (see attached pic).

For anyone else that wants to do it get hold of a decent registry editor (i recommend Tascal RegEdit) and navigate to "HKLM\Software\BSQUARE\Inject" and delete the "/windows/explorer.exe" key (you may want to make a backup).

The downside is that the Display control panel applet doesn't exist so the only way of changing system colours or wallpaper is doing a reg hack (or using 3rd party s/w).





Attachments
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CAPT0001.JPG (48KB - 53 downloads)

and now you can connect to internet with a non-vodafone sim?
Daniele

I think you can't. using worldwide sims involves unlocking the device, which, as far as i know, involved some firmware changes, whereas this is only a software change. but if it does it would be the most cool though

Hi, but if you see the photo, there is an icon, ORANGE INTERNET!!!

Wow - many thanks for that!!!!

Out of interest - could you explain how you changed the background image (application/registry settings etc.)

One snippit I found out (don't know how well publicised it is) is that a hard reset can be performed by pressing the B and C keys together then using the stylus to press in the soft reset button. After a couple of seconds, release the keys & the stylus.

The screen will show the startup image but with 'loading from flash rom' at the top.

The bSquare community seems to be growing (probably thanks to one ebay seller who bought a job lot of units!).

When I first got mine, I couldn't find any other owners. Now is a great time to share our knowledge & create a list of known hacks, working software (with settings) and hardware changes (bluetooth, wifi etc)

Mike

Hi, please send me the list with working software for Bsquare PHH!
Thanks
Daniele

Hi there,

Ok - here is my list (so far!!!)
Many apps are either HPC 2000 or HPC pro and seem to work with no problems.

MS Plus pack (HPC pro)
bSquare bUseful
Softmaker Textmaker
Softmaker Planmaker
Twiddlebit Plan
Utopiasoft Hum
Mochasoft TN5250
PHM registry editor
Pocket Spark
ScreenSnap
CoolCalc
ICBM
Backgammon
Bubblets
Cubicle chaos
Milles Borne
Pocket Chess
Fortitude
Thieves
Kings Corner
Reversi
Lights On

Bluetooth working (but only for file transfer & serial profile so far)

Currently looking at TomTom mobile 4 (software working but cannot use GPS & memory card at same time......

Pocket OnSchedule.net (cannot get the sync to work & they do not respond to my support emails)

Hope this helps - please add any extra apps that you have working!

The device isnt locked. Just put whatever SIM you want in it.

The reg key to change the wallpaper is in "HKCU\Control Panel\Desktop" String:"wallpaper".

The key for the colour scheme (though im sure you already know this) is "HKLM\System\GDI", DWORD:"SysColor".

I've attached the registry key backup to re-enable the OEM shell.



Attachments
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exports.reg (0KB - 95 downloads)

I havn't managed to get GSPlayer working yet which is a big downside for me. I might have a go at recompiling it for CE.NET if no one has any other suggestions.

Hi, good afternoon.

skyfox01_99

I'm quite interested on this post...I'm thinking of getting rid of all the vodafone branding on my PHH....

Ok, the thing about the reg hack is not difficult to get, but I'd like to still have the "Windows XP" shell once I get rid of the vodafone crap.
I've been told this is not possible, is it? I see the picture of your PHH, under your nick, and it looks like the "XP" shell, and without the Vodafone branding on it....is for real? did you get rid of the Vodafone thing and still be able to have the "XP" shell? how? and another thing, I'm still not able to read PDF's in this PHH bigger than 500K, I have a few and this is the only one that I can read, the other ones, 3Mb, 14Mb, or around that size just wont open them.....any idea?

Thanks for your help

hmm what pic do you mean here?
i didnt say its not possible, but very hard to do but i can be wrong!
pdf's: you mean acrobat reader cant open bigger pdf's? this is interesting, can you send me such a pdf? it can handle bigger ones for me, i never had any problems.

Hi, good night.

I mean the pic under skyfox01_99 nick, it looks like a picture of a PHH with the XP shell and no Vodafone branding, have a closer look

Well, I can´t send you a PDF that big, but I was trying to open them with the default File Viewer that comes with the PHH, not the Adobe Acrobat Reader.
I didnt know that Adobe was compatible with this PHH, if you tell me I can use full screen Adobe to read in the PHH you make me the happiest man in the world, that was the reason I bought this device, to read PDF files.

I use to travel a lot, and need to read in train, bus or car, not driven by me and I was looking for something small but with a proper screen to read PDF´s, and not too expensive. When I saw this PDA I bought it immediately, compared with normal PDA´s the screen is bigger and with higher resolution, and cheaper, so it was the best option.
But I cannot read them PDF´s, I think because they are too big.
If you can help me with this, I´ll appreciate it very much
Thanks

I have disabled the Vodafone branding on my PHH. I'm using the standard CE4.1 shell with WisBar Advance from Lakeridge Software to skin the taskbar. As for the PDF reader either use the Microsoft versions that I posted a while back or get hold of Acrobat for Pocket PC as people have said previously.
Also, if you are only using the PHH to read PDFs you may want to turn off the phone functions to conserve battery power. To do this hold the red "hang-up" button for ~3-5 sec. You can turn the phone functions back on by opening the Phone Center program and checking the "Options".

yeah yeah i took a closer look but i saw it was just the standard ce shell. (with a little skinning as skyfox said..)

pdf: havent you read my reply with a link in the other thread where we were talking? i thought you did.. that link is a direct link to the working version of acrobat reader 2.0.. you just need to download it and copy the thing somewhere on the PHH..
im 99% sure acrobat reader will be compatible with your larger pdf's too the default viewer is crap!
oh and yes, acrobat reader can run in full screen (only the find function isnt working perfectly, look at the relevant thread for info)

heh, yeah the PHH is perfect for ebook reading imo

Thanks for the excellent hack skyfox01_99!

How did you get a shortcut for the recycle bin?

Thanks