Personalize my Q only works with AT&T Default home screen

[tulsa40]

It appears that "Personalize my Q" only works on an AT&T Q9h when you have the AT&T Default home screen selected. That means that you're always looking at "Get Xpress Mail," which isn't exactly what I want on my home screen. (I use OctroTalk as my IM program and like to use the OctroTalk home screen so that I can quickly see if I'm connected!)

Does anyone know a way to display user shortcuts and use small icons without 1) having the AT&T Default home screen selected and 2) without using a home screen plug-in like Facade. (As far as I can tell, I can't use the OctroTalk home screen with Facade either.)

My ultimate goal is to be able to display just those icons I want, display small icons and have the OctroTalk icon displayed on my home page.

Any tweaks, hacks, software ideas, or incantations are appreciated.

Thanks.

[rudeboy]

can't you just edit the home screen .xml ?

potQ.

[tulsa40]

Will that work? I haven't edited an xml file on my Q9h before, but I don't imagine it's too hard.

So my follow up questions are:

1. Which file do I edit?
2. What do I change?

Thanks.

Originally Posted by rudeboy

can't you just edit the home screen .xml ?

potQ.

[rudeboy]

well, you need to figure out which .xml goes with the screen you are using, the filename may be different from the screen name - the screen name is in the top of the .xml file.. change what you want/need. there are tutorials and other help in this post..

[bdroad]

Originally Posted by tulsa40

It appears that "Personalize my Q" only works on an AT&T Q9h when you have the AT&T Default home screen selected. That means that you're always looking at "Get Xpress Mail," which isn't exactly what I want on my home screen. (I use OctroTalk as my IM program and like to use the OctroTalk home screen so that I can quickly see if I'm connected!)

Does anyone know a way to display user shortcuts and use small icons without 1) having the AT&T Default home screen selected and 2) without using a home screen plug-in like Facade. (As far as I can tell, I can't use the OctroTalk home screen with Facade either.)

My ultimate goal is to be able to display just those icons I want, display small icons and have the OctroTalk icon displayed on my home page.

Any tweaks, hacks, software ideas, or incantations are appreciated.

Thanks.

If you flash your Q to windows mobile 6, the get xpressmail will go away after installation or after you remove it.

[tulsa40]

My Q9h came WM6. I do want to get rid of the Get Xpressmail icon (not to mention all of the AT&T advertising), but I want to be able to keep the OctroTalk icon on the main screen since it shows me by way of a green dot whether or not I'm connected to Google Talk.

It's strange that only the AT&T Default home page can be edited with "Personalize my Q."

Originally Posted by bdroad

If you flash your Q to windows mobile 6, the get xpressmail will go away after installation or after you remove it.

[LuvrGirl]

Originally Posted by tulsa40

My Q9h came WM6. I do want to get rid of the Get Xpressmail icon (not to mention all of the AT&T advertising), but I want to be able to keep the OctroTalk icon on the main screen since it shows me by way of a green dot whether or not I'm connected to Google Talk.

It's strange that only the AT&T Default home page can be edited with "Personalize my Q."

I have the AT&T Q9h and I can "personalize" all of my homescreens. But I also edited them and removed the "Get Xpress Mail" from the homescreen and also deleted the icon from the start menu.

You have to edit the .xml files in order to remove the "Get Xpress Mail" from the homescreen and you have to "unlock" the Q9h in order to delete/rearrange stuff on the Start Menu.

If you're comfortable editing the .xml file, follow these instructions:

(Be sure to have your PC "show hidden/system files" and "show file extensions" - it just makes it easier)

1) Using ActiveSync's Explore function on your PC with Q connected, Go to My Windows Mobile-Based Device\Application Data\Home
2) Copy the cingularsmart.home.xml file to your PC (this is the Smartphone homescreen, so you have to select the one for ATT Default, read a little further down before you continue so you can figure out which .xml file is the one for ATT Default)
3) Rename it to something else so you can recognize it later (I renamed mine as cingularsmartnoxm.home.xml)
4) Open the file with a text editor, such as Notepad

Now you're going to edit the xml file (be careful not to edit anything else you're not familiar with)

5) First thing you should edit is the title of this new homescreen, this is so that you will know which one it is when you go into the homescreen selections on the Q. Look for the code that indicates the "title".

It would look something like this: (look to see if it says ATT Default)
<title lang="0x0409">Smartphone</title>

Now change it to something like this: (you would rename to ATT Default without Xpress Mail)
<title lang="0x0409">Smartphone without Xpress Mail</title>

6) Now you're going to remove the "Get Xpress Mail" line.

Delete the following line:
<plugin clsid="{1237A231-5D10-4d97-8D59-6A9DCA0653A9}" name="getmail" height="25"/>

7) After you're done with your edits make sure you save the file (remember to save it like I explained at the beginning). Now copy it back to the Application Data\Home folder on your Q.

This should be it. Go into Settings>Homescreen and you should see your new edited Smartphone homescreen titled "Smartphone without Xpress Mail". Select and load it and you're done!

Hope this helps.

~maria

[tulsa40]

I've found a launcher I like: Orchid Shortcut. I like the way it looks more than Facade. Orchid Shorcut lets let have my cake (Octro Talk on my home page) and eat it too (small icons.) In addition Orchid Shortcut displays the icon's name on the MRU and Start menu lists -- that's helpful since sometimes these icons look alike!

[LuvrGirl]

glad to hear it worked out for you! =)

~maria