Posts tagged ‘Windows Mobile 6’

Windows Mobile 6.5: Changed Screen Geometry

Screen layout changes from Windows Mobile 6.1 to Windows Mobile Embedded Handheld 6.5

The Windows Mobile screen geometry changed from Windows Mobile 6.1 and before to the actual Windows Mobile 6.5 (also called Windows Embedded Handheld). Not only the geometry changed, the layout also changed. The Start icon is now moved to the bottom whereas before WM65 the start icon was on the left in the taskbar.

wm61screen   wm65screen

The taskbar and the menubar was about 26 pixels in height. With WM65 the taskbar is about 18 pixels in height and the menu bar occupies 34 pixels in height.

QVGA screen geometry

Windows Mobile 6.1

Windows Mobile 6.5

taskbar

26

18

menubar

26

34

client size

240;268

240;268

client size height no taskbar

240;294

240;302

client size height no menubar

240;294

240;286

You can see that assuming a fixed client size will give problems with the layout of the application, especially if menubar and taskbar height are assumed as being 26 pixels all the time.

Applications that only use the client size with the taskbar and menubar visible, will show normally, as the resulting client size does not differ between WM61 and WM65.

Continue reading ‘Windows Mobile 6.5: Changed Screen Geometry’ »

Internet Explorer Mobile – QVGA web site do not scale well to VGA screen

As described in this post, I was looking for a way to get a proper view of pages designed for QVGA screens on devices with higher resolutions like VGA.

1) SAP ITS mobile screen on VGA Internet Explorer Mobile

1) SAP ITS mobile screen on VGA Internet Explorer Mobile

2) SAP ITS mobile screen on VGA display with viewport width=240 and zoom=2

2) SAP ITS mobile screen on VGA display with viewport width=240 and zoom=2

Continue reading ‘Internet Explorer Mobile – QVGA web site do not scale well to VGA screen’ »

Internet Explorer Mobile – To zoom or not to zoom

With Windows Mobile 6.5.3, sorry, Windows Embedded Handheld 6.5.3 we have the Internet Explorer Mobile 6 engine.

weh-version

Although it may look nice for the one or other, the rendering, especially the zoom in and out is unusable for commercial use. The IT departments of Warehouses and Stores designed there mobile web pages for a fixed size layout of 240×320 (QVGA). Using IEM (Internet Explorer Mobile) these pages do not show well. Either they are to small to read or, if zoomed in, the user has to scroll here and there. Not very usable. Event the Fit-To-Screen option does not help.

The predefined viewport or 1024×768 may be good for browsing non-mobile web sites but I was unable to find a suitable setting for mobile sites with a fixed QVGA or VGA layout.

Here comes the tipp found at xda-developers: change the default viewport size to match your needs:

Default:
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main
Viewport Height = dword:00000258(600)
Viewport Width = dword:00000320(800)

Landscape optimized (VGA)
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main
Viewport Height = dword:000001e0(480)
Viewport Width = dword:00000280(640)

Portrait optimized (VGA)
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main
Viewport Height = dword:00000280(640)
Viewport Width = dword:000001e0(480)

I assume you will find these better for commercial use than the desktop settings.

Unfortunately these settings are not used on every windows embedded device. So, you may give it a try and if it works for you, fine. I tested one device and iexplore.exe did not care about these entries. I checked with RegLoggerCE and found that iexplore.exe on that device does not query the above settings. For anyone interested, here is the log file of registry access of iexplore.exe captured with regLoggerCE: [Download not found]

RDM_Keepbusy has been updated

I fixed a bug in RDM_KeepBusy. It worked only for the first session and not after close/open another session. Please always use the subversion code.