Windows CE Programming

In the first part of this series I showed how to make your compact framework application full screen or remove the Start icon from the menu bar. Now we will take a look at the task bar.

The task bar is at the top of your screen (except for fullscreen applications) and shows valuable information like the connection status, battery status or the current time.

Not full screen, taskbar not locked

This is a kiosk mode risk. The user is able to click the symbols in the taskbar and gets a popup menu with some icons. These icons enable the user to change connection settings, power management settings and others. You propably do not want to allow the user to make changes to some or all of the possible changes.

For example, clicking on the phone or signal strength icon will bring up this dialog:

The user can then change connection settings and activate or deactivate radios. Possibly a source for a bunch of support calls, if the user accidently changes connection settings.

Continue reading ‘Windows Mobile: Kiosk Mode Series, part 2’ »

Here is a very short tip based on a finding at xda-developers.com

See also here for how to hide the Start and Done button temporary.

For kiosk mode applications you dont want the user access the device settings or the start menu and all the programs and games accessible from there. One step to this kiosk mode is disabling the Start Button, the button that opens a menu to access programs and settings.

In versions of windows mobile before 6.5.3, you could disable access to the start button by subclassing HHTaskbar and discard clicks in the Start button area or simply disable the whole HHTaskbar window.

Now, with windows mobile 6.5.3 the start button is part of the menu bar and no longer part of the taskbar (which is now called MenuBar). To hide the start button on a windows Mobile 6.5.x device you can use following registry change:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Shell\BubbleTiles]
"TextModeEnabled"=dword:00000001
"HardwareStartKeyEnabled"=dword:00000001
"HardwareDoneKeyEnabled"=dword:00000001

With this change the “MenuBar” will no longer show the Start Button graphic nor the Done button, Windows Mobile will no longer decorate the menu texts . Only two menu entries will now show on bottom of the today screen.

TextModeEnabled switches the display of soft menu entries from the default graphic tiles display to a text only display as it was and is in windows mobile 6.1.

HardwareStartKeyEnabled controls the display of the Start button (the big windows start symbol on the left of the soft menu). If you change to enabled (0x01) you dont get a start button and have to use a key on your keypad to launch the start screen!

HardwareDoneButton controls the display of the Done button at the right of the menu bar (the big (X)). When enabled, you have no chance to close apps that do not have an exit option in there menu, except you have a key on on your keyboard assigned to the Done function! Done now not only hides an app, with winmo 6.5 the app is closed and removed from memory now.

The Start entry at top left corner remains there but is only an indicator.

NO more Start Button, No more Done (X) Button

Continue reading ‘Windows Mobile: Hide StartButton in WinMo 6.5.x’ »