I’ve been thinking a lot about Windows Mobile lately (more on that, a lot more, later).  As I looked at the device I’ve been carrying for the past year or so (Samsung Blackjack II) I’ve found a few things annoying so I recently set about fixing things.  I’m sharing the solutions here for others who might want to fix the same issues. 

Caution: These are fairly advanced customizations to be making.  If you’re uncomfortable with that sort of thing then just put the phone down and slowly back away as you’re liable to brick your phone.

BTW, I used PHM Registry Editor to makes these fixes.  Also, your phone needs to be “Application Unlocked.”  I used the SDA Application Unlocker to do that.  Again, both of these are advanced tools so be careful.

 

Leaving on a Jet Plane

The single most annoying thing about the Samsung Blackjack II are the Startup and Shutdown sounds.  I can’t imagine what the product manager was thinking when this feature was put in: “Hey, how about if it made a loud sound like, maybe a jet engine, whenever you turn it on or off?  Yeah! Users will love that.”  I find it incredibly annoying in many situations.  Apparently I’m not alone as there are numerous posts about this on the intertubes.

Here are the instructions to fix this:

1. Use your registry editor and get to:  HKey_Local_Machine>system>
2. under system there are two entries: Shutdown and Startup
3. under each one you will find an entry named 1
4. under 1 there is a value name of Dll
5. the default value for both entries is OemAnimationDll.dll
6. change the default value data of each of those files (startup and shutdown) to this: *none* (include the astericks…this helps the OS distinguish that it is not a specific file)
7. after changeing the value to *none*, back out to the main menu – wait a couple seconds and shut down and then restart, and you will find the annoying shutdown and startup screens and audio are gone.

 

Can I get a menu over here?

Another annoyance is more of a personal preference.  I’ve been using what used to be called the “smartphone” edition of Windows Mobile.  It’s now called Windows Mobile Standard.  The big difference is that the screen is not a touch screen.  I’ve always had a preference for a phone that I could use one-handed and had good physical keyboard so I’ve had a non-touch device since 2004.  In the previous editions the menus all had numbers (aka accelerators) next to them to make selection easier.  On the Blackjack the menus are selected by characters which, for me, is a little more difficult. 

To change that option here are the instructions:

1. Use your registry editor and get to:  HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftShell
2. Change the value "HasKeyboard"
   • ‘0’ will show 1-9 accelerators, and ‘1’ will show letter-based accelerators.

 

Holy Crap!

The final annoyance is one inflicted by AT&T.  Like many organizations their margins are squeezed and so look for any opportunity to sell their value-add services.  AT&T has a whole slew of these that they’d love to sell me (GPS, shopping, music, video, etc) but that I have never used and do not intend to.  Unfortunately they have hardcoded the 6 services near the top of the “All Programs” menu so I have to scroll past them every time I’m looking for a program. 

Here’s how to remove those options:

1. Connect the device it to your Windows PC using ActiveSync.
2. Browse to your Blackjack 2 using Windows Explorer
3. Navigate to your Blackjack 2’s /Windows/Start Menu/
4. You will see a file listing of all the Folders and Shortcuts displayed in your Start Menu.
5. Select the Folders and Shortcuts you wish to remove and delete.
6. Your Blackjack 2’s Start Menu is now crapware free