Share via

How to: Install and Register a Custom Windows Classic Home Screen Plug-in

  • Article

4/8/2010

To install a custom Home screen plug-in for the Windows Classic Home screen, you need to copy the DLL file for the Today component and register the component. For information about writing a custom DLL, see Writing a Custom Windows Classic Home Screen Plug-in.

To register a "My Today Item" component implemented in a file called Sample.dll

  1. Create a new key called "My Today Item" in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Today\Items.

  2. Under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Today\Items\My Today Item, add the values listed in the following table.

    Value name Type Data Comments

    Type

    DWORD

    4

    All custom items use a Type of 4.

    Enabled

    DWORD

    1

    0 or 1; indicates whether the item is displayed on the Windows Classic Home screen. If Enabled=0, the user can cause the Home screen item to appear by selecting the box in the list of items on the Items tab of the Home application in Settings.

    Options

    DWORD

    1

    0 or 1; indicates whether the item has an Options dialog.

    DLL

    String

    "\Windows\Sample.DLL"

    The full path and name of the DLL.

    Selectability

    DWORD

    1

    0, 1, or 2; 0 indicates it is not selectable, 1 indicates the item is selectable and the shell will handle Up/Down messages, 2 indicates the item is selectable and the plug-in handles the Up/Down messages

You would most likely use a .cab file created by CabWiz to install your Home screen plug-ins, and the following example shows how the registry information would look in the .inf file:

[Reg.All]
HKLM,Software\Microsoft\Today\Items\My Today Item,Type,0x00010001,4
HKLM,Software\Microsoft\Today\Items\My Today Item,Enabled,0x00010001,1
HKLM,Software\Microsoft\Today\Items\My Today Item,Options,0x00010001,1
HKLM,Software\Microsoft\Today\Items\My Today Item,Selectability,0x00010001,2
HKLM,Software\Microsoft\Today\Items\My Today Item,DLL,0x00000000,"\Windows\Sample.DLL"

For an example of how to create a Home screen plug-in for the Windows Classic Home screen, refer to the Win32 sample MemWatcher.

See Also

Concepts

Home Screen Reference (Windows Mobile Professional)
Writing a Custom Windows Classic Home Screen Plug-in
Windows Classic Home Screen Plug-in Registry Settings