Customizing HTC ActionScreen and How to assign it as Power Button Application for any Windows Phone Device

One application from HTC i find really customizable for any device of any resolution is the HTC ActionScreen. It started off with a Simple 6 Button Action Screen on HTC Touch but can be customised for any device. A simple and fast shortcut screen to reach out to most used application on touch of a button or a just a single Tap. You can use it as package and cook it to your roms or make a cab of it and install.

But the main use of this application is not the easy access but the extent of Customization. So this tutorial focuses on every customization function in this application for your specific device.

Firstly i’ll describe all the components that are present in the basic OEM or EXT package of your Action Screen.

1. The Brn Files                                                ;Images that are present in the Action Screen.
2. Action Screen.lnk                                      ;ShortCut
3. HTC ActionScreen.exe                            ;Application File
4. HTC ActionScreen.exe.0409.mui      ;Language File
5. Other Applications that are Accessed in the Action Screen Menu
6. Registry File, “.reg” or “.rgu”              ;Main Settings File

The tools that are required to customize the SctionScreen are

1. BASIC ACTION SCREEN PACKAGE
2. BRN Converter                       ;Convert BRN to BMP files to edit and then Vice Versa
3. Photoshop                               ;To edit Images
4. CeRegEditor                           ;To easily edit reg entries file

Editing the Registry File and setting up the Framework

I’ll describe the customization for WVGA, VGA, WQVGA, QVGA.

Open the App.reg in RegEditor, to customize the scale and specifications of it such as the number of buttons, the resolution, position of Buttons, etc.

When you open the file in reg editor, on expanding you’ll see these registires.

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Apps\HTC Action Screen]

Entries in Figure 4 does not need to be edited as it registers the application to the windows system, mentioning where the applicaton and its files files installed. Let then be to windows folder.

Then comes the first customization which defines how many buttons you want in your action screen. As always said it can be customized to any extent you want but we will discuss about 12 buttons for WVGA and WQVGA screens and 9 buttons for VGA and QVGA resolution.

Now you are supposed to set how many rows and columns you want, so the number of buttons will be no of columns and no or rows.

Here we set 3Column and 4Rows for WVGA, WQVGA; and 3column and 3rows for VGA, QVGA.

The Background base image is AS_Bkgd_1.brn.

Now Depending upon the number of x buttons the App_x are decided and each button has its specific settings and Image. All buttons will have same height and width, i.e. 160×120 for WVGA, VGA and 80×60 for WQVGA, QVGA.

Now i suppose everyone know that X axis is the horizontal and Y axis the Vertical line. So the Position of every button needs to be set that way.

For eg- For VGA, Button 1 will hav 0 X axis position, button 2 will have 160, button 3 will have 320, just adding 160 cause that happens to be the width.

Same can be done for QVGA resolution by adding 80 pixel width.

But this is not the same in case of height placement, because 120 pixels is for the button and 44pixels are left at top and some between buttons for the text to be visible. So just go by the values already provided in the reg file.

For QVGA devices just divide every resolution and position value by 2 and apply to the registry file.

Now the Package i have provided is simple as it only deals with the base image and only the press buttons so we donot require to change the values on IconPath.

All we need to Change is IconPress Path and the Path of the application you want the button to be dedicated to. It can be a .lnk file or .exe or even an image or song file if you want.

Customizing the Look of the Action Acreen and the Buttons

Its simple, Just open BRN Convert and drag and drop the BRN files. BMP files with similar names will be created just like the first two images, which you can edit in the Photoshop.

Now again drag and drop these BMP files to the converter and they will be converted into BRN files ready to be used.

Assigning Action Screen to PowerButton**

In order to make the ActionScreen replace the Power Button action, i.e. when you press the action button, after 3second, instead of the power off warning, you want the action button to appear, then just read this Map any Application to Power Button

Assigning Action Screen to SoftKey Buttons

You can easily do this by following tutorial on Re-Mapping SoftKey Buttons.

Add the package to your kitchen or make a cab and install, is your wish. Just enjoy and expand the Possibilities;)

** Do remember to include Power of Application to one of the Action Buttons if you are assigning it to the Power Button, Its Recommended.