Native (high-resolution) VGA on WM5 VGA devices – the long-awaited roundup and tutorial!

It has been a year since I’ve published VGA demystified - the definitive guide to OzVGA, SE_VGA and everything VGA-related (alternatives:MobilitySite, AximSite (the x50/x51 forum; the Tips and Tricks forum), PPC Magazine, FirstLoox, BrightHand), the definite guide to the native VGA mode. As the in the meantime released Windows Mobile 5 requires so-called ‘code signing’ for these kinds of things to work, there has been a lot of confusion about how WM5 devices should be run in native VGA mode. The situation was made even worse by the fact that AKU2 ROMs and ROM upgrades, released earlier this year, also added some new icons to repertoire of Windows Mobile, which resulted in old hacks’ not working flawlessly.

Because of the tremendous (and because I’m one of the guys that know the most about the secrets of the native VGA mode) demand for a new, updated version of the above-linked VGA demystified guide, I’ve allocated some time to elaborate on this subject a bit and to test all the currently available solutions and hacks. This means I’ve tested all the available hacks on all my three VGA WM5 Pocket PC’s (HP iPAQ hx4700 (2.01), HTC Universal and Dell Axim x51v (A12)), taking a LOT of time and effort (because I’ve kept hard resetting these devices between installing other hacks).

First and foremost, now that there are some really nice packages (I'll also refer to them as "OzVGA builds" or "versions" as they're all contain the OzVGA front-end to switch between the two VGA modes and for configuration) to make the installation easy, using the hack on WM5 devices is in no way more complicated than on the previous operating system version WM2003SE.

Note: The tested & linked distributions are only meant for US English devices!

As the vast majority of the Pocket PC’s have an US English ROM (and I, having no WM5 VGA devices with other languages, couldn’t test other versions), I’ve only linked in US English native VGA versions. Do NOT try to install the above-linked versions on anything else (for example, a French or German PDA) because the native VGA mode won’t work!

To get versions meant for Pocket PC’s having ROM’s in other languages, please read AximSite forum member makuu's excellent tutorial. He's already built a French package.

If you have a Dell Axim x51v (including the latest, A12 ROM version),

First, you’ll need to get and install this certification CAB file. Then, get and install this CAB file. You’re set: you can now use OzVGA to switch between the two VGA modes (see its icon in Start Menu/Programs).

If you have a HTC Universal or an HP iPAQ hx4700 updated to WM5,

you’ll need to use this file. As opposed to the x51v version, no separate certification import is needed.

Note that, on the hx4700, it’ll mess up some of the dialogs; for example, the iPAQ Wireless dialog will be displayed two times: once pixel doubled and once in the upper left quarter of the screen. It’s the latter that you’ll need to use. Also, the built-in, simple HP Today plug-in, TodayPanel, will use oversized icons. You will want to disable it and switch to something better (please see this article (alternates: MobilitySite, AximSite, PPC Magazine, FirstLoox) for alternate Today launcher/meter plug-ins). Still, it’s much better than the x51v-specific CAB: using the latter, the HTC Universal won’t display the speaker, the phone and the battery icons and the hx4700 won’t display the speaker and the connectivity icon. Also note that, fortunately, as opposed to the x51v / Universal (screenshot of them here), the Power applet is displayed properly.

If you have another WM5 VGA model,

give a try to the second-linked CAB file first. If you don’t see some icons on the taskbar, give a try to the x51v-specific version.

Please also post your remarks on using these OzVGA builds on your particular VGA device (if it’s not one of the three VGA devices I’ve tested the builds on)!

Always remember to backup!

Much as it’s very rarely that installing these applications can cause any harm to your Pocket PC, remember to backup before installing them. This is of particular importance with non-tested VGA Pocket PC’s, where you may end up having to switch to another OzVGA version. Then, you may need to hard reset and restore your previous backup to get rid of a particular OzVGA version.

To backup your device, I recommend the latest, 3.0 series of SKTools (review here), Spb Backup (current version: 1.5) or Sprite Backup (current version: 5.1) (comparison here).

MSN Messenger and Transcriber compliance

These two apps were rather problematic with earlier versions (Transcriber with WM2003SE and Messenger with earlier WM5 distributions). Now, both work flawlessly.

I’ve tested MSN Messenger on the hx4700 and the x51v; both worked fine.

Transcriber works on all the three devices without problems (Universal screenshot here; it, incidentally, also shows the “incoming, unanswered call” icon is also displayed on the taskbar).

Other links

To understand the differences between the two (native and SE/standard) VGA modes, how OzVGA can be used, how you can swap the on-screen keyboard files etc., you will want to read the first-linked VGA demystified article.

Also see this AximSite thread on the x51v and this XDA-Dev thread on the Universal/hx4700 CAB. Note that the latter thread has a lot of additional, useless information and you will NOT need to read it to be able to use OzVGA. My old VGA demystified article will be sufficient for most people.

UPDATE (09/06/2006): PPCT Frontpage

UPDATE (09/07/2006): added a link to makuu's new foreign-language tutorial.

UPDATE (09/23/2006):: in this thread, there are some additional CAB files you;ll want to install if you have a non-hx4700 device. They will fix the power / brightness / microphone settings applets. (On the HP iPAQ hx4700, you won't need them.)