The definitive guide to completely relocate best Pocket PC Web browser Opera Mobile from the main memory

UPDATE (12/30/2007): : make sure you check out Patrick's comments below.

UPDATE (11/15/2007): deprecated: if you install the final version of 8.65 on a card, the cache will also be created there.
(end of update)

Opera Mobile, which is by far the best Pocket PC Web browser, being a newcomer on the Pocket PC, still has some issues that should be fixed by hand. One of them is the complete relocation of Opera to a storage card because, by default, Opera stores some of its files in the main storage. This is especially important to Dell Axim x50(v) and HP iPAQ hx4700 users if they have upgraded to WM5 and, therefore, should always strive to reduce write/deletion operations in the main storage to avoid lengthy filesys.exe sessions.

In the following, I give you a complete tutorial on how everything can be relocated to the storage card.

1. install Opera to the storage card. I assume you install it to \Program Files\Opera (the WM5 default) on your storage card, which has the name \SD Card.
2. get this registry import file. You'll need to modify it after, probably, changing the \\SD Card\\Program Files\\Opera occurrences to the particular path of your device if needed. For example, if you have installed Opera to a directory Opera86 your storage card named Storage Card, then, just change all occurrences of \\SD Card\\Program Files\\Opera to \\Storage Card\\Opera86.

   I recommend for example the built-in Notepad in Windows to do this. Just open the registry file with Notepad, press Ctrl-H (Edit/Replace), copy the string \\SD Card\\Program Files\\Opera to the “Find what:†text input field and the new path (with, again, double backslashes!) to “Replace with:â€. Then, just save the file and exit Notepad.

3. import it to the Registry with a Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00-compatible registry editor like Resco Registry Editor. This will make sure references to Opera.exe are all OK.
4. create an OperaData directory in the root directory of your storage card
5. get this file; unzip it to the just-created OperaData directory of your storage card. This means that, for example, the vlink4.dat file should be in the directory \<Storage card name>\OperaData\Opera.
6. go to \Application Data\Opera in the main storage and delete everything, including all the subdirectories, except for the following two files:

   english.lng
   input.ini

   and the skins subdirectory (the latter can't be relocated, even if you appropriately modify Button Set in opera.ini).

   Incidentally, if you’d prefer one-page-at-a-time scrolling (as opposed to the default one – that is, link-by-link), overwrite input.ini with this file.

7. now, get this file (opera.ini) and change all occurrences of SD Card to the name of your storage card in the way I’ve explained above in step 2. Copy the this way edited file to \Application Data\Opera in the main storage.

Now, you’re all set – you can run Opera right away. It’ll only write to one file in the main storage, opera6.adr, which contains the favorites (this means no writing will take place if you don’t explicitly add a new favorite / delete / edit an old one – this is certainly good news for all Dell Axim x50(v) and HP iPAQ hx4700 WM5 users). Every other write operation will happen on the storage card.

If you don’t want to recreate your existing favorites/cookies

Note that if you want to save your (existing) cookies and favorites (because you’ve already been using Opera and don't want to lose your stuff), make sure you do NOT delete opera6.adr (favorites) in step 5. Also, make sure you transfer your existing cookies4.dat to the storage card (into \OperaData\Opera) so that your existing cookies will still be accessible.

UPDATE (09/03/2006): you can also relocate the cache only (NOT the other files - that is the history, cookies etc). This can pay off hugely if you use Ramdisks. Please read Solnyshok's tip HERE (in the comment section) for more info.