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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 Itemstab of the Home application in Settings.

    Options

    DWORD

    1

    0 or 1; indicates whether the item has an Optionsdialog.

    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:

Copy Code 
[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