Important:
This is retired content. This content is outdated and is no longer being maintained. It is provided as a courtesy for individuals who are still using these technologies. This content may contain URLs that were valid when originally published, but now link to sites or pages that no longer exist.
4/8/2010

On Windows Mobile Professional and Windows Mobile Classic the default color scheme is calculated using a base color COLOR_STARTICONBACKGROUND. The color for all other display components such as Home screen text color, notification tray background color, navigation bar colors, button face color, etc, is derived from the base color.

Note:
The recommended method of creating an alternate color scheme is to modify only the base color COLOR_STARTICONBACKGROUND. By modifying only this value, OEMs can be assured that all text will be readable on all screens and menus.

OEMs can specify colors in one of the following ways:

  1. Setting the registry keys HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Color\DefShColorand HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\GWE\DefSysColor. For more information, see Changing the Default Color Scheme for Windows Mobile Professional and Windows Mobile Classic.

  2. Creating a theme file and installing it on the device. For more information, see Creating a Theme File .

  3. Setting the registry key HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Today\<ThemeFileName>\COLOR_COMMANDBARto update the title bar and soft key colors independently of the base color.

    Note that beginning with Windows Mobile 6.5.3, soft keys are replaced by touchable tiles on Windows Mobile Professional phones.

  4. The wallpaper transparency can be set using the registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Today\Watermark\Transparency. For more information see Setting the Wallpaper Transparency.

  5. The Home screen and Start screen background images can be customized. For more information see Setting the Background Image for the Home Screen and Start Menu

See Also