How to install the Windows Mobile 7 skin on your Smartphone

April 4th, 2008 by Ross McKillop |  Print This Post

After a lot of messing around, I’ve finally figured it out. I hope this saves you some time.

NOTE: I can only confirm for sure that this will work on the HTC S621. I’m confident that it would work on the S620 (Dash) as well. As for other Smartphones - check to make sure your phone is supported before installing any of the software mentioned below. It should work. I have read that the MotoQ will lock up and requires a hard reset to be fixed, unless you use the exact version of SmartMonitor that I link to in this tutorial.

1. Though you have to install several pieces of software, all of them are free. Just thought I should mention that up front.
2. Download and install SmartToolKit - which by itself is still my absolute favorite software for Windows Mobile.
3. Download and install SmartMonitor.
4. Download the WM7 Theme. Upload it to your device and install it.
5. Launch SmartToolKit on your Smartphone, if it isn’t running already.
6. Launch SmartMonitor on your Smartphone, if it isn’t running already.
7. Click Start and arrow over to the Control Panel



8. Select Appearance



9. Select WM7 from the Skin menu. Click OK

   

10. Go to Settings -> Home Screen -> and select Windows Mobile 7 as the Home screen layout.
11. Yes you’ll have a weird “black circle” - that’s supposed to be a clock but the clock is a bit redundant (imo), and not free. If you really want the analogue clock, install the Clock Plugin, which costs $4.95. If you’d like, continue with step 12 to remove the (non-functional) black circle/clock entirely. If you don’t care about a black circle on your home screen, you’re done!
12. Dock your Smartphone and copy the file windows mobile 7.home.xml from the \Application Data\Home\ folder to somewhere on your PC.
13. Open the .xml file in Notepad and scroll down to the —Madbeetle Plugin— section. Delete it, and save the file.


click to enlarge

14. Now copy that file back to the \Application Data\Home\ folder. When asked if you want to over-write the existing file, choose Yes.
15. On your Smartphone go to the folder \Application Data\Home\NRGWM7\ and rename the file titled wm7_clean.png to something like wm7_clean-old.png (so you’ll always have a backup copy of it). Now download this updated PNG (also seen below), and place it in the \Application Data\Home\NRGWM7\ folder.



16. Change your Home screen to something else, and then change it back to Windows Mobile 7. That will refresh the background picture used by the WM7 theme, and the “clock” will be gone. Your smartphone should look something like the screenshot below.