Windows Mobile 5 Registry Tweaks

I have few tricks to increase the Windows Mobile powered PDA's performance.  However some of the trick involves registry editing.  You will need tools like Total Commander or Task Manager do edit the registry.

Warning: Some of the methods here fill force your PDA to buffer the file writing process and you will loose your data if your PDA switched off, like empty battery or pressing the standby button, on the writing process.  I've lost an Excel file because I press the standby button on my XDA II before it finishes the writing process.

High speed IO

This will increase the IO Speed on PDA with risk of data loss if the PDA loose power when saving files.  This increase the IO speed, user's experience and using feel on using the PDA.

1. Enlarge the block transfer size for SD card or (change SD to MMC for MMC card): change
   • \\registry\HKLM\Drivers\SDCARD\ClientDrivers\Class\SDMemory_Class\BlockTransferSize=4096
2. Increase cache size on FATFS: set
   • \\registry\HKLM\System\StorageManager\FATFS\CacheSize=65536(for WM05 32768)
   • \\registry\HKLM\System\StorageManager\FATFS\EnableCache=1    
3. Increase cache on EFS cache: set
   • \\registry\HKLM\System\StorageManager\Profiles\TRUEFFS_DOC1\FATFS\DataCacheSize=131072
   • \\registry\HKLM\System\StorageManager\Profiles\TRUEFFS_DOC1\FATFS\EnableWriteBack=1
4. Set ReplStoreCacheSize:
   • \\registry\HKLM\System\StorageManager\Filters\fsreplxfilt\ReplStoreCacheSize=32768

Start menu bar colour

This is registry entry will change the start menu bar colour.  This tips is relatively save compared to the high speed IO tips, but still, I recommend user to backup their data before doing change
Set \\registry\HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Color\BaseHue to

• Black=160
• Pink=1500
• DeepPink=65000
• Blue=900
• Yellow=9000
• Deepblue=25000
• Gold=20000
• Purple=35000
• BrightPurple=45000
• LimeGreen=40000
• LightGreen=50000
• BlueishGreen=60000
• DuckGreen=70000
• Brown=280
• Violet=690

I give the colour name according to me.  Actually the palette is repetitive, e.g. 65535 colours.  Since I found some colours looks nice at more than 70000, so I just put 70000.

Non skipping audio

If you use the PDA to listening music, I can be sure that you have experiences skipping audio.  Try this tips to improve the audio experience.  Set:

1. \\registry\HKLM\Audio\SoftwareMixer\BufferSize=1048576
2. \\registry\HKLM\Audio\SoftwareMixer\Priority256=250

High speed Display

This will improve the display speed on most PDA without special GPU: set, this will force Windows Mobile to use faster (not particularly better) buffering technique

1. \\registry\HKLM\Drivers\Display\Active\Built In LCD\BufferMode = 3
2. \\registry\HKLM\System\GDI\GLYPHCACHE\limit=1048576

For O2 XDA ii user and another Himalaya based mobile phone, open this link to see how to enable hardware acceleration on the ATI chipset!