Adding a Program to the Desktop for Unlocking Guide Release 4

One reader has asked about some tutorials on how to tweak the tweaks. Here you are. I am going to show everyone how to add a program to the desktop. The program that I am going to add is called NoniGPSPlot. The web site is here. You can find a lot of useful information like tutorials and manual from the site. NoniGPSPlot is freeware, but if you find it useful and use it often, please donate to the author to help with future development.

The program I use to create the desktops is called SystemInformation. The web site is here. The site is in German, therefore you’ll need to use some translation tools to view the pages in English. SystemInformation uses a series of INI files for desktop configurations. In this release, most of the INI files are kept in Script/desktop folder on the storage card. There are 3 INI files: main.ini, games.ini and utilities.ini. Each is responsible for a desktop. In this example, we want to add the program to the main desktop, so we will only concentrate on main.ini file.

Now let’s begin. First, download this zip file from here. Unzip the file and find a folder called NoniGPSPlot. Insert your SD card to the card reader connected to your computer. Copy the whole directory to Script/programs on the storage (SD) card. In the past, I put everything under Script directory. As we have more and more programs, I like to organize the programs and put them in a separate folder. After copying, the directory structure is like Script/programs/NoniGPSPlot . Inside the directory, there is an icon file gpsplot.ico . Copy this icon file to Script/desktop/icons folder.

Now that we have the files ready, we can start editing main.ini. Use your favorite text editor and open main.ini in the Script/desktop directory. We want to put this program next to the uBook program. There is a commented out section about this.

#ICONXPBUTTON

#x = 64

#y = 95

#Command = \Storage Card\Script

#SizeNormal =64

#SizePushed =64

#ScaleAlpha = 80

#IconNormal = icons

#ScaleAlpha = 100

#IconPushed = icons

Uncomment this section by removing the # from the beginning of each line. We also need to edit the variables Command, IconNormal and IconPushed. Modify the section so that it’s like the following.

ICONXPBUTTON

x = 64

y = 95

Command = \Storage Card\Script\Programs\NoniGPSPlot\NoniGPSPlot.exe

SizeNormal =64

SizePushed =64

ScaleAlpha = 80

IconNormal = icons\gpsplot.ico

ScaleAlpha = 100

IconPushed = icons\gpsplot.ico

Note that we use absolute path for Command, but use relative path for IconNormal and IconPushed. This is necessary for the SystemInformation32.exe to work.

When you are done editing. Save the file. Before you remove the SD card from the card reader, you can test it first. There is a program called SystemInformation32.exe in Script\desktop directory. Double click on the program to run it. Here is the screenshot.

nonigpsplot.jpg

It looks fine and you can remove the SD card and insert it back to your Mio C230. Soft reboot(restart) your unit to see the changes. Now that you know how to add a program to the desktop, I suggest you don’t do it just yet. In my next tutorial, I am going to show you how to add another desktop. It’s better to do your customization on a separate desktop. That way, when the next release is out, you won’t lose your modifications.




This post may contain affiliated links. When you click on the link and purchase a product, we receive a small commision to keep us running. Thanks.


13 Comments

  1. While testing out the program anytime I changed a setting it would say saving config… and freeze? Have to hard reset everytime to unfreeze it. Any clues to whats going on

  2. oh yea and also I couldn’t get the program to start up using the “111nonigps.exe” file so I routed it straight to the program “nonigpsplot.exe”. So im not sure if this has anything to do with it

  3. Nicely done, and I’ve been looking for a chance to install nonigpsplot. I’ll let you know if I have any problems similar to P-e-n-n.

  4. P-e-n-n,

    It seems like the C230 has problems saving the config. You can try to run it using a different SD card.

    111nonigps.exe calls the script 111nonigps.mscr. The script then calls the actual program. The path to the actual program is hard coded in the script file. If you copy the program folder to a different path. It’s not gonna work.

  5. I see you made good use of my NoniGPSplot package ๐Ÿ™‚

    I just want to clarify that 111nonigps.mscr was written for Unlock packages prior to Amida’s newest SD unlock. Since this program runs fine in landscape mode, the mortscript’s only function is to disabel the keyboard icon, but the path to keyb.exe should be fixed to match the new location on the SD card.

    RunWait (“\Storage Card\NoniGPSPlot\NoniGPSPlot.exe”)

    Run (“\My Flash Disk\Script\Keyb.exe”)

    and the path to NoniGPSPlot .exe is fixed. In this example, it might be easier to simply point your icon to NoniGPSPlot.exe directly or if installed in a different folder, modify the mortscript file accordingly.

  6. C230,

    Thanks for pointing that out. I changed the path to NoniGPSPlot.exe, but I forgot to change the path to Keyb.exe. I have changed it and the download is fixed too.

  7. I tried to use NoniGPSPlot yesterday and I found that I do need MioTool (Keyb.exe) to enter coordinates. I changed the instructions, the command just points to the NoniGPSPlot.exe.

  8. I finally got around to trying this. All installed fine, but when I tapped the icon, all that happened was it closed MioTool, then opened it again. But when I changed the command as described in 7, no problems, everything works.

    Thank You!

  9. Murphyfields,

    You are welcome. I used NoniGPSPlot to do a little bit of Geocaching and failed miserably. ๐Ÿ™ It seems like it’s not suitable for the purpose. I am going to find other alternative for Geocaching.

  10. OK, what happened. I was hoping for the same purpose and thought it would work well. Would like to hear what problems you encountered.

    Looks like we may need to get GPSimply working.

  11. Hi mr. devoloper,

    I used your unlock for my navigon 4310 and it worked like a charm. The reason I wanted to do this is because I am a glider pilot and like to use a free program called xcsoar. http://sourceforge.net/projects/xcsoar/files/Binaries/
    Unfortunately I haven’t been able to get this program to work although it should. Probably because I am not very good in this sort of work. I do know that there are thousands of people looking for an easy way of using xcsoar, who have been using ipaq 38xx but they are difficult to read in direct sunlight while flying. So on gliding forums pilots are looking for alternatives.
    I would be very gratefull for any help and will publish it on the gliding forums.

    best regards,

    Mart

Leave a Reply to amida168Cancel reply