Turn off hardware button light? - windows-phone-7

I am using the following code:
PhoneApplicationService.Current.UserIdleDetectionMode =
IdleDetectionMode.Disabled;
to prevent my night clock app from turning off.
However, the lights on the Back, Home, Search buttons never turn off. These are too bright for a nightstand clock app.
QUESTION - Any way to turn these off?
Thanks!
swine

You can't manage the light of hardware buttons. :(

It's annoying considering the fact that earlier versions of Windows Phone 7 didn't make the hardware buttons lit all the time, only when they were used. However now they don't turn off while the phone is in use and there doesn't appear to be any way to turn them off or to configure when they'll turn on or anything like that. Hopefully Microsoft will potentially not abandon Windows Phone 7 in favor of focusing solely on Windows Phone 8, but if they still do updates, I hope that hardware back light configurations will be one of them.

Related

How does a screen blurring software work (such as Antisnooper) work?

Antisnooper is a screen blurring software that could blur registered windows when mouse is not hovering on it.
https://www.techworld.com/download/security/antisnooper-21-3329883/
Does anyone know how this is implemented? Could this be implemented to various Linux GUI desktops manager too?
Let me answer my own question after some research.
It is not possible for a Windows app to blur client area of another Windows app. If this is allowed, it wouls violate security constrains of an OS; Unless the first app is the OS window manager.
Windows 8 and 8.1 support Aero Glass Transparency with Blur feature. However this feature was removed in Windows 10. It was later partially re-enabled for Start Menu and Taskbar in a major Windows update in 2018.
[Aero Glass for Windows 8.x+][1], a donate-ware uses software hooks to re-implement such this features for Windows 10. However the solution is Windows binary dependent. A new Windows update may break the operation.
So, unless Windows 10 has re-introduced the aero glass completely, it shall not be possible.
If you have found a good solution, please post here. Thanks.

Scrolling in Microsoft Remote Desktop on a Mac w/ Magic Trackpad 2

I'm experiencing wonky behavior using a Mac to remote into a Windows 7 PC using Microsoft's Remote Desktop app for the Mac, and using a Magic Trackpad 2 as my primary input device. The problems arise primarily when scrolling in various applications in Windows. It appears the Magic Trackpad is flooding windows with scroll events, causing unpredictable behavior in many applications. Some scroll ok, others whip around or back and forth, or stutter uncontrollably. I probably need to find a way to "filter" out this flood of scroll events into something more manageable by Windows, but I am unaware of any existing apps or utilities to do so? Has anyone else experienced this issue and/or have any potential solutions to it?
A bit more research, and I've got at least a partial solution to the issue. It helps greatly to turn off some of the "Magic" Apple imparts to its trackpads. Namely, turning off 'scrolling with inertia' helps with scrolling when using Remote Desktop. The default functionality for magic trackpad scrolling is to apply inertia to your scroll, making pages continue to scroll after you release the pad like they have weight. While this looks and feels cool, it wreaks havoc with some older windows apps. The trick is to turn this feature off you have to open the Mac's Accessibility control panel, not the one for the trackpad itself. Within Accessibility there are additional mouse and trackpad tweaks, one of which is to turn off inertial scrolling. Also, reducing the scrolling speed to its lowest setting makes Remote Desktop scrolling a bit easier. Hope this helps others.
One of a kind workaround that I came up recently is to decrease the number of lines for one notch of the mouse wheel.
P.S. For some reason the "Wheel" tab is not visible when I'm connected via MS RDP client, but available for the beta version (Version 10.1.5 (866)).
On the Mac side, pay attention to the speed part in the trackpad settings. Here I suggest you bring it to the fastest. Also, in the remote (windows) machine, increase the line per speed from default 3 to 10 And again, on the windows side, set the mouse speed to the fastest in the additional options section.

XNA Support Gestures on Windows 7

One of my friends is working on a Windows phone 7 game and XNA allow you to support gestures, now he wants to use the same code so the game will be supported on PC (Windows 7) i want to know how i support gestures on PC with a Touch Screen monitor, i have been looking on the web but apparently this is not so common.
So far the only reference that i have is to recreate the Touch class on C++, that's is not an option on time and budget
Maybe i am missing something obvious please help.
What I know is that a touch screen monitor needs to be handled as a mouse, so your friend needs to change all his gestures with MouseState and detecting left button clicks.
You just need to replace TouchLocations with the location of the pointer.

Is there a way to change the windows phone 7 emulator orientation in runtime

Is there way to change the orientation of the emulator in runtime.
I have some tests for a component which include different layouts based on orientation. It would be great if this is possible.
I'm not sure what you are asking for?
If you just want to change the orientation yourself, then use the mouse - there's some buttons top right on the emulator to change orientation - http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff402568(v=VS.92).aspx
If you want to automate this, then since I'm not sure there's a keyboard shortcut or command line for this, then you could just about do it by modifying the code inside https://github.com/Expensify/WindowsPhoneTestFramework/
Alternatively... it might be quicker/easier to just hack your own code to set the supportedorientation of each page just for one-off testing.
Late response (translated by google), but can be useful for others.
Management guidance on this in the options bar to the right of the emulator:
Detail to know, so that the orientation is done properly and is taken into account, we must re-press the "pause" button if you did previously to use your keyboard. Otherwise, you will feel duty systematic tilt your head to the left or right. :)

Hide or not to hide the system tray in a Windows Phone 7 application?

I am debating whether to hide or not to hide the system tray in a Windows Phone 7 application. I've not found any general suggestions on this issue -the official Windows Phone design guidelines don't address this issue at all - except for Jeff Wilcox's blog post who suggested that he personally likes to see the system tray in applications. I'd like some general advice on this issue from other Windows Phone developers.
Some reasons for showing the system tray are
Doesn't take up that much space
Users may want to see it at times
Reasons for hiding it are
You can't control its background: unless you're using PhoneBackgroundBrush as the background the top row will stand out
Lots of widely used / official apps already hide it: all games as well as the official Facebook and Twitter app.
I'd appreciate all advice on this.
Transparency and colors are now possible with Mango by setting its BackgroundColor and Opacity :
shell:SystemTray.IsVisible="True"
shell:SystemTray.BackgroundColor="Transparent"
shell:SystemTray.Opacity="0"
I would say by default show it unless it really gets in the way in a way you can't workaround, especially if its an app and not a game.
I would say it depends on the application/game you are writing
If the app needs a network connection or if you will be in the application for a long period of time show it so the user can keep an eye on network and battery.
If you need the extra screen space (for a game?), and you rarely need network hide it.
Or... I guess you leave it up-to the user and give them a setting to programatically hide/show it.
I think its best to use the tray in applications that are tools or utilities. Typically these users would prefer more info than less when they're using applications on the phone (battery, network, time).
Also adding the tray in there tends to make the application look more native on the phone (according to me and others I've asked), which is a big plus because the user associates your app as if it was built with the phone OS.
But if the application is a game, media, etc. type of application I recommend you take it off, especially on panorama because it takes away from the intended design. Also these types of applications focus on the content and seeing multiple little icons at the top can take away from the experience.
Really to me the space it occupies isn't really THAT much, so that shouldn't be too much of an issue. But rather the purpose of the app as stated above.
I do like the suggestions that have been given as far as giving the user the choice. Check out this code:
bool ShowTray;
//ASK USER WHAT THEY WANT
//ShowTray = true or false;
SystemTray.IsVisible = ShowTray;
I've been reluctantly hiding, at least on any view where I have a background image; otherwise it looks too strange to me. I've been considering a setting in my app that would allow the user to choose, and persisting that to isolated storage.
Also considering maybe having the top of the screen in phone background brush color and have it fade / blend into another color or background image. Not sure how well that would turn out but as long as it is not a cheesy looking gradient effect, perhaps.
I'm hoping eventually MS will soon add support for transparency in the system tray or otherwise help address this issue. As a user I wish that I could force the system tray to always be visible across all apps, but as a developer I realize that the visual effect often doesn't look good.
Perhaps if the community came up with a new UX metaphor where maybe double-tapping in the system tray area would toggle whether it is visible. A single tap could perhaps start to animate / pop / hint at the system tray...

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