CETuner: Making an Itty-Bitty Screen Easier to Read

Until about 1991 I had 20/20 vision. Then age (and staring at a computer monitor for years) caught up with me and I got my first pair of eyeglasses. Now, over 10 years and two prescription changes later, I really appreciate the ability to change the font size in documents! I also appreciate the Display Properties utility on Windows desktop PCs. It lets me increase the size of text in menus and dialog boxes, making it easier to use the features of desktop applications. Unfortunately, the Display Properties utility on a Handheld PC does not let you change text size, and the utility is entirely missing on the Pocket PC.

It is possible to change the size of text in menus and dialog boxes on Pocket and Handheld PCs, but to do so involves making changes to the "Windows Registry." The Registry is a file found on all computers running any Windows operating systems (Windows 95 and above). It contains configuration information about the computer you are using, including the programs installed on the computer and the types of documents each can create, background colors, fonts, where certain files are stored, memory usage and more. Each Pocket and Handheld PC comes with a pre-configured Registry file.

The configuration settings in the Registry file are automatically modified each time you install a program or perform some other actions. However, the Registry is also a document file that can be opened and modified using a special program called a "Registry editor." In computer jargon this is called "hacking the Registry." The problem with this is that the configuration information is not written down in plain English (see Screen 0). What you see is the special code used in the Registry and its meaning isn't always obvious. Some say that the code was purposefully made obscure by Microsoft because they didn't want users messing around with the Registry.

Screen 1: Shown here is the Registry of an HP Jornada 720 H/PC 2000 displayed by PowerToy's Pocket Registry Editor.

Unless you know what you're doing ...!

Don't use a Registry editor unless you know what you're doing. If you make a tiny mistake hacking the Registry, you can completely lock up your Pocket, Palm-size or Handheld PC. To unlock it, you would have to do a hard reset and you would lose all data stored in the main memory along with any programs you had installed there. Of course, you wouldn't lose the built-in programs or the operating system, but you'd have to start over from scratch with your device.

If you still want to try hacking the Registry, in spite of the dangers, check out the short article we've published online, titled, "Using an Editor to Hack the Registry" (www.pocketpcmag.com/Jul01/reghack.stm). But before you start hacking, consider using a utility that makes Registry changes for you, like CETuner RegKing. These programs offer easy, goof-proof interfaces and they let you make a wide variety of useful changes to the Registry without risk.

Changing the Pocket PC's look and feel with CETuner