How can I change the button assignments on my palm sized PC?

The normal way to change button assignments on a palm sized PC is by using the Buttons applet in Control Panel (Start/Settings/Buttons).  Some programs can automatically change the assignment of the buttons when they are installed.   Unfortunately, sometimes when you uninstall those programs the option for one of the buttons, for example Side Button on a Casion E-10/E11, are completely removed instead of restoring to the default.  You can try using the Restore Defaults button in the Buttons applet.  If that does not work you have two options, either completely reset your device or edit your registry as described below. (The instructions that you see below were posted in the microsoft.public.windowsce newsgroup.)

Warning: Editing the registry on your device can be risky.   Perform a complete backup of your device before making any changes so that you can restore the registry if needed.  The changes that you make happen instantly.

You can find a registry editor for your palm sized PC at http://www.astrosoft.ru/rex/.

The buttons' info. are in the registry path HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\MICROSOFT\SHELL\KEYS. For my Everex Freestyle, the keys are 40C1, 40C2, etc.  Check the other keys to help you figure the values (however, some of the values are stored elsewhere, which I haven't figured out).

However, since some programs don't show as choices, here's what I've discovered as a workaround which may help you further (THIS ISN'T WHAT WINDOWS DOES WHEN SAVING BUTTON INFO., but it has worked for me.)

In the registry, under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\MICROSOFT\SHELL\KEYS, each of the buttons are listed. You can change the paths of the programs to start along w/ the names/icons
of the buttons.

DEFAULT= Path of program; it can be a shortcut.  This states what to run.

RESETCMD= Path of program; it can be a shortcut. Name of file is used for showing program's name in START-SETTINGS-BUTTONS.  It doesn't appear to be necessary to have the
path nor extension, but I'm sure there's a purpose that I haven't noticed (there definitely is when
START-SETTINGS-BUTTONS uses it).

ICON= Path of program followed by the following:  ,0 I'm betting there's more to this, but I didn't discover anything else; I didn't try much.

NAME: Button's name as shown in START-SETTINGS-BUTTONS.  For my Freestyle, I renamed them Top, Bottom, Left, Right so they would be easier to recognize.  Casio owners could name them Left, Middle, Right.

Unfortunately, I still haven't figured out where the choices in START-SETTINGS-BUTTONS are derived from. However, I did notice that if you replace certain programs like Note
Taker, it won't show up as a choice anymore (until you set it in the registry again); this doesn't occur if you change the choice in START-SETTINGS-BUTTONS (because it uses DEFAULT/RESETCMD differently than how I've explained above; if you see the before/after effects, you'll see the differences).  That said, my instructions may only be possible because of some code left in that shouldn't have been.

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