4: Tweaks

I’m pleased to share a solution with everyone that I’ve been working on for a while now. I can’t take credit for the software itself, but I’ve done a little bit of work adapting it to our device.

In a nutshell: replacement for the included menu software, allows you to avoid using Windows explorer (and deal with the taskbar issues), and provides a quick way to restore if you have to do a hard reset.

First, I’ll describe how my device is setup, and then give download links and instructions for you to set yours up like mine.

Upon booting, my device loads the default, factory menu software. However, when you click “Navigator”, instead of loading the factory software, it launched a boot-strap utility. This utility attempts to launch my replacement menu program, and then opens the Windows desktop. Here’s a picture of what the menu looks like:

Navigator Menu screenshot

This menu has 3 different screens, and is customizable to show whatever icons you like, and launch whatever applications you’d like. I’ve set mine up to run TomTom, the factory navigation software, and the GPSViewer utility, as well as the factory photo viewer, MP3 player, and also The Core Media Player from the front screen.

On the second screen are some icons that came with the menu software that don’t do anything yet on my device, but I also created a “Restart” icon. If you don’t have a pen handy to reach that recessed button on the bottom, you can just restart that way, through software.

On the last screen I set up some shortcut icons for the Windows desktop, Control Panel, WinCE Total Commander, and the built-in volume utility.

The beauty of this setup is that Windows Explorer is NOT running (unless/until you choose to launch it, or quit the menu program), so the taskbar doesn’t get in your way. It’s (almost) foolproof. If something goes wrong, you can always get to the Windows desktop to recover, and recovery is simple when combined with the restore script included in the download.

Brief install instructions:

  1. Download Nav-Cam 7700 Launch Menu and Nav-Cam 7700 Restore
  2. Un-zip the files from the restore .zip and place them in the root of your SD card.
  3. Rename MyFlashDisk\MobileNavigator.exe to MobileNavigator.exe.bak
  4. Un-zip the files and folders from the “launch menu” .zip and place them in your “MyFlashDisk\MobileNavigator” folder.
  5. If your TomTom Navigator.exe file is somewhere other than \MyStorage\Program Files\Navigator\, you’ll need to customize the \Unlock\Navigator\navigator.ini file on the SD card before proceeding. (you can do it later, but then you’ll need to copy the changed file manually to \Program Files\Navigator)
  6. From Windows explorer, run the NavCam7700Restore.exe file from the root of the SD card.

Done! If you need to do a hard reset, just perform step 6!

Some notes: 

The menu is completely customizable. You can give any button any icon you want, and have it launch any program you want. You can even edit the placement of the buttons, if you want! Also, you may want to take a look at and customize the NavCam7700Restore.c31 file as well.

Please note that the above installation instructions assume a “virgin” Nav-Cam 7700. If you’re modified your registry, you’ll want to restore it to factory, so that the factory menu loads automatically. You can do that by either loading the factory.reg file (if the only change you made was loading the modified.reg file from the .zip), which is inside the .zip file from the tutorial, or by performing a hard reset, as described on the Frequently Asked Questions page. (the hard reset described there is actually a “super hard reset” that goes beyond the hard reset described in the manual and restores your registry back to factory)

If you’re seeing Spanish, you need to tap “Skin” to get back to the language-less skin (keep tapping the icon on the lower-right until you get to the menu page containing “Skin”). The author is from Spain, and set it up so you could switch between two sets of menus. What you’re seeing is the secondary menu. “Skin” should take you back to the primary, which is the one I set up with shortcuts that should work.