Did you just get a new BB device but are unsure how to best set it up?

The setup wizard

removes a few things but not all that should be removed. Many of you have asked me
what I do to free up memory on my devices and prevent loss of emails and call logs, etc.
I've decided to list out for you exactly what I do to my device. You may want to setup
your device slightly different but this is a good starting point.

So, this is John Clark's "How To" on setting up your new device for maximum memory.
We want to add the apps we want/use but get rid of anything we don't want. In the
following tutorial I will go over what I do on my devices to maximize memory but get
the apps I want when I get a new BB or update the OS on my existing BB. This post may
seem long but the process is actually quite simple once you get through it. Any of the .alx
editing (steps 4 & 5) can be skipped if you just want the device to be setup "out of the
box." If you skip steps 4 & 5 you will have a device loaded with apps as the carrier
wanted them to be. You'll still be able to remove unused languages, sample videos and a
few apps that take up space.

Here is what we are going to go over:

1. Install Desktop Manager and backup the device.
2. Install OS package. (Additional and separate download from the Desktop Manager
above)
3. Delete vendor.xml.
4. Edit Blackberry.alx & LBS.alx.
5. Remove unwanted .cod's from the java folder and place in "Removed Modules" folder.
6. Connect BB and run DM. Open Application Loader and and finish to add/remove the
.cod's added/removed from java folder.

Detailed instructions: (to read these instructions in Chinese Click Here. Thanks to BBF
Member youzang for the translated instructions.)

1. Install Desktop Manager to your computer.

If you didn't receive a disk with your device or you want the latest version of this
software click 0F" target=_blankHERE. This is the program that you will use for adding
software, syncing your PIM data, backing up and restoring data, and if you're on a BES
you can use it to connect to your corporate mail profile to start Enterprise Activations. It's
also the software that installs new OS's to your device. (Note: OS's are not included with
Desktop Manager but must be installed separately to the PC, even if an OS is already
installed to your handheld.) During installation be sure to select BES/Redirector for email
if you are on a corporate BES and also the type of email system your company uses i.e.
Exchange, Lotus, etc. Desktop Manager will connect to your work email profile and
server if installed properly and you have access to your company's network (via LAN,
VPN, etc.) If you're not on a BES, or if you are on a BES but you don't want to connect
this particular computer to your corporate email system, install using Blackberry Internet
System (BIS) method for email (even if you don't get email on your device.) Install using
BIS method if you are unsure. However, if you're a BES user and you install using BIS
method you won't be able to Enterprise Activate after an OS update. You'll need to
contact your IT dept for a password (just adding or removing applications or themes will
not require a new Enterprise Activation.) If you're unsure contact your IT administrator
for help on installing Desktop Manager for use with your company.

Before beginning with step 2 it's best to backup the device data and 3rd party apps
in case anything goes wrong during the changing. Use the Desktop Manager's
Backup/Restore feature to make a backup of the data on your device. If you like you
can also make a backup of all 3rd party apps by following the instructions Here.

2. Install your Blackberry's OS installation package to your PC.

Desktop Manager needs this ADDITIONAL software installed in order to recognize the
OS software already on your Blackberry. If you install the same OS that's already on your
device then you can make changes to the apps already installed on your BB. Note: If you
install a newer version then Desktop Manager will want to upgrade the OS on your BB.
An upgrade takes roughly an hour so if you have time for that go ahead and install a
newer version. You can use newer versions from any other carrier that releases the OS for
your device. For example you can load Vodafone's 8300 OS to your AT&T 8300. The
OS's are made for each individual device not necessarily anything special for the carrier.
It's safe to load another carrier's OS to your device. Don't worry. However, for the
purposes of this thread we are going to optimize the OS that is already on your BB so be
sure you download the version that is already on your BB, if that is all you want to do. If
you don't know what version you have you can look on your BB under Options >About
or from the home screen hold the alt key and type E A C E. The Version number will be
in a format like: 4.2.2.170. Once you know your version number you can go to THIS site
and download the OS for your device. Again, if you have a GSM device you can
download from any GSM carrier. If you have a CDMA device you can download from
any CDMA carrier. The important thing is to download the same version number as is
already on your handheld. Once you download it, double click on it to install it to your
PC. This is in addition to installing Desktop Manager as described in step one. Note: OS's
have two version numbers. One is a package number and the other is an application
version. The application version is what is listed in Options >About. Pay careful attention
to make sure you get the right application version.

3. Delete the vendor.xml file.

Once Desktop Manager AND your OS are installed to your PC you need to go to the
following directory and delete a file. Go to C:\program files\common files\research in
motion\apploader and delete the file called "vendor.xml." This file just tells Desktop
Manager to only load an OS to the device of the same carrier that's branded to the device.
For example, if I have a TMobile BB and download an OS from Vodafone the OS won't
load to the device unless I delete the vendor.xml file. Nothing is lost by deleting this file
it only serves this one purpose and nothing else. Once that is deleted you can continue on.
(Note: This vendor.xml file gets reinstalled with any OS installation or Desktop Manager
installation so you may have to delete it again at a later date if you install another OS or
update Desktop Manager.)
4. Edit Blackberry.alx & LBS.alx. Before we plug in the device and remove anything
we don't want lets make a few modifications for themes. You can add all the different
vendor's themes to your device if you like, including the TMobile MyFaves
application/theme. However, I don't recommend leaving them all on your device at one
time. There is a method of editing a file called "Blackberry.alx" so that these other themes
will be loaded to the device. Each carrier has their own vendor code. For example
TMobile's is 100. AT&T's is 102. These codes are written into the device and can't be
changed. This is how Desktop Manager knows what brand of device you have and loads
the OS appropriately. If we leave everything as is, then AT&T theme will be loaded to the
AT&T devices but not to, say, TMobile's devices. We can edit the Blackberry.alx so that
the desktop Manager will load any or all of the themes. If you have an AT&T device we
can edit the LBS.alx file so that Blackberry Maps will be loaded (AT&T doesn't load
BBMaps to their devices. They want you to purchase a mapping software. However, we
can load BBMaps easily to an AT&T device.) Also, if you have an AT&T device it will
have PTT (push to talk) preloaded on it. This is great if you use PTT but if you don't use
it it only takes up valuable memory space. We're going to make some simple edits to
remove PTT and add themes.

To Add All Themes: (we will remove the ones we don't want later.)
Navigate the the following location in windows explorer:
C:\Program Files\Common Files\Research In Motion\Shared\Loader Files
In this folder should be a folder corresponding to the version of software you've installed.
For instance installing Bharti's 4.2.1.91 software for 8700, creates the folder:

\8700-v4.2.1.91_P2.3.0.76

In this folder, open the "BlackBerry.alx" file in your text editor of choice.

Note: If you don't see the "Shared" folder go back to step #2 and install the OS to
your device as instructed.

Scroll down until you see lines of text with the following:
_vendorID="xxx"

where xxx is one or many 3 digit values. The best way to accomplish this is to search for
the "_vendorID=" portion using the editor's built in search. For each instance, remove the
string including the quotes and the containing values. The example below shows
the string for vendor ID 102 (AT&T)

<fileset Colour="True" Java="1.0" series="8700" _vendorID="102">

<files>
net_rim_theme_102a_icon_320x240_w.cod
</files>
</fileset>

would become:
<fileset Colour="True" Java="1.0" series="8700">
<files>
net_rim_theme_102a_icon_320x240_w.cod
</files>
</fileset>

Simply remove the info in bold then save the file. [i]If using Windows Vista you may
need to save the new file to the desktop first, then copy and paste the new file back into
the original folder again. Vista doesn't always allow a "save as" directly to the original
location. Once the vendor ID info is removed the theme listed below will be installed to
any 8700. Do this for all the instances of vendor ID that are there. They're all in one place
so once you find them you'll see them all.
Once you've done this to all of them you will get all the vendor themes loaded to your
device. We will talk later about how to easily remove the ones you don't want and add
them back if you do want them.

To Add BBMaps: (if you want it.)

If you have an AT&T device or a device without BBMaps do the same for the LBS.alx
file:

Open the LBS.alx and scroll down until you see a string similar to the following:

<!-- For 8800 series, hide the icon for Cingular (102), Vodafone Germany (124),
Vodafone Austria (137) and all
Orange properties. --><fileset SystemSize="normal" Colour="True" Java="1.0"
_vendorID="~102|124|137|119|162|142|183|147|217"
series="8800">
<files>
net_rim_bb_lbs_ribbon.cod
</files>
</fileset>
<!-- For non-8800 series, show the icon for all carriers except Vodafone Germany (124),
Vodafone Austria (137) and all Orange properties. -->
<fileset SystemSize="normal" Colour="True" Java="1.0"series="8800">
<files>
net_rim_bb_lbs_internal_gps.cod
</files>
</fileset>
<fileset SystemSize="normal" Java="1.0">
<files>
net_rim_bb_lbs_resource_en.cod
</files>
</fileset>

Remove all references to “_vendorID=…..” and device codes. Remove the text in bold as
shown above and leave the > symbol at the end.

The above code would be changed to the following:

<!-- For 8800 series, hide the icon for Cingular (102), Vodafone Germany (124),
Vodafone Austria (137) and all Orange properties. -->
<fileset SystemSize="normal" Colour="True" Java="1.0">
<files>
net_rim_bb_lbs_ribbon.cod
</files>
</fileset>
<!-- For non-8800 series, show the icon for all carriers except Vodafone Germany (124),
Vodafone Austria (137) and all Orange properties. -->
<fileset SystemSize="normal" Colour="True" Java="1.0">
<files>
net_rim_bb_lbs_internal_gps.cod
</files>
</fileset>
<fileset SystemSize="normal" Java="1.0">
<files>
net_rim_bb_lbs_resource_en.cod
</files>
</fileset>

Save the file (as the same name) when you are done.

You are now done with editing those darned .alx files.

5. Remove unwanted .cod's (themes, applications, etc.) from the java folder and
place in "Removed Modules" folder.
Now we want to remove the themes and applications we don't want. Our editing of the
Blackberry.alx will add everything. If you want everything then you can skip this step.
However, some of the added themes are large and the device doesn't perform to well with
them all installed. It's easy to run out of memory and lose emails and call logs when the
device runs low on memory. The easiest way to remove the themes we don't want is to
remove them from the jave directory. In the same directory as the .alx files is a folder
named java. In that folder are all the .cod's that get loaded to the device during an OS
installation. All we have to do is remove the unwanted theme .cod's from the java folder
and they will not be installed to the device. We can also remove the PTT .cod files to
remove PTT from the AT&T devices. Another application I like to remove this way is
Voice Activated Dialing. If you use VAD then don't remove the VAD .cod's but if you're
like me it isn't worth the memory it takes up. Be aware that if the VAD (Voice Activated
Dialing) files are removed from OS 4.3 and up devices then the Option >About screen
becomes inaccessible. You can get the same info by typing in alt + EACE from the home
screen on your BB.

Create a folder in the java folder called Removed Modules. Then simply move the
unwanted theme .cod's into that folder. You are safe to remove any vendor coded .cod.

Remove any you don't want. I usually get rid of the 102 (AT&T) as it's the largest and I
don't like it anyway. You can always load them all, try them out, and then go back and
remove the ones you don't want. Most of us have a theme or two that are our favorites.
Just load your one or two faves and remove the others. You can come back and add them
again later, if you want some variety.

The themes are generally as follows:

Theme .cod's are listed as:

net_rim_theme_100...
net_rim_theme_102a... etc.

The numbers below are the vendor ID's for each carrier and will help you identify which
themes are which.

You can safely delete any of the below vendor-numbered themes. The size listed is an
average size for that carrier's theme. As you can see a couple of them are quite big.
100=Tmobile 240kb
102=AT&T 769kb
104=Sprint 17kb
105=Verizon 572kb
107=Rogers 287kb
109=Bell 194kb
114=TMo UK 243kb
115=TIM 698kb
119=Orange 635kb
120=Vodafone 624kb
125=O2 349kb
129=Telefonica 30kb

TMo MyFaves apps will be automatically loaded with this edit. However, you can also
safely delete TMo myfaves apps if you don't use myfaves (Note: If you are not using
MyFaves then I highly recommend removing the myfaves modules, especially if you are
using a CDMA device (8130, 8830, 8330, etc.) as having those apps installed will cause
booting errors on your device. We've edited the Blackberry.alx file to add them so if you
want/need the MyFaves, leave the cod's in the java folder. If not, move the following
MyFaves .cod's in your Removed Modules folder:

net_rim_bb_media_100_five_icon_library.cod
net_rim_bb_media_114_five_icon_library.cod
net_rim_tmo_five.cod

Note: I don't recommend removing the bbdimension. and dimension zen themes as some
of the above themes need these in order to run.
Edit: If you'd like to just use the Dimension zen theme you can safely remove the
bbdimension icon, bbdimension L, and bbdimension today. I, personally, just TMo
Zen so I the only themes I have installed are the bbdimension zen, and TMobile Zen.
Everything else is removed.

Note: Be careful when removing a theme that might be in use. If you remove a theme that
is currently in use your BB will boot up to a black and white screen with basic icons. If
this happens, simply navigate to the swiss army knife icon (options or settings) and then
scroll down to themes and select a theme. Your BB doesn't know what theme to use if
you delete the one it's using so it boots with the basic default theme included with the OS.

To remove PTT from AT&T devices remove the following .cod's:

net_rim_bb_phone_ptt_app.cod
KnJCDE.cod

To Remove Voice Activated Dialing:

net_rim_vad.cod
net_rim_vad_resource.cod
net_rim_vad_resource__en.cod
net_rim_vad_engine_resource__en_US.cod
net_rim_vad_engine_resource__en_GB.cod
net_rim_vad_resource__de.cod
net_rim_vad_engine_resource__de.cod
net_rim_vad_resource__fr.cod
net_rim_vad_engine_resource__fr.cod
net_rim_vad_engine_resource__fr_CA.cod
net_rim_vad_resource__it.cod
net_rim_vad_engine_resource__it.cod
net_rim_vad_resource__es.cod
net_rim_vad_engine_resource__es.cod
net_rim_vad_engine_resource__es_MX.cod
net_rim_vad_resource__pt.cod
net_rim_vad_resource__pt_BR.cod
net_rim_vad_engine_resource__pt_BR.cod
net_rim_vad_resource__hu.cod
net_rim_vad_resource__ca.cod
net_rim_vad_resource__cs.cod
net_rim_vad_resource__nl.cod
net_rim_vad_engine_resource__nl.cod
net_rim_vad_resource__pl.cod
net_rim_vad_engine_resource__pl.cod
net_rim_vad_resource__tr.cod
net_rim_vad_resource__ru.cod
net_rim_vad_engine_resource__ru.cod
net_rim_vad_resource__zh_CN.cod
net_rim_vad_engine_resource__zh_CN.cod
net_rim_vad_engine_resource__zh_HK.cod
net_rim_vad_resource__ar.cod
net_rim_vad_resource__ja.cod
net_rim_vad_resource__he.cod

Note: On Voice Dialing you likely don't need to delete every one of these .cod's. If you are
using English only you can delete the first 4 on this list. If you're using something other
than english, delete the first 4 and then any other of the .cod's for the language you're
using.

To Remove Preinstalled Wallpapers:

The prenistalled Wallpapers are the second largest .cod installed to the BB's device
memory. The first is the sample video. On some of the Pearls, the preinstalled wallpapers
are the largest, even larger than the sample video. The sample video can be removed
using the application loader but the preinstalled wallpapers can't. We can remove them by
removing the associated .cod from the java folder:

On Qwerty devices:
net_rim_bb_media_320x240_b.cod (1.7MB)

On SureType devices (pearl .) EDIT

02/23/2008: I just noticed that this tunebundle does not work well with some of the
pre-release versions of 4.3.1. Not sure when the incompatibility began, so, you may
not want to add this to 4.3 OS devices.

net_rim_bb_profiles_tunes_tunebundles_tunes8700g.c od

Once you've moved that into the current OS java folder then go back to your
Blackberry.alx file and find the following:

<fileset Sound="Tunes8700g" Java="1.0">

<files>
net_rim_bb_media_tunebundles_sonicnetworks.cod
</files>
</fileset>

add the following so it looks like this:

<fileset Sound="Tunes8700g" Java="1.0">

<files>
net_rim_bb_media_tunebundles_sonicnetworks.cod
net_rim_bb_profiles_tunes_tunebundles_tunes8700g.c od
</files>
</fileset>

Now plug your device in, run application loader all the way through and you should have
those old ringtones along with your new ones. (there may be a duplicate or two but, hey,
you've freed up so much memory you can afford it, right?)

***Note: You will have to do this each time you upgrade your OS. Simply run this same
process on the new OS/java folder created after installing the new OS to the PC. Be sure
to delete the vendor.xml again.

Frequently asked questions:

Q: How do I get rid of the AT&T/Verizon etc. shopping icons?

A: Those are service books and can be deleted from Options >Advanced Options
>Service Book. However, they'll likely come back the next time the device registers on
the network so it's probably best to just hide the icons. Highlight the icon then hit the
menu key from the main screen and select "Hide Icon." On trackwheel model BB's Hit alt
+ click the trackwheel from the main screen and select "Hide Icon."

Q: When try to run application loader I get the following message: The application
"Browser" cannot be loaded because it requires the following applications that are
not available: net.rim.blackberry.xml.

A: You made an error editing your Blackberry.alx file. Check your Blackberry.alx edits. If
you can't find where you made the error then you'll need to put the original back and re-
edit. If you happened to make a copy of the original Blackberry.alx, restore that and edit
again. If not, just install the OS to the PC again and follow these instructions again. You'll
need to remove the vendor.xml again as well as remove all the modules from the java
folder again.

Please don't copy and past this post into other forums without my permission.
You're welcome to post a link to it, if you like, though. ~Thanks, JC.

PS...If this post helped you, all I ask is that you please register (if not registered
already) and just post a thank you in this thread.

John Clark
TMo 8320 Curve 4.2.2.184 BES/BIS
TMo 8100 Pearl 4.2.1.108

d_fisher's Handy Tool: JL_CMDER

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