Guide for Opera 8.60 for Windows Mobile, Pocket PC

Guide for Opera 8.60 for Windows Mobile, Pocket PC

I made a nice collection of tips and hints towards Opera 8.60 for Windows Mobile, Pocket PC

Guide for Opera 8.6

Please provide feedback towards the tips and additional solutions here in this thread.

For general feedback not related to the tips (smilies, praise, resentment, pagedesign etc) please leave a comment in my blog

If you have a problem not related to the tips in this guide please search the Forum for Opera Mobile and start your own post if it is a new topic. Or you can provide feedback in this thread for Opera Mobile 8.6

content

1. introduction
   
2. general
   
3. view modes and screen width
   
4. transfer bookmarks
   
5. customize Opera Mobile
   
6. Opera files and main memory
   
7. links
   
8. off topic: free software for PPC
   

subtopics in point 5:

• settings
  
• startpage
  
• skin
  
• input.ini (1) + (2) + (3)
  
• language
  
• opera.ini
  

subtopics in point 6:

• Opera files
  
• Alternative storage devices
  
• save main memory
  
• Easy ways to save 2 MB (reduce or reallocate cache)
  
• Save > 5 MB + 2 MB cache (install on storage card, maybe edit registry)
  
• Save > 6 MB + 2 MB cache (install on storage card, move files, edit ini files, maybe edit registry)
  
• Fix registry
  

Different link:

http://www.rewiz.de/operamobile/Opera-Mobile.html


The file I uploaded on my.opera.com (original link) is screwed, so I put it on my own server.

I don't know why, but for example:

<code>\Application Data\Opera\</code>

is crippled to

<code>n Dataa\</code>

I deleted and uploaded the file again with the same result.

Also strange when I wanted to change the original post: "You cannot edit forum posts posted more than one days ago."

Great Guide - Thanks !

BTW I've just written a small utility to choose which opera.ini (proxy) I want ...

Info, Download and Support here : http://snurl.com/ChooseOperaIni

Thanks to the information given here I have added a few keyboard shortcuts to my input.ini file.
This is usefull on my HTC Wizard because it has a keyboard
More info and download here :
http://forumfrancophone.info/fadof/viewtopic.php?p=795#795

PS :
I have also divided the size (5.3MB) of opera.dll by more than 3, with a noticeable startup speed improvement with upx, more info here : http://www.htcwizardweb.net/node/578#comment-2266

Originally posted by pierro78:

I've just written a small utility to choose which opera.ini (proxy) I want

This one sounds really usefull for a lot of users.

Originally posted by pierro78:

I have also divided the size (5.3MB) of opera.dll by more than 3, with a noticeable startup speed improvement with upx

I've been really thrilled by your information about UPX (I read about it 2 years ago but it wasn't about PPC then).
I just did some testing and reduced the file size of all 4 files in \program files\opera
1) it works
2) startup of Opera is faster
3) I need less main memory when Opera is NOT running
4) when Opera is running it needs MUCH MORE main memory with UPX (Opera installed in main memory)

My explanation of the last point:
UPX creates something like a selfextracting zip-file with something like an autostart mechanism. When the files are opened they are unpacked to the original size (plus the packed file uses memory).
But I don't understand why startup is so much faster then.

Numbers:
unpacked Opera start after softreset: memory consumption + 1,33 MB
packed Opera start after softreset: memory consumption + 6,88 MB
the difference of both is 5,55 MB which is a little bit more than the 5,33 MB of the unpacked exe+dlls

Unclear and not necessarily because of UPX:
After copying the new files overwriting the original ones (with Total Commander from SD card to main memory) I have only 1.81 MB less usage of main memory after the soft reset.
I'd have expected about 5.33 MB unpacked - 1.74 MB packed = 3.59 MB - 1.81 MB to 3.59 MB is too big difference to be caused by cluster size etc.
Accordingly the total loss of memory with UPX-compression is 3,74 MB with Opera running, while I'd have expected something slightly above 1.74 MB.
(Opera running without compressionn = 33,16 MB free memory, Opera running with compression = 29,42 MB)

My thoughts what UPX-compression is good for
(with the results of my *short* test)

• If you have applications installed in main memory that are not running most of the time then you will have more free memory for other applications
  
• If you want fast start up of an application you may want to have UPX (this may be different on PPC with slow CPU and fast memory)
  
• If you have your applications installed on a memory card, especially on slow built in memory like iPAQ-filestore, UPX compression seems to be only of benefit: the start up time will be accelerated even more and the application has to be transferred to main memory anyway (maybe this is different on WM5, but IMHO WM5 could take only data files from flash memory and still has to run exe+dlls in main memory)
  

Well, I'm not an expert about UPX and I did not much research for the topic - please write if you have different test results.

Not a lot happened on my PDA and there is not a lot to change or add in my guide - at least nobody told me about it nor did I stumble upon important new insights.

In the first quarter of 2007 there might be a new version of Opera mobile for Windows mobile. I assume the developers at Opera ASA are working on a version with the Opera9 core and therefor stopped putting too much work in the current Opara8.6 for PPC. I expect a lot of changes (at least under the hood).

In addition to the link section of my guide there are some new pages regarding Opera mobile for PPC:

Opera 8.6 for Windows Mobile
by Jamie Lendino

Opera 8.6 works for Windows Mobile
by Martin Booth

The alternative browser for PCs, mobiles and more: Opera
by Alex Zaharov-Reutt

because of the content I'm pretty sure it is about Opera 8.6 for PPC; the pages were sometimes not available for me:
Opera 8.0 vs. Pocket IE: The Battle of Mobile Browsers
Manikantan Subramanyam



Off topic (about Opera Mobile 8.65 for Symbian S60), nevertheless interesting
Review: A Tale of Two Browsers - Nokia & Opera
By Joe Moran