Posted: 25 Jul 2007 at 10:17am | IP Logged

Do you dread clicking on a link in your email or RSS reader because you know how painful it will be to load that full-size page into Pocket Internet Explorer?

Well, have no fear...SkweezeIt is here!

History: I created this app because I was tired of reading the brief summaries often found in RSS feeds. To read the full details of a story, you often have to click the "Read More Online..." link at the bottom of the RSS summary, but these links often point to a full-size webpage which can be very painful to load into Pocket Internet Explorer.

What it Does: Basically, this app intercepts most attempts to launch Pocket Internet Explorer from another app (like from an email message or an RSS reader), and instead will prompt you with "Skweeze it?". If you say no, then Internet Explorer will launch normally to that link. But, if you say "Yes", it will automatically filter the selected URL through Skweezer.net so the webpage will load quicker and be better formatted for your device's smaller screen.

It works on both Smartphones and Pocket PC's! (This is written in .NETcf 1.0, so it won't run on 2002 SP or 2002 PPC's, sorry)

To receive notices of new updates to this program
just subscribe to the SkweezeIt! Newsletter.

What they are saying about John Cody's SkweezeIt!

"Brilliant idea and perfect for anyone who has a slow data speed"
Brandon Steili

"..You might love SkweezeIt"
InformationWeek.com

"Really neat freebie that actually serves a killer purpose"
Just Another Mobility Monday

"Great idea for the App"
Howard Forums

"This is just a brilliant little freeware program"
PPCGeeks.com

"a great app imo.. freeware somemore"
PPCSG.com

"This is a one handy utility for faster browsing
and keep the data costs down"
Sems.org

"I cannot tell you what a big fan I'm of
such little helpers like John Cody's SkweezeIt!"
TheUnwired.com

MsMobiles.com / SmartphoneThoughts.Com / PocketPCMag.com / AximSite.com / SteveTrotto.com / AirFagev.com / AFeedIsBorn / OldSAP / Tech[dot]Blog / Mobinaute.com / Gadgetorama.com / PocketInfo.nl / Pcdebolso.com / WinMobile.Se

ISP's/OEM's: If you provide a web-compression service and would like a custom-branded version of this program that uses your service, please Contact Me.

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NOTE: Installing this product requires modifications to your device's registry. If you do not know how to do this, please post a reply in this thread. If I get enough interest in this product, it will help justify spending more time and turning this into a full commercial product, complete with a desktop installer, CAB file and the support you have come to expect from OMNISOFT.

To install it, just extract the file Skweezeit.exe from the zip file below:

AEZ_Skweezeit.zip
updated: 6/7/08
(no direct links please, filename will change)

and put it in \windows directory of a WM5/WM6 device (or PPC 2003/SE device) or \storage\windows for a WM2003/SE smartphone.

NOTE: If any of the below existing reg values are different then what I say the "from" is, it is highly recommended that you document the original values so you can restore them in the future.

Then, change the key values at the below two registry locations from iexplore.exe to skweezeit.exe

• HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\http\Shell\Open\Command
  (remember to keep the %1 in this value)
  
  
• HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Shell\Rai\:MSPIE

And change the "1" keys' value from :MSPIE to skweezeit.exe at the below location:

• HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Shell\Rai\:DEFBROWSER(this last key doesn't appear to exist on all Smartphones/Pocket PC's, so don't worry about this change)

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To anyone thinking of creating a CAB file to automatically perform the above reg mods - please read this:

I could create a CAB file to do those reg changes very easily. And then create another one to set those values back to an *assumed* value of "iexplore.exe".

But, "iexplore.exe" may not be the original value in those keys for all windows mobile devices. So, if a user installs a cab that hard-wires those values into those keys, it may mess up their device and they will never be able to click on a link again without hard-resetting their device 

The proper way to do this is to create a CAB file or a desktop installer that will backup whatever the current values are at those two locations, then change it to "skweezeit.exe". And then restore the backup values if the user uninstalls it (because they don't want to use it anymore or it didn't work because those keys were not the proper ones to modify.

Your willingness to help people that don't know how to do reg mods is greatly appreciated. But, if the CAB file doesn't properly backup the original values (instead of assuming it is always iexplore.exe), then there is a risk that the user's device will get messed up, and I'd hate for that to happen. This is not to mention that I kinda have a good reputation of quality apps, and would really like to keep it - because if someone else's CAB happens to do something undesired, the user may think that it was my app that messed their device up because all they saw was "John Cody - OMNISOFT", not knowing that someone else created the hard-wired CAB file.

That is why I released it now, because anyone who knows how to do the required reg mods will also know how to correctly restore the original values for their particular device. So there's virtually no risk for these users.

So, if you can create a CAB file that will properly backup the original value (whatever they may be instead of assuming iexplore.), then GREAT that would be a big help to everyone! But, if you can't, then all I can do is ask politely for you to reconsider creating it.

Please understand, if interest in this app keeps up, I do plan on creating a proper installer so even newbies can install it safely I already even have some cool ideas for a new version!

7/26/07 FIXED (via third reg change) ON WM6 DASH! Old Known Issue: ON WM6 Smartphones, if PIE is already running in the background, selecting a link in an email (using the built-in email client) will not cause the skweezit prompt to appear, it will just load the full link as normal. This seems to only happen with the built-in email client (of just WM6?). If PIE is not running and you click a link in an email or if you click a link in another app, the prompt will properly appear.
7/29/07 UPDATE: I noticed on my WM2003SE that if PIE is already running, this issue occurs.
8/1/07 UPDATE: There is also a report that this issue will occur using the built-in RSS reader of WM5 Blackjacks. But, if you use NewsBreak RSS reader, this problem does not happen.
6/7/08 Update: Skweezer.net changed their service to skweezer.com - SkweezeIt! now works with the new domain name

Let me know how you like it

Posted: 29 Jul 2007 at 2:58am | IP Logged

Incredibly cool!!!

Very simple setup, the keys were very easy to find. :defbrowser didn't exist on my iPaq HX2495 (WM5) or my Treo 750 either.

Brilliant idea and perfect for anyone who has a slow data speed.

Edit: Slight issue - the start menu icon for IE now shows as an unknown type icon (both the hx2495 and the Treo):

Posted: 29 Jul 2007 at 9:37am | IP Logged

Try the new version I just posted above.

Posted: 29 Jul 2007 at 9:19pm | IP Logged

expediter wrote: Well i copied the executable to my windows directory and made the 2 registry changes. I wasn't able to make the third change as I don't have a DEFBROWSER key in my registry. And..... it didn't work   This is on a Samsung Blackjack running WM5. I have a feeling it's because i'm using the builtin RSS feed reader and it probably requires additional registry edits.

As a test, either kill the "Internet Explorer" task so it's not running or reboot your phone to make sure it's nto running.

Then run your RSS reader, and click on a link. That should cause SkweezeIt! to prompt you. Let me know if it doesn't.

The only issue I have seen so far is that on my WM2003SE smartphone, the first click on a link within the outlook email app when IE is NOT running, will properly pop-up SkweezeIt. But, once IE is running, clicking on another link in an outlook email will cause IE to navigate to it without the prompt. However, I have only seen this issue with the built-in outlook email app and ONLY on my MPX220. All other apps seems to work fine with SkweezeIt.

Posted: 29 Jul 2007 at 9:51pm | IP Logged

expediter wrote: Just doesn't want to work with the OEM rss feed reader .

It looks like that RSS reader is not invoking Internet Explorer properly. They are probably hard-wiring the launch internally in their program with:

• Call CreateProcess ("iexplore.exe", "http://www.the-url.com")

 instead of the proper method of using either:

• ShellExecuteEx (More info) "http://www.the-url.com" (unmanaged/Win32 method)
• System.Diagnostics.Process.Start("http://www.the-url.com", Params) (managed/.NET method)

which will properly allow redirection and work with SkweezeIt.

So, if you have an app thats not compatible with SkweezeIt!, just contact their support team and provide them a link to the above info which tells them how they can make their app work with SkweezeIt!

Note: I do know for a fact that the "NewsBreak" RSS Reader works 100% with SkweezeIt!