Customize the Background Image (Compact 7)

3/12/2014

You can provide a custom background image for the Microsoft Silverlight for Windows Embedded application launcher. For example, you can create a design that uses your company’s logo to create a brand identity for your device.

The image files for the sample home screen are located in %_WINCEROOT%\public\shell\oak\XRShell\Assets\<theme name>\Images. You can replace the default image files with your own images.

To replace the default background image, replace the Backgroundimage.png with your own custom image.

Prerequisites

You must know the screen size and preliminary theme design that you want to use for your application launcher since that determines which directory you copy your new image into. For more information, see Create and Prepare the OS Design and Application Launcher Project

To change the background image for the application launcher

  1. Design a background image for the application launcher.

  2. Do one of the following:

    • If you are not modifying the theme project in Microsoft Expression Blend 3, you can simply name the image file Backgroundimage.png, and copy it, overwriting the same file in %_WINCEROOT%\public\shell\oak\XRShell\Assets*\<theme name>*\Images.
    • In Expression Blend, save the image as a file in the Images folder of your working project, and name the file Backgroundimage.png.
    • In Expression Blend, copy the file to the Images folder of your working project. Then, open Mainpage.xaml and, for the Grid element named "DesktopBackground", replace the Source attribute value with the path to the new image file.

Next Steps

Continue to customize your application launcher as you like by using the procedures in this section. After you complete your customizations, you can use the procedures in Build and Run the Application Launcher to rebuild the theme DLL by using the Command Prompt window in Visual Studio before you rebuild your run-time image.

See Also

Concepts

Create an Application Launcher in Silverlight for Windows Embedded