These leaked Microsoft documents from Tweakers.net keep giving more and more goodies. In addition to great details on hardware specs, OS architecture, and the Windows Update process for Windows Phone 7 devices, the documents also outlined the types of customizations OEMs and carriers will be allowed to make.

As we pretty much knew already, carriers and OEM manufacturers will not be allowed to change the UI very much. The leaked documents show that minor changes to the interface will be allowed:

• Connection icons (3G, etc.)
• Add logo and tiles to home screen, can NOT remove default Microsoft tiles
• Can add apps BUT:
  • maximum of six apps
  • must be approved my Microsoft first
  • no bigger than 60MB total
• Change web search provider in IE only, other apps still use Bing
• Customize the boot screen
• Add wallpaper and ringtones
• Camera software can be tweaked

While we already knew the total customization available on Windows Mobile 6.x with apps like Spb Mobile Shell or HTC’s TouchFlo/Sense UIs was gone, it still hurts to see it in black and white. Microsoft is really reigning in the carriers and OEMs here in an effort to maintain a consistent(ly high) user experience.

That said, Microsoft is implementing some nice controls on bloatware, which should help address one of the primary causes for poor user experiences on Windows Mobile devices in the past.

Check out these other three posts for more details from the leaked Microsoft documents:

• Leaked Docs Show Windows Phone 7 Architecture
• Windows Phone 7 Update Procedure Detailed in Leaked Docs
• A Bit More Detail on Windows Phone 7 Hardware Requirements

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This new app, called ShellExtension, also allows you to add or remove panels from the Spb Mobile Shell 3.5 carousel, with up to 10 panels. The full list of features is:

• Auto detect of spb version 3.0.1 and 3.5 (extra functions for the 3.5 version)
• Change the number of menu buttons for both (Pro and Life) and their functions
• Change the number of menu buttons to 0, 2 or 3 (With 0 buttons you can put widgets on the menubar.
• Changeable functions: Launcher, SPB Menu, Favorite Contacts, Weather, Weather conditions, Agenda, Time, Profile, Task manager, Wireless manager, Phone Profile, Backlight, Call logs, SPB Contacts, Contact carousel, Today, Lifestyle and Professional Home
• The Launcher V35 and Contacts V35 are still changeable by the SPB menu
• Change or remove the text of the buttons
• Local versions of SPB Shell retrieves the correct local button text (if not changed by the user)
• If you know the right number for a menu icon, you can change that too
• Change the number of Lifestyle and Professional screens from 0 to 10
• Change the number of Fav. Contact screens from 1 to 10 (if 1 is selected the left and right functions are functional)
• Full control over your carousel screens, remove screens you don’t want and/or add (Task manager, Wireless manager not in SPB version 3.5 , Profile manager and Backlight)
• Change the text to your own text of these carousel screens
• Add or remove the menu bar with “back” button for Task and Profile manager
• Add or remove the recycling bin in the edit menus
• Program text in (English, French, Greek and Dutch) according to you SPB shell language
• Easy updating qa_layouts.dat with your own manipulated xml files
• Make the folders editable or removable (Extra buttons)
• Change the dialer contacts button to your choice
• After the changes, ShellExtension restarts the shell automatically

To install ShellExtension for Spb Mobile Shell 3.5:

1. download ShellExtension from XDA
2. unzip the two files and place them somewhere on your Windows Mobile device
3. run ShellExtension

If you need to uninstall you’ll have to check the thread for instructions. Enjoy! And please let me know what you think!