How to Customize Your Windows Phone 7 Home Screen

I just bought a Samsung Focus Windows Phone 7 device from a local AT&T store, and really liked it. While I am still learning new features and things you can do using the device, I’d like to share one trick I just learned: customize the home screen.

The device came with a customized home screen which looks similar to the picture from Samsung’s web site. I just want to move a few hubs (large buttons or applications) around so that for example Hotmail, Maps and Marketplace applications will appear at the first sight when the device is turned on, and some other applications that I don’t intend to use often will be moved down to the bottom or simply removed. It turns out that all you have to do is to pin or unpin an application. Check out this blog post at KnowYourCell for more detail.

If you want to rearrange the positions of applications on the screen, that’s pretty easy too. Select an application from the screen, tap and hold your finger on it until the “unpin” icon appears. Don’t touch the icon, or you’ll remove the application. Lift your finger, then touch the app while holding your finger on it, move and drop the app to where you want it to be, and then lift your finger and touch it. Done. Or, you can wait for a few seconds until WP7 adjusts the positions for you. Have fun playing the device.