Friday 31 July 2009

Marvell PXA documentation now without NDA :-)

Interested about what's going on with Marvell PXA?

Maybe someone remembers the time where chip documentation was anytime available. Google was our best friend for getting everything.
But just after the acquisition time of XScale PXA IP thru Marvell - information / documentation / roadmap ... was under NDA. No information without signed NDAs.

Now after several years of information starvation Marvell changes its mind - juhu
see http://www.marvell.com/products/cellular/applications.jsp

Free documentation forever.

Cheers
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Thursday 30 July 2009

.NET Micro Framework 4.0 pre-release for select partners

Hi folks,

development of the .NET Micro Framework is moving forward as Microsoft has just sent out the pre-release of 4.0 to select hardware partners to give them a headstart before the official Beta is released to a broader audience, next month. The final release is currently planned for autumn.

As a reminder here is a short overview of the new features in 4.0:
  • performance improvements in the graphics
  • multi-touch
  • native HTTP and HTTPS
  • watchdog support
  • power management support
  • and much more
So long and thanks for all the fish!
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Tuesday 28 July 2009

Windows Embedded CE Live Chat

Hi folks,

just in case you missed the Windows Embedded CE Live Chat today and because poor Sue has to go through a lot of trouble to put this online - manually! - you can find the transcript of todays chat here:

Sue Loh [MS] (Moderator)[18:14]: Hi, I'm Sue Loh, a developer on the Windows Mobile team with file system, kernel and perf tools experience.
rajran[MS] (Expert)[18:14]: Hi, I'm Rajeev Rangappa , PM for CE group.
Sing Wee [MS] (Expert)[18:14]: Hi I'm Sing Wee, part of the General Embedded BSP/Core OS Test Team.
FBLANQ_MSFT (Expert)[18:14]: Hi, I'm Francisco Blanquicet, part of the General Embedded CoreOS/BSP Test Team.
kurtken_msft (Expert)[18:14]:
Q: [2] Does anybody have experience with Marvells PXA320 Platform in conjunction with more than 256 MB RAM or know anybody who is successfully using more than 256MB RAM with the Marvell Platform?
A: I believe that some companies that provide reference platforms for the PXA320, such as Logic, BSquare, etc have experience with using more than 256MB of RAM. Windows CE 6.0 and previous can only support a theoretical maximum of 512MB of RAM.
santoshh_MSFT (Expert)[18:14]:
Q: [1] Does someone know a MP4/M4V (or any) Direct Show Source Filter for WINCE500 that splits media into h264 and mp3?
A: Hi eric this is an MPEG-4 container correct?
Sue Loh [MS] (Moderator)[18:14]:
Q: [11] When will the chat transcripts be archived. The last archived chat under http://msdn.microsoft.com/chats is from 2008
A: Sorry, that's my fault. It is a manual process to reorganize the conversations into understandable threads, and it has been hard to make time. Plus I left all the old files on a PC that I can't access at the moment. I will try to get this wrapped up in the next month.
Sue Loh [MS] (Moderator)[18:15]: Hi all, just a friendly reminder that anything you post without clicking "ask the experts" is likely to be missed by our experts. Our tools mainly show those messages.
kurtken_msft (Expert)[18:17]:
Q: [3] here http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa931918.aspx, it is named a REGION_TYPE parameter. Its possible values are
XIP, READONLY_FILESYS, or FILESYS.
A: XIP is for execute-in-place code (NOR Flash). Readonly_FileSys is for flash that holds a file system that filesys can read from but not write to, and filesys is for a read/write persistent file system.
santoshh_MSFT (Expert)[18:19]:
Q: [17] @[1]: hi santossh: no matter what container it is. the decoder filter input pin is typeof MEDIATYPE_VIDEO, MEDIASUBTYPE_H264
A: unfortunately we dont have a demultiplexer which can parse an mp4 container and feed the decoder the h.264 file.
kurtken_msft (Expert)[18:19]:
Q: [7] located at C:\WINCE600\PLATFORM\COMMON\SRC\SOC using the MIPS compiler!
What is happening? How can I fix that?
A: It is possible that your BSP is not setting the CPU type appropriately. When you open a build window from within PB (Build->Open build window in release directory), check the values in the environment to see what they have been set to. If they are set to ARM correctly then I believe that you may have a corrupted installation of windows CE.
kurtken_msft (Expert)[18:19]:
Q: [4] Unfortunately I could not find a good description about these values. How to use them?
A: see previous response
kurtken_msft (Expert)[18:19]:
Q: [6] I installed 2 new third party ARM BSP under Windows CE 6.0. When I work using a BSP based on MIPSII and sysgen my solution,
then it tried to build the components from the ARM BSPs...
A: see previous response
PaulT (Expert)[18:20]:
Q: [14] We have notices that the NETUI_USERPWD_AUTH_FAIL flag is already set even when the GetUsernamePasswordEX function is called the first time. Unforuntaly we are running into problems accessing a shared network resoures for a longer period of time
A: So, what you're saying is that, rather than asking you to show the dialog saying that "authorization is necessary" the first time, it always shows "authorization failed", yes? It's probably trying the Network ID information from the System Control Panel applet and, finding that this failed, then calling the NETUI function. I'm surprised that this is different than how it worked in CE5. Maybe you'd already set the Network ID in some way in CE5 previously?
kurtken_msft (Expert)[18:20]:
Q: [5] The surface blt function in wince 6.0 is delivered in object code so we don't have any visibility about it. How does wince 6.0 provides support for accelerated blitting functionality?
A: The display driver in windows CE is a virtual C++ class. When GDI wants to blit, it calls into virtual functions in the display driver. if those virtual functions are overridden by your acceleration code, then you have access to the ability to do hardware blitting.
Sue Loh [MS] (Moderator)[18:21]:
Q: [24] @ Sue Loh: Regarding chat transcript: Would you mind if I put the "Answers from the experts" on my blog afterwards until you have found the time to do so?
A: That seems reasonable... It's public knowledge anyway.
kurtken_msft (Expert)[18:23]:
Q: [26] The XIP concept is a little bit confusing in the FMD examples. More than the NOR XIP concept it is used to provide access to the whole Flash, for example accesing the FMD code in the bootloder.
A: for XIP, your flash is partitioned very carefully. is there a specific question you have? I was not able to see one in your comment.
David Boyce [MS] (Moderator)[18:23]:
Q: [21] @[1]: i have h264 encoded MOV/MP4/M4V files and need to decode by MEDIASUBTYPE_H264. Visit the Embedded BSP search page for help http://www.microsoft.com/windowsembedded/en-us/msdn/bspsearch.aspx
A: Windows CE doesn't include a H.264 decoder. You'll need to work w/ the BSP/OEM about a DirectShow wrapper for their H.264 Decoder
santoshh_MSFT (Expert)[18:25]:
Q: [27] @[1]: what source filters do you have? what a container do you use?
A: we have an ASF source filter which can handle wma,wmv files
Sue Loh [MS] (Moderator)[18:25]:
Q: [25] My question is: what are the rules of overlaying the files brought within the Nk.bin over the same files (same path and name) residing on CF storage? For example, if my CF card has \Windows folder with some file X on it and the same file is in Nk.bin?
A: If you have mounted your CF as root "\" then any file in the \Windows folder on your CF will shadow (overlay) a file by the same name in ROM.
kurtken_msft (Expert)[18:25]:
Q: [19] Cannot boot WinCE with a bootable CF which is more than 4 GB. Does WinCE 6.0 support this?
A: i'm assuming that you mean boot x86. Windows CE should support this, but you would have to use the exFat file system.
santoshh_MSFT (Expert)[18:25]:
Q: [27] @[1]: what source filters do you have? what a container do you use?
A: we also can handle MPEG1 and AVI containers
Sue Loh [MS] (Moderator)[18:26]:
Q: [25] My question is: what are the rules of overlaying the files brought within the Nk.bin over the same files (same path and name) residing on CF storage? For example, if my CF card has \Windows folder with some file X on it and the same file is in Nk.bin?
A: Note however that this only applies to \Windows and not sub-directories. All of ROM shows up in \Windows so there's no such thing as shadowing in sub-directories of \Windows, like \Windows\Start Menu.
kurtken_msft (Expert)[18:26]:
Q: [20] @k2: Is there a chance of getting a contact to one of these guys. Our customer ist still having problems getting 512MB to run - you may remember?
A: bsquare, logicpd, etc are all available on the internet. You may also try the windows ce newsgroups - developers from those companies troll on them.
kurtken_msft (Expert)[18:26]:
Q: [22] Thanks for your answer. "...a file system that filesys can read from but not write to..." Which ones?
A: For example, if you have a pre-built TFAT file system that you do not want anyone to write to. The format doesn't matter, in essence. The flash driver is just told "don't write-cache or allow writes to this region".
kurtken_msft (Expert)[18:27]:
Q: [32] Yes, I am trying to boot x86, but I always used FAT OR NTFS. Will try exFat
A: NTFS is not supported by CE unless it is done by an outside OEM or SI. I am not aware of an implementation of that right now.
PaulT (Expert)[18:28]:
Q: [28] NETUI-Problem: I am working with a clean system, so no credentials should be available at all. The "authorization failed" dialog is not displayed before the GetUsernamePasswordEx function is beeing called.
A: Yes, I don't think that's unexpected. What I'm thinking is that, when the network resource is going to be connected (you didn't tell us what you're connecting to, by the way), the code that makes that connection first will try the default information that it has (no dialog presented). If that fails, it would then pop up the dialog and tell the user, hey, you need to tell us what user name and password to use. At least in the case of the redirector (network share access), this is exactly what it does. It tries to connect as the default network ID or the ID that you previously used when connecting the resource. No UI is attempted in that case. If that fails, though, it then asks for a user name and password and, since an authentication attempt has failed (the default one), that flag makes at least some sense. Of course, if that's different than it used to be, you'll have to figure out what to do about it, but I wouldn't call it a bug. Does it work the first time you hit the resource?
santoshh_MSFT (Expert)[18:29]:
Q: [23] Need MPEG 1 (50) codec
A: Please enable SYSGEN_DSHOW_MPEGV that should bring the MPEG-1 video codec
Sue Loh [MS] (Moderator)[18:31]:
Q: [33, 38] Another question regarding the notifyDB. Is there any reason why there are added duplicate entries? We are running a (huge) .NET application and each time the board is beeing started there is a new entry available in the notifyDB.
So far we could not detect any location within our application that could add this entry.
A: I am guessing this is coming from the CF, then - can you tell what the entry is? We don't have any CF experts on this chat but we might be able to puzzle out what is going on.
kurtken_msft (Expert)[18:31]:
Q: [34] @ [25]: OK, so if my CF card has \Windows\StartUp subfolder, will its content appear in the OS filesystem under \Windows\StartUp or will the StartUp folder definition in the Initobj.dat replace that folder's content entirely?
A: That depends on the type of your file system. If your file system is a persistent one, then the object store (stuff in initobj.dat) will shadow whatever is in the persistent file system.
santoshh_MSFT (Expert)[18:32]:
Q: [23] Need MPEG 1 (50) codec
A: the error is a standard MPEG 1 audio codec error. Can you
SYSGEN_DSHOW_MPEGA
and SYSGEN_DSHOW_MP3 and try again ?

David Boyce [MS] (Moderator)[18:32]:
Q: [37] Can't play WMV on my computer without the MPEG-1 (50) codex, where do I find this??
A: Make sure you have the MPEG-1 Video Codec added to your image: SYSGEN_DSHOW_MPEGV
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa451458.aspx. Another trick is to walk the filter using enum to see at what point the graph is failing to build.
Sue Loh [MS] (Moderator)[18:36]:
Q: [40] On an "empty" CE6 system the notifyDB stays valid all the time, so the reason must be within our application SMILEY :). But maybe your have any hint to start searching.
A: What do you mean by it being "invalid"? NotifyDB is used for CeRunAppAtTime and CeRunAppAtEvent - basically applications register for notifications of certain events. If there's a new entry then someone must have registered to be notified sometime in the future.
Travis Hobrla [MS] (Expert)[18:36]:
Q: [35] Is there any tutorial to port a direct draw library from wince 5.0 to 6.0?
A: Do you mean a display driver? If not, what is the function of the library?
David Boyce [MS] (Moderator)[18:38]:
Q: [41] Dern think needing MS MPEG-1(50) even stumps the experts!! Am I SOL????
A: MPEG-1 is included in Windows CE. Video: SYSGEN_DSHOW_MPEGV and Audio: SYSGEN_DSHOW_MP3. Will include the DirectShow support for handling these mpeg-1 formats.

David Boyce [MS] (Moderator)[18:44]:
Q: [39] @[1]: we are oem for arm-based wince devices. we need to play high quality videos based on h264. our platform can decode h264 in hardware. but we can not tell wince to parse containers including h264 data to connect to the input pin of your h264 decoder
A: WinCE doesn't include a software Demux filter for parsing H.264 Codec data from a M4V container.
Travis Hobrla [MS] (Expert)[18:44]:
Q: [45] The direct draw function we are troubling to port from wince 5.0 to 6.0 is the CreateSurface, in particular when creating Off screen surfaces, the same function works on wince 5.0, whereas crashes on 6.0.
A: Did you follow the steps in the migration guide here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa913866.aspx
David Boyce [MS] (Moderator)[18:45]:
Q: [13] I need a source filter (dshow) that i reference from HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Media Type\Extensions\.m4v that parses a m4v file for a h264 decoder dshow transform filter
A: Windows CE doesn't include a software Demux filter for parsing M4V containers.
David Boyce [MS] (Moderator)[18:51]:
Q: [29] how do experts decode mp4 or mv4 or mov files on WINCE500 / WINCE600
A: Windows CE includes container support for ASF, MPEG, AVI, MP3, WAV, WMA/WMV, and others but doesn't include MP4 or M4V container support in DirectShow. http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms940098.aspx
David Boyce [MS] (Moderator)[18:53]:
Q: [42] Can we replace the MicroSoft Image Sink Filter with our own Sink Filter in WM 6.5?Which are all the applications will be using the Image sink filter other than pimg.exe?
A: The directshow filter is loaded based on the merit in the registry. To have a custom Image Sink Filter load you'll need to register the subtypes and make sure the merit is higher than any other filters w/ the same media types. http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa920889.aspx.
PaulT (Expert)[18:54]:
Q: [51] I guess there is no person familiar with WinCE 5.0 USB stack SAD SMILEY :( Maybe someone knows the proper contact, so i can ask my question?
A: Post to the newsgroup microsoft.public.windowsce.platbuilder.
David Boyce [MS] (Moderator)[18:55]:
Q: [54] I posted, but there is still no answer.
A: We are tracking down a resource to assist with your questions.
PaulT (Expert)[18:56]:
Q: [54] I posted, but there is still no answer.
A: Then you need to add more information, continue updating the thread as you localize the problem. If you can't localize the problem or get any peer support in the newsgroup, you'll either have to use one of the support requests that comes with Platform Builder and call Microsoft or just try to fix it yourself. I think that it's very likely a problem unique to you, so you may find that no one else has ever done precisely what you describe. Have you gotten ZERO replies? That's very unusual.
David Boyce [MS] (Moderator)[18:56]:
Q: [31] @[21]: I do have the h264 decoder (decodes in hardware). what i need is a source filter that parses to MEDIASUBTYPE_H264. How do you play mp4 (or any h264 encoded) files with windows ce?
A: Windows CE doesn't include a DirectShow demux for MP4 container format w/ H.264 Codec
Travis Hobrla [MS] (Expert)[18:58]:
Q: [52] I get a lot of warning after porting my BSP from WinCE 5.0 to 6.0, is it "normal"?
A: Do you mean compiler / linker warnings? Can you give an example?
David Boyce [MS] (Moderator)[19:01]: Thanks for the chat there were some great questions. There are several questions that require more research so if questions were not answered please email me (davbo@microsoft.com) and restate your question and will try to follow up with answers as they come in. Thanks David
Sing Wee [MS] (Expert)[19:03]:
Q: [54] I posted, but there is still no answer.
A: Hi Antion, I've found your "USB Device Select Configuration" question online that you posted on 7/17. I'll try to find someone to go up on the newsgroup and answer the question for you.
David Boyce [MS] (Moderator)[19:08]: Signing off thanks for joining. Look for the next chat session next Month.

So long and thanks for all the fish!
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Windows satellite phones successfully tested

Hi folks,

nearly a year ago I posted some news around TerreStars plans to launch the slimmest satellite phone, based on windows mobile and designed by EB.

Now the next step has been taken to assure the service can go online at the end of the year:
On July 1st, TerreStar's TS-1 satellite, was successfully deployed into orbit by an Ariane 5 rocket allowing the first phone call to be made between two of the company's smartphones.

As EB puts it in their press release:
"The satellite-terrestrial smartphone reference design represents the world's first quad-band GSM and tri-band WCDMA/HSPA device running the Microsoft® Windows(TM) Mobile 6.5 operating system, and offering integrated satellite-terrestrial voice and data capabilities"

You can also read more about this on WindowsForDevices.com.
As the YouTube link is broken there and for those interested here's a video showing the launch of the Ariane 5 rocket on July 1st.


Source: juancarlosbascu

So long and thanks for all the fish!
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Monday 27 July 2009

Windows CE: The whole truth about your image

Hi folks,

as you know, after successfully building your image, your Release Directory holds a whole lot of files. The question is which of these files will be part of your image and which ones won’t?

Only the files that are defined in the MODULES or FILES section of the numerous .bib (Binary Image Builder) files in your system will be part of your image. But don’t worry, you don’t have to look though all .bib files there is a much simpler way: in the Make Image step of your build system all previously filtered .bib files are combined to a single .bib file called CE.bib, which contains the whole truth about your image! Only the files listed here are actually in your NK.bin image file. But keep in mind the CE.bib is a generated file and will be created every time you call makeimg so editing this file is not a good idea.

If you also want to know the initial registry settings, directory structure and/or entries in the CE Database of your image you can consult the files reginit.ini, initobj.dat and initdb.ini respectively. Keep in mind that these files are also generated in the Make Image phase of your build system.

If you are running Windows Embedded CE 6.0 and up you can simply open your NK.bin file from within PlatformBuilder and you will get a graphical representation of all the files and registry settings of your image.

Have fun!
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Saturday 25 July 2009

FREE Microsoft Technical Chat on Windows CE and Mobile on July 28th 2009

Hi Folks,

It has been some time now since the last Microsoft Technical Chat on Windows Embedded CE and Windows Mobile took place. So, if you have missed it, don’t worry the next one is coming up:

MS is hosting a live chat on July 28th regarding Windows Embedded CE and Windows Mobile.

Title: Windows Embedded CE and Windows Mobile Live Chat!
Date: Tuesday, July 28th, 2009 9:00 - 10:00 A.M. Pacific time (additional time zones)

Description:
Do you have tough technical questions regarding Windows Embedded CE or Windows Mobile for which you're seeking answers? Do you want to tap into the deep knowledge of the talented Microsoft Embedded Devices Group members? If so, please join us for a live chat and bring on the questions! Windows Embedded CE is the operating system that is powering the next generation of 32-bit, small-footprint and mobile devices. This chat will cover the tools and technologies used to develop devices using the CE operating system.

To join this chat, please log on via the main MSDN chat page at:
http://www.microsoft.com/communities/chats/default.mspx

There is also an archive of previous chats available at:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/chats/aa497439.aspx

Unfortunately the archive hasn't been updated lately and we are currently following up with Microsoft on this issue.

Have fun!
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Friday 24 July 2009

Windows CE: Boot Time Considerations

Hi folks,

I’ve often been ask the question “How can I improve the boot time of my Windows CE device?” Well the first thing to notice here is that Windows CE allows you to implement your own boot concept which should be customized to the needs of your specific device! But that of course requires some knowledge about the specific device so let’s focus on all the things that effect your boot time.
  • Well as you might have guessed, every component that loads during boot has an impact on the boot time. So it is crucial to understand where each component fits in. By that you see that bringing down the boot time is really a team effort that everyone in your team has to think about. The first thing to do would be to remove unnecessary components and registry keys. To learn more about the impact of each component you should profile your system for instance with CeLog.

  • The next step would be to optimize your boot order. Therefore you need to know your boot phases as well as the dependencies of each component.

  • The debug print function NKDbgPrintfW is the source of numerous trivial but impactful bugs! By using the appropriate RetailZones your performance gain can be up to 30%.

  • To cut down your boot time even further you should de-serialize your file system mountings by disabling AutoMount and controlling the load order.

  • Drivers and services can also have a huge impact on your boot time as they are loaded on a single serialized thread. Therefore you should not poll, loop, stall, sleep, block, WaitForSingleObject, etc. during the XXX_Init function. File and registry I/O should also be minimized during boot. Use DisableThreadLibraryCalls in DllMain to disable notifying every Dll of the creation of a new thread. You should also keep in mind that User-Mode drivers (only relevant for Windows Embedded CE 6.0 and up) have a longer boot time due to the additional overhead of the udvice.exe host process. As User-Mode drivers are also loaded serialized, having only one udevice.exe host process increases your boot time even further. Having only Kernel-Mode driver would result in a faster boot time. As you see, again it is important to know your dependencies to reduce the boot time.

Well you see there is a lot you can do to improve your boot time but in order to do so you really need to know your system in and out.

Have fun!
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Thursday 23 July 2009

SD (street director) with bing integration


Hi folks,

ok, I realize that just showing a couple of screen shots is not the best way of showing off and I should of added the same comment you see on iPhone advertisements ;-)

Anyway, to let you know how the real system works here is a video. Have fun.



The hardware by the way is the MARPFII reference platform running Microsoft Auto 4.0.

So long and thanks for all the fish!
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Microsoft Auto 4.0 “Train The Trainer”

Hi everybody,

you might have wondered why I didn’t post in the past 3 weeks. Well I was in the USA; first on vacation and then on the Microsoft Auto 4.0 “Train The Trainer” event.

I found out that the EB Street Director navigation software which I have installed on my HTC Diamond smart phone works very well in the US as well.

If you have read Damian’s post you already know that I am now one of five Microsoft certified Trainers for MS Auto 4.0 – world wide. But it gets better: EB has yet another official MS Auto 4.0 Trainer – Michael Forkey from the Bothell, WA branch office (which makes two out of five!), so congratulations to him as well! I would also like to thank the folks from Microsoft for the great MS Auto 4.0 Training; you have done a great job! Following are a couple of pictures I took at the MS Auto 4.0 “Train The Trainer” Event:




Have fun!
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Wednesday 22 July 2009

Hot news from Nuremberg (Part II)

Hi folks,

1) Harald wasn't quite exact with his temperature information as we are located in Erlangen and not in Nuremberg ;-)

2) I think I have a slightly more geeky way of finding out what the weather is like (in Erlangen or anywhere as a matter of fact ;-):

By using EBs street director on the Microsoft Auto Platform and using bing!

First I enter my destination or look for a point of interest via bing search (formerly known as Live Search 4 Devices), for example a hotel:





So bing search has found a hotel for me and I would now like to know the weather forecast.



I hope you're haveing the same sunny weather we are having at the moment :-)

This demo was also shown during the 13. International Advances in Automotive Electronics Conference in Ludwigsburg from 15. to 16. July.

So long and thanks for all the fish!
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Imagine Cup to be held in Poland next year

Microsofts Student Technology Competition "Imagine Cup 2010" will be held in Poland next year.

If you missed the final round of this years competition - because you were on holiday like me ;-) - then you can find the 2009 Cup Winners here.

If your interested in participating in next year's competition and have questions or are looking for a mentor, feel free to get in touch with us.

So long and thanks for all the fish!
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Congratulations!

Hi folks,

has anybody missed me? I've just come back from 3 weeks Italy with a camper. Ever been in Italy with a camper using a SatNav designed for cars? - Lots of fun, I can tell you ;-)

So now it's back to business and in my first post I would like to congratulate Jochen who is now one of five official Microsoft Auto Trainers - world wide.
Well done Jochen!

Jochen has already held several Trainings on Microsoft Auto over the last year, so this isn't just a title but really does emphasize his knowledge and experience in Windows Embedded Technologies as well as his skills as a Trainer - he has been a Windows Embedded CE Trainer for several years now.

So if you have any questions regarding Microsoft Auto, I'm sure Jochen will be more than glad to answer them.

So long and thanks for all the fish!
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Thursday 16 July 2009

Windows Mobile Blog has moved ...

Hello guys,

the Windows Mobile Blog has moved and officially joined the Windows Blog.
From now check out the latest Windows Mobile news here!

Have fun!
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Tuesday 14 July 2009

Windows CE QFEs for month of June 2009 arrived

Hi folks,

the latest Windows CE updates have been recently released and are available for download.
Some critical issues (especially the FSD, Shell and DHCP fixes for Windows CE 6.0) have been resolved so get them now! More information for each update is provided in the Readme document available after the individual update(s) has been installed.

Windows CE 5.0 Platform Builder Monthly Update (June 2009)
Download this set of updates for Windows CE 5.0 Platform Builder released during the period of June 1 - June 30, 2009. These updates are fixes for Windows CE operating system problems you run into during the development and maintenance of your custom platform.

Download Link: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=c0af2ff0-2fb3-4f6a-b1e4-d2560f5c130d

Fixes made in this update:

Component: Bluetooth
090605_KB970701 - Device cannot initiate HID Disconnect to disconnect the HID keyboard.

Windows Embedded CE 6.0 Monthly Update (June 2009)
Download this set of updates for Windows Embedded CE 6.0 released during the period of June 1 - June 30, 2009. These updates are fixes for Windows Embedded CE operating system problems you run into during the development and maintenance of your custom platform.

Download Link: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=fcdcedbd-3f80-4de6-9e88-ba7c5419b403

Fixes made in this update:
Component: AFD
090629_KB972305 - A problem initializing the socket for one network interface would cause the name resolution code to abort the query instead of using other available interfaces.
090630_KB971882 - This update addresses the issue with unability to resolve names via LLMNR when DNS Server is present.

Component: DHCP
090608_KB971206 - AutoIP address may not be assigned when DHCP server is not available.

Component: DirectX
090626_KB970863 - This update allows to select the language stream when playing WMV files.

Component: FSD
090605_KB969056 - If a suspend/resume occurs while a UDFS CD-ROM disk is mounted, the UDFS is unexpectedly unmounted and remounted on resume resulting in some issues.
090608_KB971290 - MoveFile() API may not move files properly and result in data loss.
090625_KB972213 - When the size of the FAT is larger than the buffer size and needs to be split up into multiple reads, the starting sector is computed incorrectly, throwing off the free space count.

Component: RDP
090608_KB971817 - Mouse pointer is corrupted when connecting into Windows Server 2003 Terminal Server.

Component: Shell
090605_KB971444 - A user is unable to change color of tap-and-hold animation.

Component: SMB
090624_KB971439 - SMB server side may leak search handle if server folder is empty.
Component: WININET

090602_KB971671 - Under certain circumstances WININET may accidentally close the socket on NEGOTIATE protocol. This may result in some issue when using NTLM.

Keep your OS up to date!
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Monday 13 July 2009

Using Gestures in Windows Mobile 6.5

Hello guys,

there is a new MSDN article about gestures for Windows Mobile 6.5.

"Touch gestures describe gestures in which you use a finger or stylus to make a short, directional movement over a control or object on the screen. Most gestures are a single stroke. Therefore, they correspond to one finger–down (WM_LBUTTONDOWN) and finger–up (WM_LBUTTONUP) event pair. The exception is double tap, in which there are two finger–down and finger–up event pairs in short succession. Gestures are recognized based on finger–down and finger–up events, plus the direction, position, and velocity calculated by the gesture recognizer."

Windows Mobile 6.5 supports five kinds of gestures:
  • Tap

  • Double Tap

  • Hold

  • Flick

  • Pan

Are you interessted in? Then check out this new document at MSDN.
Have fun!


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Friday 10 July 2009

The History of Windows CE: 4. Talisker

After the Pegasus post you should expect part 2 and 3 before going on with part 4.
But I did "On-Site-Studies" on the Isle of Skye where Talisker comes from.
Microsoft started code naming Windows CE after Whisky brands with version 4.0, code name Talisker.
Talisker is the only destillery on the Isle of Skye, one of the Inner Hebrides (a group of isles) in Scottland.
The destillery is located in the village of Carbost, Talisker itself is just a couple of buildings six miles west.
It's worth to do a nice walk down to Talisker Bay and go swimming. Okay, it's Scottland and much to rainy ;-(
And the Whisky? To be honest, I don't like Talisker 10 Years, it's rough and strong, but older Whiskys are better.

Let's go back to Windows CE:
The Windows CE .NET 4.x versions were full of new features, better IDE integration, new drivers, better debugging and a lot of advantages.
But the developers didn't like the long name with the extra ".NET". Microsoft followed our wish to remove the .NET in version 5 but re-invented a much longer name in version 6.
Another problem was the short time between 4.0, 4.1 and 4.2. Short after setting up a new device with the newest OS version it was old. You had to port your device to the next OS version every year. This problem was solved in version 5 with the Add-On-Packs.

The best innovation of Windows CE 4.x was the Hive-based Registry.
The Registry stores all information about the system, e.g. which drivers must be loaded or what Control Panel settings are set.
On PDAs the Registry is simply in RAM because you never switch it completely off. But if you do a Cold Boot or your battery is completely empty you will lost all your settings. Under Windows CE 3.0 it was very hard to implement a persistent Registry.
The Hive-based Registry is file based and located in a Filesystem on your Storage Device (e.g. Flash).

Stay tuned for my postponed Alder post.

Tschüß Holger
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Tuesday 7 July 2009

We call it a Klassiker (Part III)

Hello guys,

take a short look at the following behaviour:
after the succesfull installation of Windows CE emulator, Microsoft eMbedded Visual C++, Microsoft Visual Studio 2003, or Windows CE Platform Builder on a Windows XP or Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2) you will maybe see a following error message:
"'Virtual PC/Windows CE Emulator' will cause Windows to become unstable. Windows has prevented these drivers from loading."

But what's the cause for described behaviour? It sound very serious, but
don't be afraid, this is a known problem and can be solved.
To do this, just follow the following steps:
  1. Click Start, click Run, type sysdm.cpl, and then click OK.
  2. In the System Properties dialog box, click the Advanced tab.
  3. Under Start and Recovery, click Settings.
  4. In the Startup and Recovery dialog box, click Edit.
  5. Disable PAE mode by removing the /pae option if it exists.
  6. If you are using Windows XP SP2, remove the /noexecute option if it exists, and then add the /execute option.
  7. On the File menu, click Save.
  8. To exit Notepad, click Exit on the File menu.
  9. To close System Properties, click OK two times.
  10. Restart your computer.
If you need more detailed information about this problem/behaviour, just check the following Microsoft link.

Have fun!
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Friday 3 July 2009

Hot news from Nürnberg ....

to all Windows Embedded developers!!! :)

and I hope that you have also nice weather like us here in Nürnberg.

Just have fun!


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