Is the .NET Compact Framework still alive? And what about Windows Embedded CE?

Hi Folks,

lately I’ve been hearing questions along that line more often. Probably mainly due to the fact that VS2010 does not support “Smart Device” application development (at least as of now, let’s hope that this will change) and also due to the announcement of the Windows Phone 7 Series Programming Model at the MIX 2010 conference. Just to recite the major aspects of that programming model: “The application model supported on Windows Phone 7 series will be managed only and will leverage Silverlight, XNA and the .NET Framework”.

From Abhinaba’s Blog you will see that there is a lot of work being done on the .NET Compact Framework, not only for Windows Phone 7 Series but also for Windows Embedded CE. By the way, Abhinaba also goes into details of the Windows Phone 7 Series Programming model as well as comparing it to the .NET Compact Framework 3.5. Thanks Abhinaba!

So to answer my question from the title: YES the .NET Compact Framework is still alive, so don’t worry!

Let’s have a look at Windows Embedded CE now. Again, due to the same reasons some people are worried that Windows Embedded CE will be discontinued, but don’t worry, the release for Windows Embedded Compact 7 is planned for later this year. But don’t take my word for it, just read Olivier Bloch’s post “Windows CE is NOT dead!”.

Have fun!
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Visual Studio 2010 and Windows Embedded CE development

UPDATE (May 2012):

Good news: Windows Embedded Compact v. Next will come with both native and managed application development support in Visual Studio 11! Furthermore there will be an updated version of the .NET Compact Framework.

It is likely (though not explicitly stated) that these new features will also be available in Visual Studio 2010.

You can find further information in my complete post here.

Have fun!

UPDATE (November 2011):
Windows Embedded Compact v. Next will come with Visual Studio 2010 and Visual Studio v. Next support for native Smart Device application development. Unfortunately the future of managed application development as well as the future of the .NET Compact Framework was not mentioned. Windows Embedded Compact v. Next will RTM in the second half of 2012. Find the complete Windows Embedded roadmap post here.


You are most propably aware that since the middle of April Microsoft has announced the general availability of Developer Studio 2010. The question for us Windows Embedded Developers is, however, whether or not we can use DevStudio 2010 to develop Windows CE code.

Well the answer is fairly simple - at least for the current version of Windows CE - as DevStudio 2010 does not contain "Smart Device" application development support - but you all knew that, didn't you?

But what about the upcoming version "Windows Embedded Compact 7"? As you can guess, it is quite hard to get any information around this version, planned to be released middle of 2010.

However, due to my experience with Windows Embedded Product releases and support of Windows CE development through DevStudio over the last ten years my guess ist that even with "Windows Embedded Compact 7", Windows CE code development will still be done with DevStudio 2008.

So long and thanks for all the fish!
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