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Microsoft Device Emulator 2.0

rastix — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 13:23:37 +0100

Check out the new version of device emulator. It has some interesting new features (check the link for more info) and is supported on Vista. While you are at it, get the new emulator images for Windows Mobile 6 as well so you can see what's coming until you get your new device! ;-)

At last, Windows Mobile 6 aka "Crossbow"

rastix — Wed, 14 Feb 2007 17:41:43 +0100

On Monday, Microsoft revealed Windows Mobile 6 at the 3GSM conference in Barcelona, Spain. Formerly known as Crossbow, the new mobile operating system has many interesting features. Some of the features that interest me most are:

Better support for Office applications like Excel, Word and PowerPoint. The mobile versions of these applications are available on SmartPhones as well.
Extra security features like storage card encryption and the possibility to wipe a storage card with Exchange's remote wipe feature.
Exchange 2007 AutoDiscovery support.
Support for HTML e-mails and hotkey support.
Easier to use your phone as a modem for your computer. Although I have no issues connecting my HTC MTeoR (Windows Mobile 5) to my laptop using bluetooth.
Easy to search e-mails on the device but also on the Exchange server (requires Exchange Server 2007).
Sending v-cards to others using an SMS. This should have been part of Windows Mobile from day one though.
Much easier to add trusted root certificates. This was definitely a pain with Windows Mobile 5.

A great resource for Windows Mobile 6 information is Jason Langridge's blog. Check out the post about the new features, and the video.

Devices with Windows Mobile 6 should start to appear in Q2 2007. I really hope HTC releases an update for the MteoR!

Converting VBScript to PowerShell

rastix — Fri, 22 Dec 2006 13:49:49 +0100

Now that PowerShell is the next great command shell and scripting language, you might need some help converting your VBScripts to PowerShell. Microsoft has put together a site and guide to convert scripts easily.

Check out the site here.

Office Communicator Mobile for SmartPhone

rastix — Wed, 25 Oct 2006 20:55:06 +0200

At work, we have implemented Live Communication Server 2005 (LCS). I recently got a new smartphone (HTC MteoR) and decided to check out the mobile client for LCS, Communicator Mobile. It is a free download from the Microsoft site and can be found here. I downloaded the client for Windows Mobile 5.0 for SmartPhones.

The installation is like any other application you install on a SmartPhone but because the msi package checks the version of ActiveSync, installation fails on Windows Vista. I am running Windows Vista RC2 with Windows Mobile Device Center so I needed to install Office Communicator Mobile from an XP box with ActiveSync 4.1.

At present, LCS is only reachable on our internal network so I needed a VPN connection to get to the server. I configured a VPN connection that connects from "The Internet" to "Work". Because you cannot tell Office Communicator Mobile to connect using the VPN connection, you need to configure the LCS server name by using the short NetBIOS name and not the FQDN. In that case, the SmartPhone will use the VPN connection automatically because a short name requires a connection to the "Work" network.

After installation of the client, a different homescreen is installed that includes your Office Communicator status. If you use software like Facade, you will have to reconfigure it for the new homescreen. Below you see a screenshot of the new homescreen with a section for Office Communicator at the bottom and Facade at the top (launch bar and calendar/tasks).

The Office Communicator mobile client looks like this:

Of course, unless you like to chat using the telephone keys, I don't think it is very useful to have an LCS client on a mobile phone. Obviously, a device like the HTC TyTN is better suited. In the past, we have had customers asking us for such a solution. In the days of LCS 2003, something like a mobile version of Windows Messenger was not available. With LCS 2005 however, you can connect from all Windows-based devices.

Installed Windows Vista RC1 on my HP nw8000

rastix — Fri, 22 Sep 2006 23:16:58 +0200

After some colleagues told me that they installed Windows Vista RC1 on their laptop without any real issues, I installed it as well on my laptop. My laptop (from work) is an HP nw8000 mobile workstation. I did not have a good experience with Windows Vista in the beta stages so I was curious about the result.

I did a completely fresh install and did not have any issues. Almost all hardware was recognized except the wireless LAN. The nw8000 has an Atheros chipset which Vista does not recognize (yet). I downloaded some drivers from HP (for XP) and installed them. I did not install them with the setup.exe but used device manager. They work but I guess I will have some standby/hibernate issues.

The Bluetooth hardware was also recognized so I could connect Bluetooth hardware such as a Bluetooth mouse, my phone, etc...

Something that did not work was the integrated memory card reader. Because I am not really using that, I did not bother to try to get it to work.

With 1GB of memory in the laptop, Vista runs quite well although it is not terribly fast. All things considered, I am pleased with the results and will keep it on my laptop for now.

Exchange SP2 e-mail push for Windows Mobile 2003

rastix — Thu, 15 Jun 2006 20:19:01 +0200

Apparently, the guys over at DataViz will have a solution to enable direct push for Windows Mobile 2003 devices. Check out the article at their site. At this moment, you need a Windows Mobile 2005 device with the MSFP (Messaging and Security Feature Pack). With the software from DataViz you will be able to get these features on your older device. Expected later this year.

Control iTunes or Windows Media Player from your PDA

rastix — Mon, 24 Apr 2006 22:55:35 +0200

Want a simple way to control iTunes from your PDA (or any other device with a browser)? Then take a look at PlayerPal. It’s simple and cheap.

Just install PlayerPal on the machine where you run iTunes or Windows Media Player. It will install a small web server running on port 9999 you can connect to with virtually any wireless device.

I use it at home in combination with iTunes, an Airport Express and an old wifi-enabled HP iPaq. Works great!

Disable SSL checking on a Windows Mobile 2005 device

rastix — Tue, 04 Apr 2006 11:12:11 +0200

In the past, you could use Microsoft's certchk tool to disable certificate checking on a Pocket PC or SmartPhone. Sadly, this tool does not work with Windows Mobile 2005 devices.

I needed to turn off certificate checking on a QTek 9100. Thanks to this post, it was possible. With Total Commander/CE (freeware), I modified the registry as described in the post. I can now use the Pocket PC with test certificates.

By the way, you will also need to disable certificate checking when you use wildcard certificates because Windows Mobile 2005 does not support those.

A wildcard certificate does not work with Pocket PC and Smartphone 2003

rastix — Mon, 25 Apr 2005 12:05:36 +0200

When you have a wildcard cert for *.domain.com and you want to use a SmartPhone 2003 or Pocket PC 2003 client for Server ActiveSync or OMA, it will not work. You will need to disable certificate checking on the device.

More info on the isaserver.org forum.

Hard reset I-Mate SP3i

rastix — Sat, 29 Jan 2005 15:01:49 +0100

After installing DeveloperOne Power Calendar on my I-Mate SP3i and restarting the phone, it did not want to start anymore. The I-Mate screen came on, followed by the Windows Mobile screen, followed by a new restart. I cannot say it is due to the Power Calendar software because I also installed some other software before (like the Opera Technical Preview). So one of those apps could have caused it.

The only way out was a hard reset but that did not turn out to be simple. In the end, I found the following instructions on the ModaCo site for the SPC C500. This also works for the I-Mate SP3i. Now, I think I will install Sprite Backup on my SmartPhone to avoid having to reinstall all the apps on the phone from scratch. :-)

MoDaCo > THIS IS HOW TO HARD RESET THE SPV C500

iPodder for SmartPhone

rastix — Sun, 16 Jan 2005 23:40:01 +0100

I am not really busy with Podcasting, not as a listener or as a creator of podcasts. I do follow what is possible with Podcasting and try to be up-to-date with the software that is out there. Now ther...