Windows CE Programming

Remote Desktop Mobile autologin

As you may know, Remote Desktop Mobile (RDM) does not support auto-login. But sometimes you may want a user does not change settings and is directly connected to a Terminal Server. Ruggedized devices are often used in warehouses and the IT structure uses a terminal server to gather data and manage goods. Although I think Windows Mobile is not the right OS for such barcode scanner devices, you may have no choose and have to use a handheld computer with Windows Mobile instead one that uses Windows CE. The RDM or Terminal Service Client provided with Windows CE devices is much more flexible and can be configured by the OEM to enable you to auto-login into a Terminla Server (TS).

OK, the challenge was to automate the startup and login of RDM on a Windows Mobile 6.1 device. I started using embedded Visual C++ 4.0 although this is outdated by VS2005 and VS2008.

The idea was to launch the exe, fill in the values and click the Connect bar. Continue reading ‘Automated Login for Remote Desktop Mobile’ »

Here is some nice code to use a keyboard hook implemented in C# for compact framework.

You can use this to catch the funny OS asigned keys like F1, F2, F3, F4, F6 and F7 (Softkey 1 and 2, Phone, End, Volume Up, Volume Down); and last but not least catch the Win Key press.

Continue reading ‘Hooking the keyboard message queue in compact framework code’ »

PDF library iTextSharp working in Compact Framework 2: iTextSharpCF

Recently I needed a tool to combine several pictures into one file. First I thought about creating a memory bitmap and then BitBlit the source files into this single bitmap. Then I found an entry about iText and iTextSharp. This is a JAVA and .NET class library to create pdf files. As it seems very easy to use I decided to take a closer look. I found one message, where Marco states he has done a port for .NET compact framework and provided a patch to the sourceforge iTextSharp team. Unfortunately the iTextSharp team seems to ignore this port. So I started with iTextSharp and the patch to get iTextSharp running on Compact Framework.

The patch was done against version 4.0.1 of iTextSharp but there were still some rejects and some additional work to do. The main problem was the use of GetInstance where always the general WebRequest.Create(url); and then GetResponseStream() was used. A first workaround is to load the bitmap first and then provide this to doc.Add:

Continue reading ‘iTextSharp running on Compact Framework – Windows Mobile’ »

Sometime you may need additional serial connectors for your windows mobile device. Here is the odyssey I had with a FTDI adapter:

How I installed a FTDI serial to USB adapter within ITC CN50 running Windows Mobile 6.1.

Although the USB to Serial adapters with FTDI chips can be installed with drivers from FTDI, these will not work out of the box with WM6.1.

Continue reading ‘Windows Mobile: Install FTDI_SER serial to USB adapter’ »