Windows CE Programming

Before WEH and Windows Mobile 6 it was easy to catch all keys including the function keys in a Compact Framework (CF) application, you simply had to use Allkeys(true) and Form.Keypreview=true.

Actually, with Windows Embedded Handheld (WEH) or Windows Mobile 6.5.3 the above will not work for the F1 and F2 key. There are simply no KeyDown and KeyUp events reaching your CF application.

Windows Mobile 6.1 demo

with IMessageFilter active, F1 and F2 can be captured

After removing IMessageFilter no F1 and F2 keys are being captured

With WEH Microsoft moved the Start button from the taskbar at top to the menu bar at bottom. Further on, the menu bar is now using graphic tiles to display the top menu, the Close and OK/Done option. The OK/Close button also moved from taskbar to menu bar. Additionally the menu bar is higher than in Windows Mobile 6.1. That leaves less space for your client window.

Due to the above changes in the UI, the window messages are routed in another unknown way and normally a CF application does not get F1 and F2 key messages. Possibly the CF main message queue gets notification messages but these are handled internally by the CF runtime, you only see the menus are working.

Continue reading ‘Windows Mobile: CF how to catch F1 and F2 in WEH’ »

Based on version-4 here is an more extended version with the option to preset Resource mapping (Device storage and Remote desktop sound).

These two options are controlled by the default.rdp file:

EnableDriveRedirection:i:1
AudioRedirectionMode:i:

Continue reading ‘Mobile Development: RDP AutoLogin v5’ »

Hello

I would like to start a series of articles of how you can lockdown your application user in your application. How can you achieve a kiosk mode application, where the user is only allowed to do what you define.

The first article is about the Windows Start and Done Icon in menu bar and about fullscreen. You may already know, how to hide the start and done icon permanently from a Windows Embedded Handheld (Windows Mobile 6.5.3) device: Link

But there is also a temporary way using the same approach. The trick is to change the registry keys, that make the OS believe you have hardware buttons for Start and Done, BEFORE you show your CSharp form.

Before Windows Embedded Handheld (WEH, or Windows Mobile 6.5.3), you are able to use SHFullScreen API calls. But this will not work with WEH. Neither the flags SHFS_HIDESIPBUTTON nor SHFS_HIDESTARTICON will work. The LockDown.cs class also includes code for that and you may test the functions with the Test-Application.

The class I am talking about is called LockDown. There is also a Test-Application (OEMTitleBarHandler, dont ask me about the name selection) to test all functions I will describe.

Continue reading ‘Windows Mobile: Kiosk Mode Series, part 1’ »

As a windows mobile programmer I have to fight with ActiveSync aka Windows Mobile Device Center. The newer WM devices come with enhanced network function via USB ActiveSync/WMDC and then each time a new device is connected, you will get a new Mobile Remote Adapter with a new number at the end.

First, I dont need any partnership and so I change my system to do GuestOnly connections with WMDC (Windows Mobile 7, 64Bit system).

OK, second annoyance is the awlays coming up WMDC or WMDC+Mobile Registration Wizard. These Popups can be avoided by changing the call to WMDC.exe to WMDCbase.exe. See also this post.

So, I can connect one of the several devices I have currently for development support (about 10-30) without annoying popups.

But then I found, that for each device and sometimes multiple times, Windows installs a new “Microsoft Windows Mobile Remote Adapter” in Device Manager. I found about 88 instances, where only ONE is needed. Before you can see the inactive adapters, you have to enable Show_Hidden_Devices. One way to show hidden devices is this []:

1. Click Start, point to All Programs, point to Accessories, and then click Command Prompt.
2. At a command prompt, type the following command , and then press ENTER:
   set devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1
3. Type the following command a command prompt, and then press ENTER:
   start devmgmt.msc
4. Troubleshoot the devices and drivers in Device Manager.

   NOTE: Click Show hidden devices on the View menu in Device Manager before you can see devices that are not connected to the computer.

5. When you finish troubleshooting, close Device Manager.
6. Type exit at the command prompt.

To remove the hidden, inactive Mobile Remote Instances, you can now right click on every instance, then click UnInstall and then [OK]. But for 88 instances, that is a bunch of clicking.

As programmer, I searched of a way to remove these instances programmatically. OK, I digged google and found DevCon, a tool to manage devices and instances from the command line. Unfortunately, I had to download a CD image of Windows WDK to get DevCon.exe. Then I found a site which described howto install DevCon only.

With the help of DevCon.exe, I produced a list of “Microsoft Windows Mobile Remote Adapter” instances, removed to not numbered one and then built a list of DevCon commands to remove the obsolete instances.

List all Windows Mobile Remote Adapters into a file:

devcon findall "USB\VID_067E&PID_1003&REV_0000" >wm_remote_adapters.txt

“USB\VID_067E&PID_1003&REV_0000” is the identifier for Windows Mobile Remote Adapter (you can find this by right clicking the instance in device manager and select properties).

USB\VID_067E&PID_1003\0040056A-0E9D-0801-0DE0-01130400682B  : Microsoft Windows Mobile Remote Adapter #59
USB\VID_067E&PID_1003\0040056A-0E9D-0801-1B10-010E04000801  : Microsoft Windows Mobile Remote Adapter #6
USB\VID_067E&PID_1003\0040056A-0E9D-0801-0B70-000E0400BA61  : Microsoft Windows Mobile Remote Adapter #24
USB\VID_067E&PID_1003\0040056A-0E9D-0801-1990-001104000E40  : Microsoft Windows Mobile Remote Adapter #77
USB\VID_067E&PID_1003\99461300-B56A-0801-DD17-0FBB99944738  : Microsoft Windows Mobile Remote Adapter #89
...

Then, in the list wm_remote_adapters.txt, I replaced all line starts etc and built this cmd list:

devcon.exe remove "@USB\VID_067E&PID_1003\0040056A-0E9D-0801-0590-010E0400A43B"
devcon.exe remove "@USB\VID_067E&PID_1003\99461300-B56A-0801-5AD3-B56444802FC3"
devcon.exe remove "@USB\VID_067E&PID_1003\99461300-B56A-0801-B87A-D1874E00C078"
devcon.exe remove "@USB\VID_067E&PID_1003\0040056A-0E9D-0801-1640-01100400B075"
...

Then I saved this cmd list as remove-adapters.cmd and started it from the command prompt. And, voila, all obsolete adapters are gone for now.

From time to time I have to rebuild the lists again to get rid of these many obsolete adapters.