.NET Compact Framework v2.0 SP1 Beta is Available - Yes Windows CE 4.2 is supported

I Love your guys site. I am having a hard time finding answers so I thought I would give you guys a shot...

I have a Windows Mobile 5.0 app I developed in VS 2005. Now I have a need to run it on CE 4.2. Will this app run on CE 4.2 with this SP?

I can test it in VS 2005 with the Pocket PC 2003 Device emulator and it runs fine, but I cannot find a way to test it with CE 4.2.

Any suggestions?
Raymond

Raymond;

With .NET CF 2.0 SP1, your app should be able to run on the Windows CE 4.2 platform.

What you need to be careful about though, is that unlike Windows Mobile where the capabilities and features are consistent across devices, Windows CE devices can differ significantly. Simple things like there's no standard Windows CE screen size; in fact some Windows CE devices don't even have screens; some have full keyboards others don't; some have hard drives others don't; etc.

Windows CE is a highly componentized OS and vendors pick-and-choose what parts of the OS they need for their device.

The best thing to do is to see if the equipment vendor of the device you'll be targeting has a developer program. If they do, they may provide an emulator that mimics their equipment.

If they don't provide an emulator, the next best bet is (if possible) to contact the equipment vendor and get the Windows CE 4.2 image that the equipment vendor uses on the target device.

The Microsoft Device Emulator works by literally loading the same OS image that the real hardware uses. With target device's OS image you can launch the emulator from the command line specifying the OS image to load, screen size, network stuff, etc.

You can find the Emulator docs on how to load a custom image and how to set other options at [Program Files]\Microsoft Device Emulator\1.0\1033\DeviceEmulator.chm

Please feel free to ask other questions you may have. Also, please let us know how your experience goes.

-Jim

Just an FYI...

.NET Compact Framework 2.0 Service Pack 2 is now available.

You can get the download info from this post: http://pluralsight.com/blogs/jimw/archive/2007/03/08/46374.aspx

Jim