BANGALORE, INDIA: Microsoft released the first version of Windows CE, almost 15 years back, initiating a long journey into the development of operating systems for embedded devices. Over the years, Windows CE has evolved into a component based, embedded, real time operating system with wide ranging applications for mobile devices and automotive systems. The Windows CE operating system features a kernel developed specifically for embedded devices and is not a cut down version of desktop operating systems.

The Windows CE operating system is a superset from which various operating systems for specific uses are derived. For Mobile devices, the derived operating system is called Windows Mobile (earlier versions include Pocket PC, Smartphone, etc). The latest release is Windows Mobile 6, which is powered by Windows CE 5.0.

Recently, we saw many mobile phones running on Windows CE 6 being released. The latest additions include HTC Touch Diamond, Samsung Omnia, and LG Incite. These phones offer Office Mobile, Outlook Mobile, Internet Explorer and a host of other features which make them a virtual replacement of your PC or Laptop while on the move. The best part of Windows Mobile environment is its similarity to the widely used Windows XP desktop operating system, which makes these PDA-phones extremely user friendly. Seamless connectivity to the Microsoft Exchange Server makes Windows Mobile-based phones quite popular among high flying executives.

Developing applications for Windows Mobile 6 devices is pretty straight forward as tools include the popular Visual Studio 2005, .NET Compact Framework (which is a subset of the desktop .NET Framework) and Windows Mobile 6 SDK, are available for download from Microsoft. In this article, we will setup the development environment on a Windows XP PC and create a simple application using the Windows Mobile 6 Professional SDK.

Requirements and downloads
The minimum hardware requirements include:
a. 1 GB HDD space, 1 GB RAM
b. 2 GHz Pentium 4 CPU

Software requirements include:
a. Windows XP or Vista (I tested on Vista Ultimate).
b. Visual Studio 2005 Standard Edition or above (Express edition is not supported). SP1 is required. The Standard Edition, limited period license is available from http://tinyurl. com/ 6u66kc.
c. Microsoft .NET Compact Framework v2 SP2. This is free and can be downloaded from http://tinyurl.com/ 2vlmqu.
d. Windows Mobile 6 Professional SDK. This is also free and installs as an add-on to Visual Studio 2005. Download from http://tinyurl.com/ynnbzo.
e. Active Sync for Windows XP or Windows Mobile Device Center for Windows Vista. Both are free. Download ActiveSync from http://tinyurl.com/ 63jjdx and WMDC from http:// tinyurl.com/652szj.

Installation
Install Visual Studio 2005, followed by the Microsoft .NET Compact Framework. Install the SDK and the Active Sync/Windows Mobile Device Center.

Creating a Win32 Project
Start Visual Studio 2005 and select FileÔ New Ô Project. The dialog box shown in Figure 1 will be displayed. Make the following selections and click 'OK':
Project Type: Smart Device
Templates: Win32 Smart DeviceProject
You can change the following as per your requirements. In my case, the choices are:
Name: PCQ_App
Location: D:\Project
Solution Name: PCQ_App
Create directory for solution: Yes