Hello everyone,

Last week I talked about what I have planned for the coming weeks, so here it is. Before we start working with Windows CE let us have a look at what is required for the development.

Two categories that we we need to see here are; 1: Hardware:- For this there is really nothing much to discuss since it’s a choice that you will make when you start working with your projects, but for our discussion I will be using ICOP eBox 2300/4300. 2: Software:- Here we will need two tools: Visual Studio 2005 and the Platform builder for CE 6.0 plugin. So, where do we get these from? You can either buy the CD’s from Microsoft or download the tools from their website. I got the CD’s when I took part in SPARK challenge.

Visual Stusio 2005:- Microsoft Visual Studio is an integrated development environment (IDE) from Microsoft. It can be used to develop console and graphical user interface applications along with Windows Forms applications, web sites, web applications, and web services in both native code and managed code for all platforms supported by Microsoft Windows, Windows Mobile, Windows CE, .NET Framework, .NET Compact Framework and Microsoft Silverlight. Visual Studio includes a code editor supporting IntelliSense as well as code refactoring. The integrated debugger works both as a source-level debugger and a machine-level debugger. Other built-in tools include a forms designer for building graphical user interface (GUI) applications, web designer, class designer, and database scheme designer. You might wonder at this point why Visual Studio 2005? Well as far as I know I had some issues getting Platform Builder to work with higher versions of Visual Studio. Many forums do say that Platform builder is only compatible with Visual Studio 2005, so let’s stick with 2005.

Platform Builder for CE 6.0:- Microsoft Platform Builder is an integrated development environment (IDE) for building customized embedded platforms based on the Microsoft Windows CE .NET operating system (OS). Platform Builder comes with all the development tools necessary for you to design, create, build, test, and debug a Windows CE–based platform. The IDE provides a single integrated workspace in which you can work on both platforms and projects. So, now that we have a brief about the tools we can move on to a little more tricky issue. Installation. If done properly you should be up and developing in no time, but if you miss or skip a step it might not work properly. The worst part is you might not even realize it that improper installation is what caused the problem. This happened to me when I installed Windows CE and Visual Studio for the first time. So, let’s have a look at the proper installation sequence.

For Windows XP Based Machine.

Step 1:

Install Visual Studio 2005.

Step 2:

Install Windows CE 6.0. Platform Builder will be installed is step 2 itself so no need to worry about installing it separately. While Platform Builder does not require VS2005 SP1 it is required to install SDK generated by platform builder for the OS design to support CE 6.0 application development using VS2005. By default, Platform Builder installation only selects and includes ARMV4 CPU support during installation. Since the eBox is an x86 device, x86 CPU support must be installed with platform builder to use the eBox BSP and build the OS image for the eBox.

Step 3:

Install Visual Studio 2005 SP1. You can find this here for Windows XP based machine:

and here for Windows Vista/7 based machines

This is the only difference in installation on XP based machine and Vista/7 based machine.

Step 4:

Install Windows CE 6.0 SP1. Its on the CD if you are installing from the CD. If you are downloading it here is the link

Step 5:

Install Windows CE 6.0 R2 update. Link for CE 6.0 R2 update

Step 6:

Install Windows CE 6.0 R3 update. link for CE 6.0 R3 update

Step 7:

Install required Board Support Packages (BSP’s). BSP's for different ICOP eBox models

Step 8:

Install eBox_WINCE600_sdk and board specific SDK’s. Ex: use 4300 SDK if you are using eBox 4300. The CD’s that come with the eBox should have the required SDK’s.

Step 9:

Install VS2005_CoreCon_x86_WINCE600.msi. Corecon component files for x86 devices are included as part of VS2005 installation and located in the following default installation folder: ..\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\CoreCon\1.0\Target\WCE400\x86.\ There are different sets of Corecon component files to support different types of CPU, and located in the relative folder with name of the CPU and can be found at: ..\Program\Files\CommonFiles\MicrosoftShared\CoreCon\1.0\Target\WCE400\\. CoreCon files can be copied to a CE 6.0 image after the image is built, and use them to establish link between the CE 6.0 device and VS2005 development station. A newer version is also available for CoreCon but I currently do not have the download link. I will update it once I get it.

Step 10:

Install AutoLaunch_x86.msi. I do not have the download links for this one. I will update it soon.

Step 11:

Install all the Quick Engineering Fix updates (QEF) from the msdn website. All you need to do here is install these updates, be sure you do it in the correct order(install by date latest date is installed last). Cumulative Product Update Rollup Package (through 12/31/2009) Cumulative Product Update Rollup Package (through 12/31/2010) Monthly Update January 2011 Monthly Update February 2011 Once this is done you should be all set to start development of your first operating system. To verify if all the updates are installed correctly you can perform the following steps.