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MS Smartphone development information

Table of contents:

Development tools

Added on 2004-05-29.

Currently (May 2004) there are two versions of MS Smartphone OS: 2002 and 2003.

To develop for Smartphone 2002 you need eVC 3 (embedded Visual C 3) and Smartphone 2002 SDK. Only supports native code (i.e. C/C++).

To develop for Smartphone 2003 you need eVC 4 with Service Pack 3 (for native C/C++ development) or Visual Studio .NET 2003, Professional or higher, for managed (C#) coding. Both require Smartphone 2003 SDK.

There's also hacked, unsupported version of Visual Basic (eVB) for writing 2002/2003 apps.

All those apps (except Visual Studio .NET 2003) are free downloads.

A tip: currently (May 2004) most of the phones run 2002 OS so it's not wise to develop 2003-only apps. Which means developing with eVC 3 (since 2002 apps run on 2003 OS, but not vice-versa). However, eVC 4 is more stable (especially the debugger) so it makes sense to use it during development and only use eVC 3 for final build/testing.

Using privileged APIs in Smartphone emulator

Added on 2004-05-29, source of the tip: Google cache or msmobiles.com cache.

In eVC, open the Project Settings dialog. In the tab control, use the scroll buttons on the right to scroll to the "Security" tab.

On the Security tab:

  1. check "Sign this Application".
  2. For "Signing Certificate", click "Browse" and select the "Smartphone Privileged Development Code Signing Certificate"

If you can get an ActiveSync connection to your emulator (see SDK help on how to do it. It's different for SP 2002 and SP 2003):

  1. Check "Configure device to trust signed applications".
  2. Select the "Privileged Certificate Store" radio button.
  3. For "Root Certificate", click Browse and select "Default Smartphone Privileged Development Root".
  4. Create an ActiveSync connection to the emulator.
If you can't get an ActiveSync connection to your emulator:
  1. Run sp2002dps.exe from \Windows CE Tools\wce300\Smartphone 2002\tools directory. Don't give any command line parameters.
  2. In the sp2002dps dialog, select "Smartphone Privileged Development Code Signing Certificate".
Rebuild your application and redeploy it. It should be able to call privileged APIs.

Hard-reset i-mate and Orange SPV E200 Smartphone

Added on 2004-05-29, source of the tip: Smartphone thoughts post.

First of all the mandatory warning: hard reset is tricky business and you will wipe out your personal data, apps and also some apps that came with the phone. In case you need more detailed instructions, search for E200 Hard Reset. Here it goes..