Hi,

We have a Unix application that we want our end users to access using a
Symbol mobile computer/handheld device (I'm not sure which specific product)
that runs Windows Mobile 2003 /Pocket PC 2003, with an emulation software
that can connect to our Unix machine. Is there a way for us to configure
Windows Mobile 2003 to automatically load the emulation software when the
device is turned on, at the same time restricting the users from accessing
any other applications? That is, their access is limited to the emulation
software.

What would be the best solution to do this.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

Re: Automatically load an application in Windows Mobile 2003/Pocket PC by r_z_aret

r_z_aret
Thu Dec 30 14:53:31 CST 2004

On Thu, 30 Dec 2004 11:49:04 -0800, "Appledls"
<Appledls@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:

>Hi,
>
>We have a Unix application that we want our end users to access using a
>Symbol mobile computer/handheld device (I'm not sure which specific product)
>that runs Windows Mobile 2003 /Pocket PC 2003, with an emulation software
>that can connect to our Unix machine. Is there a way for us to configure
>Windows Mobile 2003 to automatically load the emulation software when the
>device is turned on, at the same time restricting the users from accessing
>any other applications? That is, their access is limited to the emulation
>software.
>
>What would be the best solution to do this.

Several parts to this question:

1) The on/off button on a Windows CE/Windows Mobile/Pocket PC device
does not really turn the device on or off. Main memory (used for
temporary storage as programs are running _and_ as a pseudo-disk)
loses its contents when power is shut off. So the on/off button really
just suspends and wakes up the device. I'm pretty sure you can use the
CeRunAppAtEvent function to handle such events, but I have never
tried.

2) You can more easily make sure your program starts whenever a user
does a soft reboot. Much like "big" Windows, you can put a shortcut in
the startup folder. The startup folder does not have the same name or
location for Windows Mobile as for "big" Windows. And it has yet
another location for earlier versions of Windows CE. If you are using
CAB files to install the app, the inf file has syntax to specify the
startup location generically. If you are using C/C++,
SHGetSpecialFolderLocation provides a generic way to find the startup
folder

3) You should not be surprised to learn that other folks would like to
lock down Symbol and other Pocket PCs. This is actually much harder
than locking down "big" Windows. I don't know Unix enough to compare
in this context. The "generic" name for this seems to be "kiosk mode".
So, you can get more info by using google
(http://groups.google.com/advanced_group_search) to look up
kiosk
in this newsgroup.

The following are also relevant:
http://www.credant.com/
http://www.pocketpcdn.com/articles/kiosk.html
http://www.pocketpcdn.com/articles/kiosk_mode.html
I have not tried any of the packages.


http://www.pocketpcdn.com/articles/run_at_startup.html


>
>Any help would be greatly appreciated.
>
>Thanks.

-----------------------------------------
To reply to me, remove the underscores (_) from my email address (and please indicate which newsgroup and message).

Robert E. Zaret, eMVP
PenFact, Inc.
500 Harrison Ave., Suite 3R
Boston, MA 02118
www.penfact.com

Re: Automatically load an application in Windows Mobile 2003/Pocke by Appledls

Appledls
Thu Dec 30 16:21:04 CST 2004

Thanks for all the info. :-)

"r_z_aret@pen_fact.com" wrote:

> On Thu, 30 Dec 2004 11:49:04 -0800, "Appledls"
> <Appledls@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:
>
> >Hi,
> >
> >We have a Unix application that we want our end users to access using a
> >Symbol mobile computer/handheld device (I'm not sure which specific product)
> >that runs Windows Mobile 2003 /Pocket PC 2003, with an emulation software
> >that can connect to our Unix machine. Is there a way for us to configure
> >Windows Mobile 2003 to automatically load the emulation software when the
> >device is turned on, at the same time restricting the users from accessing
> >any other applications? That is, their access is limited to the emulation
> >software.
> >
> >What would be the best solution to do this.
>
> Several parts to this question:
>
> 1) The on/off button on a Windows CE/Windows Mobile/Pocket PC device
> does not really turn the device on or off. Main memory (used for
> temporary storage as programs are running _and_ as a pseudo-disk)
> loses its contents when power is shut off. So the on/off button really
> just suspends and wakes up the device. I'm pretty sure you can use the
> CeRunAppAtEvent function to handle such events, but I have never
> tried.
>
> 2) You can more easily make sure your program starts whenever a user
> does a soft reboot. Much like "big" Windows, you can put a shortcut in
> the startup folder. The startup folder does not have the same name or
> location for Windows Mobile as for "big" Windows. And it has yet
> another location for earlier versions of Windows CE. If you are using
> CAB files to install the app, the inf file has syntax to specify the
> startup location generically. If you are using C/C++,
> SHGetSpecialFolderLocation provides a generic way to find the startup
> folder
>
> 3) You should not be surprised to learn that other folks would like to
> lock down Symbol and other Pocket PCs. This is actually much harder
> than locking down "big" Windows. I don't know Unix enough to compare
> in this context. The "generic" name for this seems to be "kiosk mode".
> So, you can get more info by using google
> (http://groups.google.com/advanced_group_search) to look up
> kiosk
> in this newsgroup.
>
> The following are also relevant:
> http://www.credant.com/
> http://www.pocketpcdn.com/articles/kiosk.html
> http://www.pocketpcdn.com/articles/kiosk_mode.html
> I have not tried any of the packages.
>
>
> http://www.pocketpcdn.com/articles/run_at_startup.html
>
>
> >
> >Any help would be greatly appreciated.
> >
> >Thanks.
>
> -----------------------------------------
> To reply to me, remove the underscores (_) from my email address (and please indicate which newsgroup and message).
>
> Robert E. Zaret, eMVP
> PenFact, Inc.
> 500 Harrison Ave., Suite 3R
> Boston, MA 02118
> www.penfact.com
>

Re: Automatically load an application in Windows Mobile 2003/Pocket PC by Remco

Remco
Thu Dec 30 19:18:55 CST 2004

Hi

There are several things you can try:

Perhaps write your application so it hides the taskbar when it
installs. Also make it so that it registers its self with the system'a
notification database so it gets launched on power up. Also, within the
message pump, make your app listen for power up messages so it can pop
itself to the top on power up notification.

I am not positive if the following can be done on PPCs but it is
commonly done on devices of own design.
Usually, there is a registry entry that launches the shell:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\init]
"Launch10"="shell.exe"
The shell is usually written by your OEM (or just dropped in as a
standard from Platform Builder). You could write your own shell.exe --
one without the taskbar, etc and put it on top of the one on the
device. It is a little trickier because you can potentially lose
control of your device, requiring a mem-reset to get back to factory
settings. (make sure you back your device up first before you mess with
that setting).

Regards,
Remco