I have a couple of Windows services that need to be signed with the
priviliged certs in order to auto-start when the device boots up. I am
currently using the SDK certs for development but am having problems with WM6
in that the services won't auto-start.
All is fine for WM5 so I know the registry entries are ok. I have also
tested a plain service sample that doesn't do anything useful and that
doesn't load either on WM6.
If I use the MS Security Configuration manager to provision the certs to the
device then it all works but it doesn't if I just copy the two .cer files
over and manually install them. Also doesn't work if I do the same with the
.pfx files or copying the tool.cab file over and installing that.
I know I don't have this problem with WM5.0 because I tried it on a Treo 750
before I upgraded it to WM6 so something has changed with security in WM6.
As a workaround I have an app in the Startup folder that starts my services
but I shouldn't have to do this.
How can I find out exactly what the MS security configuration manager is
doing to provision the SDK certs on the device? It doesn't seem to be just
copying the tool.cab over to the device.

RE: Correct provisioning of SDK certs on WM6 for service to autostart by srhartone

srhartone
Wed Mar 12 16:55:02 CDT 2008

When you copy the cert how do you provision it? You shouldn't have to do
anything with the pfx file. This file is used to sign your code, thats it.
Not sure what the tool.cab file is that you refer to.

The easiest way to provision your device in the field for LOB apps is to
ship a CAB that has been built with a _setup.xml that contains the
certificate store CSP (Configuration Service Provider) XML schema. Once the
CAB file has been created using the CABWIZ.exe tool, all you have to do is
run the CAB file on the device.

Do a search for certificatestore CSP. I have been meaning to write a blog
how to do this for some time...must do it ;)
--
Simon Hart
Visual Developer - Device Application Development MVP
http://simonrhart.blogspot.com


"Gary Metalle" wrote:

> I have a couple of Windows services that need to be signed with the
> priviliged certs in order to auto-start when the device boots up. I am
> currently using the SDK certs for development but am having problems with WM6
> in that the services won't auto-start.
> All is fine for WM5 so I know the registry entries are ok. I have also
> tested a plain service sample that doesn't do anything useful and that
> doesn't load either on WM6.
> If I use the MS Security Configuration manager to provision the certs to the
> device then it all works but it doesn't if I just copy the two .cer files
> over and manually install them. Also doesn't work if I do the same with the
> .pfx files or copying the tool.cab file over and installing that.
> I know I don't have this problem with WM5.0 because I tried it on a Treo 750
> before I upgraded it to WM6 so something has changed with security in WM6.
> As a workaround I have an app in the Startup folder that starts my services
> but I shouldn't have to do this.
> How can I find out exactly what the MS security configuration manager is
> doing to provision the SDK certs on the device? It doesn't seem to be just
> copying the tool.cab over to the device.

RE: Correct provisioning of SDK certs on WM6 for service to autost by GaryMetalle

GaryMetalle
Thu Mar 13 15:51:00 CDT 2008

I have tried provisioning the certs in a couple of ways but am currently
copying the *.cer files over as part of the install and then getting the user
to manually click on each of these certificates to install them. I could
install the sdkcerts.cab file but this involves installing two cabfiles and
is more work to do this in the short-term.

The tool.cab file btw comes with the Security Configuration Manager tool and
I guess is similar if not identical to the sdkcerts.cab that comes with the
WM5.0 and WM6 SDK.

Nothing still explains why on WM5.0 my services will auto-start but on WM6
they won't (even on a security disabled device); something has changed for
WM6 and I don't understand what or how to fix it (but do have a workaround).
I had a Treo 750 running WM5 that ran as expected (if certs installed then
services ran automatically). After I upgraded the Treo to WM6 and installed
the same software, the services stopped working.

I would look forward to any stuff that helps explain all this if you get
time :-) The MS documentation has some readable stuff such as"
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb158508.aspx
and
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms839681.aspx
but could do with an update for WM6 and some consistency regarding the names
of the certificate stores (SPC/intermediate, normal/untrusted etc).

"Simon Hart [MVP]" wrote:

> When you copy the cert how do you provision it? You shouldn't have to do
> anything with the pfx file. This file is used to sign your code, thats it.
> Not sure what the tool.cab file is that you refer to.
>
> The easiest way to provision your device in the field for LOB apps is to
> ship a CAB that has been built with a _setup.xml that contains the
> certificate store CSP (Configuration Service Provider) XML schema. Once the
> CAB file has been created using the CABWIZ.exe tool, all you have to do is
> run the CAB file on the device.
>
> Do a search for certificatestore CSP. I have been meaning to write a blog
> how to do this for some time...must do it ;)
> --
> Simon Hart
> Visual Developer - Device Application Development MVP
> http://simonrhart.blogspot.com
>
>
> "Gary Metalle" wrote:
>
> > I have a couple of Windows services that need to be signed with the
> > priviliged certs in order to auto-start when the device boots up. I am
> > currently using the SDK certs for development but am having problems with WM6
> > in that the services won't auto-start.
> > All is fine for WM5 so I know the registry entries are ok. I have also
> > tested a plain service sample that doesn't do anything useful and that
> > doesn't load either on WM6.
> > If I use the MS Security Configuration manager to provision the certs to the
> > device then it all works but it doesn't if I just copy the two .cer files
> > over and manually install them. Also doesn't work if I do the same with the
> > .pfx files or copying the tool.cab file over and installing that.
> > I know I don't have this problem with WM5.0 because I tried it on a Treo 750
> > before I upgraded it to WM6 so something has changed with security in WM6.
> > As a workaround I have an app in the Startup folder that starts my services
> > but I shouldn't have to do this.
> > How can I find out exactly what the MS security configuration manager is
> > doing to provision the SDK certs on the device? It doesn't seem to be just
> > copying the tool.cab over to the device.