Building a Workspace for Device Emulator in Windows Embedded CE 6.0

Windows Embedded CE or WINCE 6.0 is a Real Time OS which can run on many hardware architectures. But in-case you are new to wince, you would prefer to build your newly installed OS on an emulator and test it.

For information about how to install wince 6.0 please click on the following link:
http://tech-stuff-home.blogspot.com/2011/03/how-to-download-and-install-windows.html

The following steps will guide you to build a binary image for ARMv4I Device Emulator, which is by default provided in wince 6.0 by Microsoft, and finally test it on your Desktop.

1. Creating a new Platform Builder project:

The first page when you run Microsoft Visual Studio 2005, will look something like this:

Now to create a new Platform Builder (i.e. wince) project, just go to File -> New -> Project and click on it; you will get the following screen:

Select Platform Builder for CE 6.0 and click on OS Design on the right hand side. Give a name like "Emulator". By default the location will be inside "drivename\WINCE600\OSDesigns". Just click Ok and in the following screen just give a Next. Then you will this window:

This window consists the set of Board Support Packages (BSP) which are currently installed in wince. Select the "Device Emulator: ARMV4I" BSP and press Next. The next window look somthing like this:

This window shows you the kind of device you are targeting. Just click on Industrial Device as shown and click Next. On you will get the following window:

Select Internet Appliance and press Next. On the following two windows there is nothing to worry about and Next. Finally a window will come saying OS Design Project Wizard Complete. Just press Finish to complete the process. You are almost done. A Catalog Item Notification window may come; just press acknowledge and you will get the following on your Visual Studio:

Now, you have successfully created a new Platform Builder project and your workspace is ready for building.

2. Building the Workspace:

There are two kinds of build you can do in wince -- Debug Build and Release Build. By default the mode is selected for Debug which will take a long time, so here is how to change to Release Build. On the top middle of the toolbar, there is a Solution Configuration Drop Down box, see below:

Select the Release Build option as shown above. Now its time to build. Go to Build and press Build Solution. See below:

It will take about 15 to 20 minutes to build, and finally you will see a success message; obviously if there are no errors. Now its time to test it.

3. Testing the built workspace:

For testing the new OS, go to Target -> Connectivity Options, see below:

Click on it and the following window will come. Just verify that you have the setting as shown below. If not, then use the drop down boxes to get these settings:

Once you have these settings, just click apply, then close and its ready. on the same Target tab click on the first option that is Attach Device you will get the following:

Once the download is complete, you will get Windows Embedded CE 6.0 running on your Desktop on a different window, well it may take some time! Here is the screen shot of wince 6.0 (you may get a smaller screen due to some settings:

Now that you have built a workspace successfully, you would like to write some application on it. For creating applications and more click here.

Please comment if you have any queries regarding this post!!