Everyone in the Windows Embedded CE community, I would like to say hello from the Setup team! I have recently joined the CE team and have been able to get my feet wet with the CE6 R3 release. It is my goal to help improve the developer’s experience around the setup process. This is going to be even more important with the next full release of our product. After reading a few comments on Mike Hall’s blog I noticed some people already having problems with Setup in one shape or another. I would like to get some general feedback for your current issues with the CE6 installation at this point.
Well... For one if you have multiple machines with CE 6.0 an offline installation would help... Maybe the msi installer can do that with a switch, but I wasn't able to find it, that's why I created a tool to do that (also did that for the R2 release). Maybe worth mentioning as a tip for other people. See http://guruce.com/blogpost/offline-installation-of-ce-60-r3
@Michel We have provided the ISO via MS Download. The steps you have taken should not be necessary for R3. This was not provided on the first day of RTW, admittedly. However, we have put it up and it contains the R3 content. Look for the CE6R3.iso listed in the download section. http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=bc247d88-ddb6-4d4a-a595-8eee3556fe46
That's great, but why on earth was this not announced? Could've saved me some time adjusting that tool for R3...
I will place the blame on myself. This was a last minute action and the update channels were not considered.
I am very intersted in other feedback you have on this topic. Especially with how you work with the CE repository if you care to share.
it would be nice to have a documented administrative install for WinCE (or platform builder). not mistaken, similar technique (slipstream?) exist on Office/XP/etc ...
@Jason is there a particular reason you need an administrative installation? Is this mainly for the WINCEROOT or do you want this Platform Builder itself?
One of the main problem we have is development dependency (mainly related with software configuration management). Each developer might have different combination of the WINCEROOT, tools version, visualstudio, etc and it is difficult to control and validate everyone on same configuration. Furthermore, sometime we face compatibility issue in QFE and/or service pack release. Having the entire WINCEROOT in source control is not an option for us due to resource constraint.
it would be nice (wish) that there is way to automated the WINCE installation (eg. Platform Builder, R1, R2, R3, MsAuto, and QFE)
(i am still trying to figure out how the setup.exe /a work ...)
@Jason This is a great request and I would like to know more about how you would like to see this work. Currently, we are doing a lot of work to our installation process to help streamline the installation. My question would be on how you would like to validate developer configurations to enable your requirements around Software Configuration Management? Would a good scenario be to go to the maintenance window of the installer itself, push a button and have it list the current features on the machine? Are you looking to intergate the machine remotely to discover the status of the environment?
Instead of the maintenance windows of the installer, why not the "CEUpdateCheck" tools ? even better if the tools can verify which files (public code) being modify and offer the option to repair ? remote diagnostic might not be necessary as people can validate/compare with the validation result using the tools.
i was thinking that, if the installation was done right at first time base on the development environment, theoretically i don't need to validate it, right ?
the installation should look like,
- integrate all the PB, R1, R2, R3, Microsoft Auto, QFE installer into single repository
- option for us to create custom configuration base on feature set listed by installer
- double-click the installer to install with the custom configuration or with full GUI,
- option to install silently or with GUI, for scripted installation via cmdline (?).
- option to uninstall everything in single-click (?)
if the installation can be streamline as above, this is going to be great help to all of us. if i need to roll-back (remember compatible issue), simply uninstall and reinstall. kind of foolproof concept here ...
@Jason I believe I understand what you are looking for. As for the CEUpdateCheck tool. My thoughts are similar to yours but I believe we are going to move it into ARP/Command line of our new setup.exe to keep from having so many disparent tools.
You are correct, if the install worked correctly the first time then you wouldn't have to worry so much about the above.
How many people are you supporting in your environment? How much control do you want via the command line?
i would say, if including all my peer who has the same thought, that can be easily over 100 software engineer globally.
as far as the installation can be streamline like the scenario above, and the installation can be trigger via single command line (and full GUI) - that should keep you busy enough.
I think installation should be 2 step process.
Step 1. Analyze the PC and produce sort of
report with multiple use cases.
1.1 new installation
1.2 existing PB/VS .
1.3 W7 64, W7 32, WXP, WXP mode on W7.
The user selects the options or provides
custom configuration.
Step 2. Automated Installation based on report.
Handling of errors during auto installation.
if possible accurate description of the problem with possible solutions.
I would like more instruction on how to get started initially. I have a new hard drive, clean, that I wish to put CE on. I downloaded CE6R3.iso and burned it to a DVD. However, this is not bootable. So how am I going to install CE on this clean drive?
@Jeff The CE6R3.iso is just an upgrade to the Developer Tools. You need to install all the content for developers for 6.0 first. You can then put build, using Visual Studio 2005 and Platform Builder, a Windows CE image. That image can then be loaded to a hardware device or tested with the ARM emulator.
Can you advise on where to get VS2005 with Platform Builder? I am having all kinds of trouble finding it. (Alot of MSFT links point to VS2008 or VS2010 now, which I am told does not have it. I tried VS2010 Pro actually and it doesn't have it.)
Let me describe what I am doing. The goal is to make our hardware product work in Windows CE. The product is a PCI card. We have a driver so it will work with XP, 2000, etc. Now, we want a situation where a standard desktop PC can have Windows CE running as it's OS. Our PCI card will be inserted into the machine. Our driver will then allow a CE application program to operate our PCI card. Then perhaps a different CE developer can develop their own application to operate our card, etc. Or put our card in a different hardware configuration with CE as the OS.