Test Embedded

Windows CE Testing Tools

wceqalab — Sat, 06 Jan 2007 00:21:00 GMT

Find all the test info that you need at the Windows CE Testing Tools web portal!

Building strong, reliable embedded devices is critical in today's market. Testing a device or driver can involve assessing many different elements from security, to usability, to performance. This is why Microsoft is working to provide the following tools and resources that will work in conjunction with your testing efforts.

Tutorials

Advanced Automated Test Development with TUX
Learn how to effectively create test modules that can be run by the TUX harness to generate effective white box tests for their software solution.

Documentation from MSDN

Windows CE Test Kit
Test device drivers or a platform that you created with Windows CE by using the Windows CE Test Kit (CETK) tool.

Windows CE Test Kit Tests
Explore the variety of pre-defined tests that are included in the CETK to quickly test a driver or the stability of a platform.

How to Use the CETK to Test a Driver
Read this "how to" documentation to walk you through driver testing that uses the CETK.

MSDN Technical Articles

Application Verifier for Windows CE and Windows Mobile 5.0
This article discusses how to use the Application Verifier program to increase the stability of your embedded Windows CE and Windows Mobile applications. (17 printed pages)

Stress Testing: Using Modular Stress Test to Test Platforms and Components
This article describes how to test the stability and reliability of your Windows CE platform.

Building and Testing Devices with the Windows CE .NET Test Kit (CETK)
This article describes how to use the Windows CE Test Kit, Board Support Package (BSP) certification, and driver validation.

Tips and Tricks for Testing Windows CE .NET Display Drivers
This article describes common display driver problems and explains how you can use the Graphics Device Interface (GDI) test in the Windows CE Test Kit (CETK).

Windows CE Long-Haul Testing Scenarios and Results
This article describes the importance of long-haul testing and its role in increasing overall quality, reliability, and stability of a Windows CE operating system.

Testing NDIS Miniport Drivers by Using the Windows CE .NET Test Kit
Learn how to run a one-card test, a two-card test, and a two-card test on two computers on network driver interface specification (NDIS) miniport drivers by using the Windows CE .NET Test Kit (CETK).

Tools and Resources

Download the Windows CE 5.0 Standalone Test Kit
This kit is a collection of tests and tools that can be used to help verify the stability, reliability, and quality of a platform or device running Windows CE 5.0. This download is intended to be used on systems where Windows CE 5.0 is not installed; however, it is the same kit as the one included in the Windows CE 5.0 product and is used in the same way.

Windows CE Testing Newsgroup
Exchange information with other Windows Embedded systems and application developers about Windows CE test tools. This is also available through a newsreader.

Writing a Windows CE Test Kit Tux DLL
Create and run an automated test suite in Windows CE .NET 4.2.

CODESNITCH
Get information about this code analysis tool for Windows CE.

Programs

Windows CE Driver Validation Program (DVP)
DVP is designed to give developers, Independent Hardware Vendors (IHVs), or original equipment manufacturer (OEM) licensees of Microsoft Windows CE the opportunity to validate their drivers for use with Windows CE operating systems.

Windows CE Board Support Package (BSP) and CPU Certification Process
This BSP and CPU certification process is designed to certify Windows CE BSPs and CPU compatibility to guarantee that they meet Windows CE operating system requirements.

CE 6.0 - why the codename "Yamazaki" ?

wceqalab — Fri, 29 Sep 2006 19:33:00 GMT

I've been asked why we used the name "Yamazaki" as a codename for CE 6.0 - There's some history behind the naming of Windows CE versions, here's the short version...

Before the Windows CE product was released we had an internal set of tools known as the Oem Adaptation Kit also known as the OAK - an OAK of course is a type of tree.

The initial releases of Windows CE were therefore named after trees, as follows.

Windows CE 1.0 - Alder (Nov 1996)
Windows CE 2.0 - Birch (Nov 1997)
Windows CE 3.0 - Cedar (Apr 2000)

Interestingly, there was a second team within the Windows CE group that worked on the tools, I guess you could consider tools to be something that makes a job easier, or cuts the job down to size - therefore the tools releases were named after things that cut down trees - as follows...

Windows CE 1.0 - Alder - Tools: Axe
Windows CE 2.0 - Birch - Tools: Buzzsaw
Windows CE 3.0 - Cedar - Tools: Chainsaw

For Windows CE 4.0 the original plan was to call the O/S DougFir (DouglasFir), the thing that cuts down DougFir trees was going to be Dozer (BullDozer) - interestingly, at Windows CE 4.0 the o/s team and tools teams merged together to form a new, combined team - the codenames for the operating system and tools also changed at this time from trees/tools to <drumroll>Whiskeys</drumroll> - so the codenames for Windows CE 4.0 onwards are as follows.

Windows CE 4.0 - Talisker (Jan 2002)
Windows CE 4.1 - Jameson (Jun 2002)
Windows CE 4.2 - McKendric (Apr 2003)
Windows CE 5.0 - Macallan (Aug 2004)
- Windows CE 5.0 Network Device Feature Pack - Tomatin (Apr 2006)
Windows CE 6.0 - Yamazaki (Sep 2006)

Don

*originally posted on Mike Hall's Weblog

MICROSOFT WINDOWS EMBEDDED DEVWIRE - September 2006 Edition

wceqalab — Thu, 07 Sep 2006 00:42:00 GMT

Windows CE Shared Source Contest winners announced

The first-ever Windows CE Shared Source Contest has drawn to a close, and three winning submissions have been awarded Xbox 360 game consoles and other goodies.

•	First Place: Smart Cameras for Smart Conference Rooms (video, whitepaper, source code)
•	Second Place: Rear-View Toddler Cam (video, whitepaper, source code)
•	Third Place: StreetBlog (video, whitepaper, source code)

The contest, which ran from May 23 through July 28, challenged developers to create an exciting Windows CE-based real-world project. The official theme of the contest, co-sponsored by Microsoft's Mobile and Embedded Devices (MED) group and WindowsForDevices.com, was "Show-It-Off at the Shared Source Project Competition." Contest participants were encouraged to create cool, practical projects combining Windows CE 5.0 along with either or both of two Shared Source components -- the Windows CE WebCam driver and/or the Windows CE DVR engine.

Virtual Labs for Windows CE 6.0

Register for the Windows CE 6.0 virtual lab "Introduction to Building/Debugging Operating System Images." The objective of this virtual lab is to provide an overview of Windows CE 6 platform builder features. To achieve this you will create, customize, build, download and debug a Windows CE image on the Microsoft Device Emulator. Visit MSDN Virtual Labs for more information.

Two Windows XP Embedded Sessions to Be Presented in TechEd China in September

Two sessions on Windows XP Embedded will be presented in TechEd China to be held in 3 cities Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou in late September. The two sessions are:

Session 1: Quick Introduction to XPe. It covers the basics of the Tools, Components and Enabled Embedded Features, explains benefits of XPe over XP-Pro and a basic comparison of XPe to CE. It will also cover how to use XPe to bring your devices to the market in the Embedded Ecosystem. It's a 100 level presentation. Target audience would be people not familiar with the platform at all. It's also good for CTOs to IT Pros and developers familiar with other embedded platform, such as Windows CE.

Session 2: Discussion of XPe's Tools, Components and Enabled Embedded Features in length with demos. It will also cover the work we're doing in the Feature Pack due to RTM this fall. It is a 200 level presentation that builds on the first presentation above. The session will demo building a runtime using CHS MUI to show the benefits of XPe over XP Pro. It will also demo other key features of the latest release XPe SP2, plus some new features from the Feature Pack to be released.

If you are going to the conference, be sure to check out the sessions. For more information on TechEd China, please check the website: http://www.microsoft.com/china/technet/TechEd/default.asp.

Windows XP Embedded Feature Pack 2007 Community Technology Preview Released

We are excited to announce that on July 31st we released the first Community Tech Preview (CTP) download for Windows XP Embedded Service Pack 2 Feature Pack 2007!

Among our biggest goals in this Feature Pack are to improve the developer's experience and to enable new capabilities and Microsoft technologies on your embedded device. The most interesting aspects of this Feature Pack are:

•	New EEFs! Such as File Based Write Filter and Registry Filter.
•	USB Boot! Yes, this is native USB Boot capability in XPe!
•	Enhancements to EWF and Hibernate Once Resume Many
•	Many of the bug fixes you've been asking for in the Tools (such as Target Designer, CMI, Import Framework, SLX/XML usability)
•	New command line tool that replicates Target Designer, enables you to script your builds and much much more!
•	Tons of work on component dependencies to reduce footprint (including removing dependencies to the full "Internet Explorer" component!)
•	We've added new configurable UI to common components to simplify your offline configuration of images
•	New components added to the database to address more Application Compatibility challenges
•	New macro components to allow installation of other Microsoft technologies in your runtime
•	All security patches for XPe-SP2 rolled up to the Feature Pack repository

For detailed instructions on how to join the program and participate in early testing, please visit the article on the Embedded Windows team blog site: http://blogs.msdn.com/embedded/archive/2006/07/10/660998.aspx

So far we have close to 1000 downloads and 35+ customer logged bugs from the Connect site. The Feature Pack is scheduled to RTM later this year.

Developers Needed to Participate in Microsoft Usability Research

Microsoft Usability Research has an ongoing need for professional developers to take part in Usability research studies. We need real feedback from real users to make the next generation of server products and developer tools better than ever. Usability studies typically take 2 hours or less and are scheduled at your convenience. You'll get to take a look at products under development, give us your honest feedback, and have a direct impact on the development of those products! In addition, each study participant will receive a hardware or software gratuity. Choices include several of our software packages such as Visual Studio Professional, Office 2003 Professional. Xbox games, wireless keyboard/mouse combinations and much more! Interested? Sign up today.

Posted by Jason Hoobler

Maybe the next embedded interface?

wceqalab — Wed, 16 Aug 2006 00:12:00 GMT

Jeff Han

Jeff Han is a research scientist for New York University's Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences. Here, he demonstrates—for the first time publicly—his intuitive, "interface-free," touch-driven computer screen, which can be manipulated intuitively with the fingertips, and responds to varying levels of pressure. (Recorded February 2006 in Monterey, CA. Duration: 09:32)

http://ted.com/tedtalks/tedtalksplayer.cfm?key=j_han

Posted by Don Gambrell

MICROSOFT WINDOWS EMBEDDED DEVWIRE - August 2006 Edition

wceqalab — Wed, 02 Aug 2006 22:49:00 GMT

Windows CE Device Emulator Goes Shared Source

Microsoft has released the source code to the Windows CE device emulator 1.0 that ships with Visual Studio 2005 under a shared source "academic" license. This makes the code available for "non-commercial teaching, research, and personal experimentation while attending or employed by an accredited educational institution," according to the license.

Windows XP Embedded SP2 Feature Pack 2007 Community Tech Preview Available in August!

In early August, Microsoft will release a Community Technology Preview (CTP) of its upcoming release of Feature Pack 2007 for Windows XP Embedded SP2. Feature Pack 2007 is designed to improve the developer's experience, and to enable new capabilities and Microsoft technologies for embedded devices. It provides new features, such as USB Boot, and enhancements to existing features and tools, such as Footprint Reduction and Console Application. You can sign up to participate in the CTP on the Microsoft Connect site and automatically be notified when downloads of Feature Pack 2007 are available. For more information and detailed instructions on how to sign up visit the Windows XP Embedded Team blog.

Visual Studio 2005

Visual Studio 2005 will introduce a wave of productivity enhancements designed to assist all members of the software development team. These virtual labs are based on pre-release versions of Visual Studio 2005, and deliver a sneak-peak of what's coming! It's simple -- no complex setup or installation is required to try out Visual Studio 2005 running in the full-featured MSDN Virtual Lab.

New Windows CE Community Projects!

Windows CE Driver for Phidgets: Using the Windows CE Shared Source Webcam driver and the Windows CE Sample Shared Source, Phidgets Inc. developed a Windows CE Driver for its USB sensors and controllers better known as phidgets. You will not only be able to use phidgets like servos or RFIDs on Windows CE, but you will also be able to access the source code to the driver, access phidgets and other Windows Embedded community projects here.

LSP Samples: With this community project, you can access the code necessary to create LSPs (Lightweight Streaming Protocol) on Windows CE and Windows Mobile, access LSP Samples and other Windows Embedded community projects here.

-----------------------

********* All the preceeding information was just a portion of August's newsletter made available by Window Embedded DevWire. To sign up to recieve DevWire E-mail click here.

- Jason Hoobler

Legal Information

Have you heard about the Windows CE Shared Source program?

wceqalab — Thu, 08 Jun 2006 02:14:00 GMT

Have you heard about the Windows CE Shared Source program?

===== If YES -->

If you are already familiar with this resource and have used it to help your development work, then Microsoft wants to here from *you*. Skip to the bottom of this email, click on the link, and take the survey. Your input will help with work going on right now to improve this important program.

===== If NO -->

If you are not familiar with this program, or have heard about it but want to learn more, then read on. Most mobile and embedded developers, it seems, have not accessed the CE source code. For example, many Windows Mobile application developers that I speak with do not know about it. Or they know about it, but have not tried to find it -- perhaps thinking that it is too expensive, or only available with some onerous licensing agreement.

===== What Is CE Shared Source Program??

Microsoft introduced the Windows CE shared source program back with Windows CE 3.0. It was introduced to help developers in debugging Windows CE projects, and also in learning about this OS. It was such a success that Microsoft has continued to expand the program. Today, you can use this source code to see how the Windows CE kernel allocates memory, opens files, and creates processes and threads. You can see the exact steps involved in system startup, as well as learn about the inner workings of web servers, message queues, and much, much more. (Why do I feel the sudden need to say that "this offer is not available in any store?... ;-)

===== To Obtain Eval Versions of Platform Builder If you want to get your hands on it, you can download and install an evaluation version of Windows CE 5.0 Platform Builder. During installation, you have to click the option to install the source code and then click the license agreement. After that, you will find the source code in the following location: the \wince500\private subdirectory.

Download (or order a CD) the eval version of PB for CE 5.0 at this URL: http://msdn.microsoft.com/embedded/getstart/evaluate/default.aspx

===== Take the Survey - Help Yourself Out For those of you who have used the shared source code, Microsoft wants to hear from you! Nic Sagez, the program manager in charge of the Windows CE source code, has asked me to invite you to participate in a survey. If CE share source has been helpful to you in the past, then you will want to click on the survey link right away and make sure that Nic and his team know about other source code that you might need.

Here is the link for the survey:

https://live.datstat.com/MED-Collector/Survey.ashx?Name=Shared_Source_Survey

On behalf of Nic's team, thank you for taking the survey and helping make the CE shared source programs be the very useful resource that it is.

Best,

Paul Yao

WE-DIG (http://www.we-dig.org/)

PSHUG May Meeting Summary

wceqalab — Wed, 24 May 2006 21:01:00 GMT

The Puget Sound Handheld Users Group (PSHUG) holds a meeting on the fourth Tuesday of each month at Microsoft's Redmond campus to discuss mobile software, services and new devices. Here is a summary of what was discussed at this month's meeting:

Xbox Live Anywhere - http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2006/may06/05-09E32006BriefingPR.mspx
- The new service announced at E3 to integrate Xbox Live into mobile devices and PCs was discussed.
- A video of Bill Gates’ announcement was shown as well as screenshots of the communication working between a Tornado and Xbox 360 (on a private Xbox Live server).
- The HTC STARTRK (Flip-phone style Smartphone similar in size to the RAZR) was shown and Xbox Live Anywhere was demonstrated on the device with features such as looking at what other players are doing, their rankings, etc.

Digital Cameras
- Discussed new dual-lens cameras that offer up to 10x zoom without a big lens.

Office Live - http://officelive.microsoft.com/
- Web-hosting and simple design service offered by Microsoft for small businesses.
- Services are all free during Beta and post-beta they will still have a free hosting service.
- Includes domain, e-mail accounts (at your domain) and a simple way to design a basic website.

URGE – http://www.urge.com/
- Demo of the music service offered with Windows Media Player 11 through MTV and Microsoft.
- Challenged members to name a band with an album not available, all artists were found!
- Showed that downloaded content can be used on “Plays for Sure” devices with DRM support.

Look for details on the June meeting to be announced soon, we hope to see you there!

-Phil

Windows CE 5.0 Networked Media Device Feature Pack - New Art.

wceqalab — Wed, 26 Apr 2006 20:38:00 GMT

The Windows CE 5.0 Networked Media Device Feature Pack gives you the ability to create a device that can stream content from PC's around your home network and 'play' that content on your TV set (photos, music, video) - the Network Media Device Feature Pack ships with a Sample User Interface which can easily be updated.

Here's how the standard user interface looks (pretty cool, eh!)

And here's how the user interface looks after dropping some new images into the Networked Media Device UI folder (even cooler, right?).

The Networked Media Device user interface can be updated in a number of ways, the simplest is to replace the existing bitmaps (after backing them up!) with new bitmaps - simply replace the bitaps in this folder C:\WINCE500\PUBLIC\FP_NMD\OAK\NMD_UI with new bitmaps, rebuild and you're done - the alternative is to modify and rebuild some of the source code that ships with the Networked Media Device Feature Pack.

Here's a link to sample bitmaps displayed above.

- Mike

Published Monday, April 24, 2006 11:35 AM by mikehall
Filed Under: Windows CE, Windows Embedded

Device Emulator: ARMV4I BSP for Windows CE 5.0

wceqalab — Thu, 23 Mar 2006 18:56:00 GMT

- Mike

Published Wednesday, March 01, 2006 3:10 PM by mikehall
Filed Under: Windows CE, Windows Embedded, Application Development

Trouble building tux test with VS 2005

wceqalab — Thu, 16 Mar 2006 22:02:00 GMT

Here is a heads up from one of our Developer's Tools Devs, Marty Larson:

This is something I discovered yesterday, and thought you all might
appreciate a heads up. If you try to build tux tests with VS 2005, you'll
run into this problem.

The default build settings in VS 2005 do not match the settings that the OS
was built with. VS tries to be C++ compliant, and treats wchar_t as a native
type. The OS tries to be backward compatible, and turns off that behavior.

This is only a problem when a dll exports a C++ interface (like kato does).
You'll see the following errors:

error LNK2019: unresolved external symbol "__declspec(dllimport) public: int
__cdecl CKato::EndLevel(wchar_t const *,...)"
(__imp_?EndLevel@CKato@@QAAHPB_WZZ) referenced in function ShellProc
error LNK2019: unresolved external symbol "__declspec(dllimport) public: int
__cdecl CKato::BeginLevel(unsigned long,wchar_t const *,...)"
(__imp_?BeginLevel@CKato@@QAAHKPB_WZZ) referenced in function ShellProc
error LNK2019: unresolved external symbol "__declspec(dllimport) public: int
__cdecl CKato::Log(unsigned long,wchar_t const *,...)"
(__imp_?Log@CKato@@QAAHKPB_WZZ) referenced in function ShellProc

To fix this, go to Project --> Properties --> Configuration Properties -->
C/C++ --> Language, and set 'Treat wchar_t as Built-in Type' to No.

--
Marty Larson [MS]
--
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
Use of included script samples are subject to the terms specified at
http://www.microsoft.com/info/cpyright.htm

Posted by Don Gambrell