Windows Embedded POSReady and POS for .NET Blog

Servicing FAQs for Windows Embedded POSReady 2009 OEMs

posblog — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 15:30:00 GMT

When I go to a monthly update download page for POSReady 2009 on the ECE from April, 2009 or earlier, why isn’t POSReady 2009 listed in the title?

The monthly Security updates for Windows Embedded POSReady 2009, from code freeze through April-2009, do not list POSReady 2009 on the download page Titles themselves. This is because the downloads weren’t mapped for POSReady 2009 applicability until April. Updates since April-2009 do list Windows Embedded POSReady 2009 in the page Title. All of the POSReady 2009 Monthly Updates are linked from here:

https://ece.partners.extranet.microsoft.com/ece/Embedded/Products/ProductSupplements/Embedded/POSReady/POSReady2009Updates.htm

What updates should I install from the monthly supplemental DVD I download from the ECE?

POSReady 2009 consumes the same updates as Windows XP. Windows XP updates are delivered on the Desktop Operating System (DTOS) update IMG, along with all other DTOS updates, including Vista, Windows 7, etc.

Use the Security Bulletin announcements (http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/summary.mspx), particularly the Affected Software, Windows Operating System section, to indicate which of the updates are intended for installation on Windows XP. The only updates that are potentially applicable to POSReady 2009 are those updates targeting Windows XP, x86, ENU.

Even some of the Windows XP updates may not be applicable to a POSReady 2009 environment, since it is a subset of Windows XP technologies. If an update is not applicable, it will not install even if executed on the system. This is also how updating Windows XP works, you may not have everything installed that could be installed on the system, therefore the update technology checks to see if the update is required and only installs when it is.

I’m an OEM, how do I ensure my POSReady 2009 image is up to date with Security updates?

End users depend on OEM guidance and a defined servicing plan with their OEM to ensure they install compatible and necessary Security updates. With this plan in place, their systems stay secure, and maintain industry standard compliance if required.

If your servicing plan for your customers includes Windows Update usage, one choice to bring a system current with security updates is to enable Windows Update on the device, and update the device with all required Windows Security Updates.

Another way to ship up-to-date POSReady 2009 devices is to download the monthly security supplemental update DVDs from the ECE, beginning with October, 2008. Apply each Windows XP, x86, ENU Security Update (see the previous question for information about applicable updates) through the current month prior to deploying your devices. Ensure that you have a servicing plan in place with your end users to maintain the security and integrity of the devices.

-Gina

Technorati Tags: Point of Sale,Point of Service,Embedded

October 2009 Security Update Notes

posblog — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 23:44:00 GMT

* Updated 11/5/09

Installing the .Net 1.1 SP1 Security Update, KB953297, on Windows Embedded for Point of Service

The MS09-061, Vulnerabilities in the Microsoft .NET Common Language Runtime Could Allow Remote Code Execution update may fail to install on a Windows Embedded Point Of Service Minimum configuration. Extracting the package, and then running the .msp manually will successfully install this update.

Installing the GDI+ Security Update, KB958869, on Windows Embedded for Point of Service and certain installations of Windows Embedded POSReady 2009

Due to an issue with settings to minimize the footprint of Windows Embedded Point Of Service, the MS09-062, Vulnerabilities in GDI+ Could Allow Remote Code Execution update is not getting installed. This has been an ongoing problem with the GDI+ updates and we are working with WinSE to correct this issue for future updates. Please follow these instructions to install this important update. If you have already installed the SP3 update for Windows Embedded Point Of Service, you should use the files from the SP3QFE directory when instructed to move the QFE folder.

Start a command prompt, this can be done by Clicking on Run from the Start menu, typing ‘cmd’ and pressing Enter.
Extract the files from the package by changing directories to the directory where you have copied the update and typing the following at the command prompt:
WindowsXP-KB958869-x86-ENU.exe /x:<dir name>
The remainder of these steps can be done from within Windows Explorer or from the Command Prompt as shown by the examples.
Move the SP2QFE\ASMS folder (or the SP3QFE\ASMS folder if you have installed the SP3 update for WEPOS) to the root of your extracted folder.
move <dir name>\SP2QFE\ASMS . (Note: space and period are required)
Execute the update.
<dir name>\update\update.exe
You will be guided through installation wizard to install the package. After installation is complete, the system will reboot.
You can now delete the temporary folder:
rmdir /s <dir name>

Example: (from a command prompt)
WindowsXP-KB958869-x86-ENU.exe /x:c:\temp\KB958869
cd /d c:\temp\KB958869
move SP2QFE\ASMS . (Note: space and period are required)
cd update
update.exe

Note: This issue may also be evident in Windows Embedded POSReady 2009 systems that are installed to a USB Storage device (not to a standard hard drive). The same workaround can be applied.

-Gina

Technorati Tags: WEPOS,Point of Sale

Interfacing with Biometric Devices from POS applications

posblog — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 19:19:00 GMT

Support for Biometric devices (such as fingerprint readers) was added to the Unified POS specification and incorporated into Microsoft’s POS for .NET in version 1.10. This device category allows applications to interface with such devices and is helpful in capturing and verifying biometric data (such as a finger print). This blog will attempt to describe one possible way to interface with this device using POS for .NET. As always, the developer should first carefully read and understand the Unified POS specification for this device category before attempting to interface with the device (See chapter 5 of Unified POS specification v1.13). Also, before you interface with a physical device, you must install a .NET Service Object for the device (contact the hardware vendor to get the .NET service object). Note that legacy OPOS based service objects are not supported for this device category, one must have a .NET Service Object for this device.

First, an application will want to know what biometric devices are available. This can be done using the PosExplorer class. For example, to get an ArrayList of all Biometric devices, one would do the following:

// Create an instance of an explorer synchronizes events to the main form's thread.

explorer = new PosExplorer(this);

// Create a list of all available biometric devices and bind them to the list box

biometricList = new ArrayList(explorer.GetDevices(DeviceType.Biometrics));

Next, an application may want to register for the DeviceAddedEvent and the DeviceRemovedEvent. Doing so will allow the application to respond to plug-n-play events for the device. Once the application has a device, it will need to do the normal open, claim, and enable as well as subscribe to the required events. This can be done as follows:

// Create an instance of the device, open and claim it.

activeBiometricDevice = (Biometrics)explorer.CreateInstance(selectedDevice);

activeBiometricDevice.Open();

activeBiometricDevice.Claim(1000);

// Enable the device, subscribe to date events, and enable data events

activeBiometricDevice.DeviceEnabled = true;

activeBiometricDevice.DataEvent += new DataEventHandler(activeDevice_DataEvent);

activeBiometricDevice.ErrorEvent += new DeviceErrorEventHandler(activeBiometric_ErrorEvent);

activeBiometricDevice.DataEventEnabled = true;

activeBiometricDevice.StatusUpdateEvent += new StatusUpdateEventHandler(BiometricsStatusUpdateEvent);

The above snippet will open, claim, and enable the device. It will then subscribe to desired events and will enable data events. Once this is done one can use the device as desired. Typically, one will use the beginEnrollCapture() method in order to capture biometric data for a given user. This method customarily results in a series of biometric data captures aggregated together returned in the final form of a BIR (see “beginEnrollCapture” method in the UPOS specification for more detail). Status update events may be provided to instruct the user what actions are required during this process. Status information may include indications such as:

· StatusSensorReady – typically indicates that the device is ready for the user to swipe their finger or provide other biometric data

· StatusSensorComplete – indicates that the biometric data has been captured

· StatusMoveSlower – Indicates that the user needs to move slower

· Etc.

After issuing a beginEnrollCapture method one will wish to save the data in the BiometricsInformationRecord property that is available after a data event. This data is associated with the user providing the biometric input and will be used to identify the person when attempting to verify the user. In order to identify a person, one needs to issue a BeginVerifyCapture command to the device. Again Status update events may be provided as well as a data event (if desired, one can end the operation by issuing an EndCapture command). In response to the data event, the application can then pass a list of BiometricsInformationRecord data to the service object via the IdentifyMatch() method to determine if the biometric data provided by the user matches any contained within the list. This can be done as follows:

List<BiometricsInformationRecord> birs = /* Your list of BIR data */

int[] order =

activeBiometricDevice.IdentifyMatch(50, 0, true,

activeBiometricDevice.BiometricsInformationRecord /* current biometric data to match */,

birs /* list of biometric data to check for match*/ );

Where order[] is a list that identifies all users where the biometric data provided matches within the criteria range specified. Well, that is pretty much all that is needed in order to get biometric data from a user (in the form of a BIR) and then to later verify that the biometric data matches a previously provided BIR.

Setting the BinaryConversions property for Legacy OPOS service objects

posblog — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 18:28:00 GMT

Microsoft’s POS for .NET supports both native .NET service objects and legacy OPOS service objects which are based upon OLE technology. Normally, POS for .NET interfaces with the legacy devices without any issues and this is done without any interaction or knowledge required by the application. However, there are some rare instances where an application may need to know if the service object is based upon OPOS or .NET. For example, in the rare cases where the OPOS service object requires that the BinaryConversion property be set to a value other than the default the application would need to know the type of service object that it is working with.

Because the BinaryConversion property is specific only to OPOS devices within the standard, it is not exposed by .NET service objects. However, one can still access this property when working with legacy OPOS service objects when this is required by the service object. This can be done by casting the service object returned by the POSExplorer to: ILegacyControlObject. Using the cast type, one can then get and set the BinaryConversion property and other OPOS specific properties.

The default value for the BinaryConversion property is None. However some devices, such as the Ingenico Signature Capture (SigCap) device, may require that the value be set to Nibble or Decimal. In such cases, the application would need to cast the device returned by the POSExplorer to ILegacyControlObject and then set the BinaryConversion property to the desired value (such as Nibble).

To learn more about the BinaryConversion property or any other variations of the standard that are specific to OPOS based service object, see page A-24 of Appendix A of the UnifiedPOS standard specification which is freely available at: http://www.nrf-arts.org/UnifiedPOS/default.htm. The help documentation included with the POS for .NET SDK also has some helpful information.

USB Boot Tricks and Tips

posblog — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 04:37:00 GMT

Developing the USB Boot feature into POSReady was both challenging and rewarding, and certainly loaded with unusual and often unexpected secrets. The biggest gain is that for the first time, the POSReady could easily be installed onto system without an IDE bus. That’s right, no floppy, no CDROM, no hard drive. This was a huge improvement over Windows Embedded for Point of Service which not only required a CDROM for installation, but required a floppy drive if installing to a SATA drive, besides the destination hard drive.

Installing to SATA

In the olden days, users had to store SATA drivers on a floppy drive supplied by the OEM or the motherboard’s manufacturer. Knowing that this was inconvenient for users, many motherboard manufacturers added a “Legacy” mode to allow SATA drives to be accessed as IDE. This may come at a price as some systems must disable some of SATA’s features.

With USB media, this has all changed. POSReady can now load and install drivers real-time, no floppy required.

To do this:

Find the driver floppy and find a workstation that has a floppy drive installed (this is probably the hardest part).
Insert the floppy drive and the POSReady USB Setup media into the workstation. Close the Autorun if it comes up, we won’t need it.
Create a “Drivers” directory on the root of the USB drive.
If you are deploying POSReady to a number of different systems with different drivers, you may optionally create a sub directory within Drivers. For example, you might have a \Drivers\Sata612 and \Drivers\Sata324 named after the hardware’s name or ID. Setup will look here and any sub directories for driver that match the detected hardware.
Copy the entire contents of the floppy to this new directory.
Disconnect the USB drive from Windows
Insert into the new system and boot from the USB drive.
You may notice the “Press F6” option will still pop up. Let it go, this will only look for floppy drives.
One the command prompt appears, type Install to start Setup.
If you go to fast (like I often do), you might get to the Partition screen and skip the Storage Drivers screen. This will produce a warning if no disks found. This is okay, click the Back button to go to the Storage Drivers screen.
Click the second radio button to install additional drivers, and click Next. The Partition screen should show your new SATA drive.

Setup should continue normally, hopefully with slightly better performance.

USB to USB

Okay, there are some problems to overcome. It takes a long time to install POSReady to a USB drive. Unfortunately there’s little we could do to make Setup run faster, but the good news is that USB drives read fast. In fact, installation from a USB drive is noticeably faster than a CDROM or DVD. Also, usage of POSReady once it’s installed is surprisingly fast. Depending on your application, you might not even notice the difference compared to a hard drive.

The biggest challenge you will run into is determining boot order. If you’re lucky, your system’s BIOS will allow you to choose this during the boot sequence or in the BIOS configuration. While slightly inconvenient, it’s generally reliable and consistent.

If your BIOS doesn’t allow this, there is a way to determine boot order of USB drives. Strangely, the physical USB ports are always enumerated in a consistent manner by the BIOS which will always boot from the first bootable device if finds.

So, to determine the boot order of USB ports, insert the two devices into ports and boot. If the system fails to boot from them, swap the two drives and try again. You will have a 50/50 chance of getting it right the first time and almost always works the next (with only strange exceptions).

After the first stage of Setup completes, it will then expect the system to boot from the destination drive. As soon as the system is shut down, swap the two drives to update the boot order. Note that USB drive enumeration happens early on in the boot process, so it’s often best to do this with the system turned off.

With this done, Setup should continue to progress and you can remove the Setup media when you see the POSReady logon screen.

Unattended Installs

Windows Embedded for Point of Service and POSReady both support unattended installation through an XML that can be easily generated during Setup (using the /guionly switch). On CDROM installs, this can be tricky forcing users to find a writable location for the XML.

USB drives eliminate this problem. Not only is it easier to store unattended scripts, it also allows other common tasks such as:

1. Adding your own applications to the runtime. This can be done by copying the files to the media and adding the Setup command lines to the Unattend’s RunOnce list.

2. Develop and test more complex scripts, such as updating configuration and registry settings.

Catches

The biggest downside to installing to USB drives (or any solid state media) is that too many writes will eventually damage it. Technology is improving this, but POSReady contains a couple features to help.

File Based Write Filter (FBWF): This service is installed, but not enabled, by default. Typically this is used more for security, allowing users to update and delete files but have them restored once rebooted. For USB devices, preventing updates to the media means a considerably longer life span.
Hibernation and Page File. Unfortunately these features are known to make a lot of updates to the hard disk and would be too much for these drives. These features are disabled by default.

More Help

For more help with installing to USB drives, see the MSDN documentation at:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd458834(WinEmbedded.20).aspx

- Brendan

Technorati Tags: POS,WEPOS

Two New Features Now Available for POSReady 2009!

posblog — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 22:47:15 GMT

Internet Explorer 8 and Silverlight 3.0 are now available for Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) on the ECE for Windows Embedded POSReady 2009. This update is also available directly from the Microsoft Download center, however end-customers should refer to their OEM servicing agreement prior to obtaining these updates from any source other than directly from their OEM to ensure uninterrupted support.

More Details:

IE8-

Windows® Internet Explorer® 8 (IE8) for Windows® Embedded POSReady 2009 offers partners new opportunities for innovation and extending the reach of online services to increase exposure and provide value to users. Features like Accelerators, Web Slices, and Visual Search enable constant connection with customers -regardless of where they browse. These service-integration features can be implemented without changing core code belonging to the service itself.

Silverlight 3.0-

Microsoft® Silverlight™ 3 for Windows® Embedded POSReady 2009 is a major update and delivers many new features and capabilities, enabling new scenarios for Windows Embedded POSReady 2009 devices. New features include support for hardware graphics acceleration, HD support, IIS Smooth Streaming, richer and more immersive graphic experiences, Out of Browser support and much more.

For full details on these features for Windows Embedded POSReady 2009 see the ECE site:

https://ece.partners.extranet.microsoft.com/ece/Embedded/Products/ProductSupplements/MicrosoftTechnologies/InternetExplorer/InternetExplorerOEMUpdates/DistOEM-IE8frWinEmbPOSRdy09.htm

https://ece.partners.extranet.microsoft.com/ece/Embedded/Products/ProductSupplements/MicrosoftTechnologies/Microsoft+Silverlight/Microsoft+Silverlight+OEM+Updates/DistOEM-Silverlight3WindowsEmbPOSReady2009.htm

If you have questions on accessing the ECE, please email MS Mobile & Embedded Communications Feedback & Support, ECE@microsoft.com.

-Terry

Technorati Tags: POSReady,WEPOS

The August 2009 Security Updates Are Now Available on the ECE

posblog — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 19:53:21 GMT

The August 2009 Security Updates - Product Download is now available for Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) on the ECE for Windows Embedded POSReady 2009 and Windows Embedded for Point of Service. These updates are also individually available directly from the Microsoft Download center as well as Windows Update, however end-customers should refer to their OEM servicing agreement prior to obtaining these updates from any source other than directly from their OEM to ensure uninterrupted support.

The August Security updates include:

956744 Vulnerabilities in Remote Desktop Client Could Allow Remote Code Execution
958469 Vulnerabilities in Remote Desktop Client Could Allow Remote Code Execution
958470 Vulnerabilities in Remote Desktop Client Could Allow Remote Code Execution
958471 Vulnerabilities in Remote Desktop Client Could Allow Remote Code Execution
960859 Vulnerability in Telnet could allow remote code execution
961371 Vulnerability in the Embedded OpenType Font Engine Could Allow Remote Code Execution
968389 Install this update to help strengthen authentication credentials in specific scenarios.
971032 Vulnerability in Message Queuing Could Allow Elevation of Privilege
971557 Vulnerabilities in Windows Media File Processing Could Allow Remote Code Execution
971657 Vulnerability in Workstation Service Could Allow Elevation of Privilege
972260 Cumulative Security Update for Internet Explorer
972591 Vulnerability in ASP.NET Could Allow Denial of Service
972592 Vulnerability in ASP.NET Could Allow Denial of Service
972593 Vulnerability in ASP.NET Could Allow Denial of Service
972594 Vulnerability in ASP.NET Could Allow Denial of Service
972636 This Compatibility View List update helps make Web sites that are designed for older browsers look better in Internet Explorer 8.
973354 Vulnerabilities in Microsoft Active Template Library (ATL) Could Allow Remote Code Execution
973507 Vulnerabilities in Microsoft Active Template Library (ATL) Could Allow Remote Code Execution
973540 Vulnerabilities in Microsoft Active Template Library (ATL) Could Allow Remote Code Execution
973815 Vulnerabilities in Microsoft Active Template Library (ATL) Could Allow Remote Code Execution
973869 Vulnerabilities in Microsoft Active Template Library (ATL) Could Allow Remote Code Execution

For full details on the August 2009 Security Updates see the ECE site:

https://ece.partners.extranet.microsoft.com/ece/Embedded/Products/ProductSupplements/Embedded/WEPOS/OEMDownloads/DistOEMAug09WinEmbPOSRdy09WEPOSSpUpdts.htm

If you have questions on accessing the ECE, please email MS Mobile & Embedded Communications Feedback & Support, ECE@microsoft.com.

- Terry

Technorati Tags: POSReady,WEPOS

Out of Band August 2009 Security Updates Are Now Available on the ECE

posblog — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 21:41:00 GMT

The August 2009 Out-of-Band Security Update for POSReady 2009 and WEPOS - Product Download is now available on the ECE for Microsoft® Windows® Embedded POSReady 2009, Microsoft® Windows® Embedded for Point of Service 1.0 and Microsoft® Windows® Embedded for Point of Service 1.1.

This OOB Security update is rated as Critical and includes:

KB 972260 - Cumulative Security Update for Internet Explorer

For full details on this Embedded Windows Security Updates see the ECE site:

https://ece.partners.extranet.microsoft.com/ece/Embedded/Products/ProductSupplements/Embedded/WEPOS/OEMDownloads/DistOEM-Aug09Out-of-BandSecurityUpdateforWEPOS.htm

If you have questions on accessing the ECE, please email MS Mobile & Embedded Communications Feedback & Support, ECE@microsoft.com.

Thanks,

- Patrick

Deployments of Self-Checkout expected to quadruple...

posblog — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 19:30:00 GMT

A new study from London-based Retail Banking Research Ltd., predicts the number of Self-Checkout terminals to quadruple by 2014. Self-checkout provides efficiencies that both retailers and customers embrace. Windows Embedded POSReady 2009 is an ideal operating system for use on Self-Checkout terminals in addition to attended point-of-sale and kiosks.

Read the full story

-Terry

Announcing Windows Embedded POSReady TechNet Forum…

posblog — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 19:54:00 GMT

We are very pleased to announce that we have recently created a TechNet Forum for POSReady. You can find the link here:

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/posready.

The POSReady forum provides you an opportunity to join a community of your fellow POSReady IT Pros and alike to ask your questions, answer questions from others, share knowledge, and learn from each other. Start today to get your hands dirty by posting questions or answers! We from the product team will monitor the forum from time to time, but it is your forum, your community, make it fun and vibrant for yourself :-).

If you have any suggestions or feedback on the POSReady product, please feel free to post a comment in the forum. You may also post questions and comments about older versions of POSReady, more commonly known as Windows Embedded for Point of Service 1.x.

By the way, here are a few other related resources:

POSReady product information on the Windows Embedded site: http://www.posready.com
POSReady MSDN Library: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd458821(WinEmbedded.20).aspx.

- Weijuan

Technorati Tags: XPe,embedded, POSReady

POSReady 2009 Deployment Planning Guide is here!

posblog — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 02:37:00 GMT

I’m thrilled to announce that the POSReady 2009 Deployment Planning Guide has been released to MSDN!

This guide expands on our existing documentation and includes more information geared towards deployment considerations for the retailer, including recommendations for building, customizing, cloning, capturing, redeploying, and managing POSReady 2009 images in a retail environment through the usage of Windows Deployment Services and System Center Configuration Manager. Scripts and step-by-step instructions are provided for managing images and integrating them with WDS and SCCM technologies.

Check it out! You might find the answers to a few POSReady deployment questions you didn’t even know you wanted to ask!

- Ryan

Introduction to new POSReady 2009 Features via Setup Wizard

posblog — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 22:00:00 GMT

If you didn’t already know, Windows Embedded POSReady is the successor of Windows Embedded for Point of Service. Windows Embedded POSReady boasts a long list of new and/or improved features over Windows Embedded for Point of Service – just check out the 38 features listed on http://www.posready.com/.

Some of the changes we made are obvious, others are less obvious. For this post, I’m going to go over the changes we made that you’ll notice when stepping through the Setup wizard screens.

Installation Method

In Windows Embedded for Point of Service, the only way you could run Setup using an answer file was through the command line. Catching the “Press any key…” prompt can be a slight annoyance if you’re not the type to wait patiently in front of the screen. In Windows Embedded POSReady, you have the option to pass in the answer file on the second screen.

By selecting the Unattended Setup option as shown in the screenshot below, you are prompted to browse to the location of your answer file. The Setup wizard then proceeds automatically by using the values specified in your file.

Storage Drivers

Originally available only to OEMs as a supplement, the ability to add third-party mass storage drivers is now built into the Setup wizard. While you still need to supply the drivers immediately after booting from CD or DVD by pressing F6, you now don’t need to have the drivers on the CD or DVD itself in order to complete the wizard.

After selecting the Install Third-Party Storage Drivers option, as in the screenshot below, removable media locations, such as USB drives, are automatically searched for possible drivers.

Note that if you’re running Setup from a USB flash disk, you won’t need to supply the drivers immediately after booting.

See Recipe for Mass Storage Device Support to learn more about the various driver injection options available for Windows Embedded for Point of Service 1.1 Update.

Language Settings and Regional Settings

These two wizard screens were originally combined into one screen in Windows Embedded for Point of Service. In Windows Embedded POSReady, we simplified the user interface and vastly improved the code for localizing the OS. The workaround steps previously described in this blog series no longer applies for POSReady. As well, we have also resolved the issues that were outlined in the series.

You’ll notice on the Language Settings screen that we now use language collections for localization of the UI. Use of these language collections allow for support of multiple languages at a time instead of installing support for individual languages one at a time. Another benefit to using the language collections is that they can also be uninstalled after Setup has completed, similarly to the behaviour of optional components which is described next.

More information about language collections can be found here (Locale IDs, Input Locales, and Language Collections for Windows XP and Windows Server 2003) and here (Language Collection and Fonts in Windows XP).

Installation Type

For those of you who need a vanilla POSReady image, this new screen can help to abstract the nitty-gritty details behind individual optional components and virtual memory values. Selecting Typical or Minimum is all you’ll need to do before continuing on to the next wizard screen of entering your computer name and admin password.

For the rest of you who need the option to select individual optional components and tweak the virtual memory, selecting the Custom option will bring you to the Optional Components and Virtual Memory screens that are described next.

If you really can’t decide what option to select on the Installation Type screen, keep in mind that you can always add on or remove optional components after Setup is complete, so there’s some leeway for you to make changes later.

Optional Components and Virtual Memory

If you select the custom option from the Installation Type screen, you will be taken to the Optional Components and Virtual Memory screens.

The Optional Components screen is somewhat reminiscent of that of Windows Embedded for Point of Service, but you’ll easily notice some key differences. One is that there are more options available and the options are more granular. This level of granularity can help you reduce the disk space needed for the image and reduce the time needed to install the image, among other benefits. Another difference is that the language packs have now been removed since selection of the language collections are already taken care of on the Language Settings screen.

The Virtual Memory screen was previously not offered in the Windows Embedded for Point of Service. Automatic calculation was used if you installed Windows Embedded for Point of Service through the Setup wizard and changes to virtual memory could only be done through use of the answer file when needed. With the addition of the USB Boot feature in POSReady and retail hardware catching up on the latest processing speeds nowadays, we found that direct manipulation of the paging file size in the wizard proved to be an added benefit and, sometimes, necessary.

I hope you liked this walk through of the POSReady Setup wizard. If you’re interested in trying it out yourself, you are welcome to order a trial copy and register for a Product Key from http://www.posready.com/ (see links on the far right).

Stay tuned for future posts that go into more detail behind some of the new features of POSReady!

-Christina

Updates for .NET 3.5 SP1 as included with POSReady 2009 are now Available on MOO and ECE

posblog — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 04:01:00 GMT

This release contains updates for the Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 Service Pack 1. Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 was included inbox with Windows Embedded POSReady 2009. These updates are for POSReady OEMs using .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 to update their POSReady systems.

Note: The updates should be installed in numerical order. Restarts may be required.

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

CD CONTENTS:

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

Supplement_Notice_POSReady_2009.txt - (Supplemental License Agreement)

Update_Information.txt - (Readme Document)

\Update_Packages - Directory containing:

NDP20SP2-KB958481-x86.exe - (KB 958481)

NDP30SP2-KB958483-x86.exe - (KB 958483)

NDP35SP1-KB958484-x86.exe - (KB 958484)

WindowsXP-KB961118-x86-ENU.exe - (KB 961118)

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

UPDATE DESCRIPTIONS

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

KB 958481, 958483, 958484 Application Compatibility Updates

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

MORE INFORMATION: These updates for .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 fix the issues that are described in these Microsoft Knowledge Base articles:

KB 958481 - List of the issues that are addressed by the Application Compatibility Update for the .NET Framework 2.0 Service Pack 2

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/958481

KB 958483 - List of the issues that are addressed by the Application Compatibility Update for the .NET Framework 3.0 Service Pack 2

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/958483

KB 958484 - List of the issues that are addressed by the Application Compatibility Update for the .NET Framework 3.5 Service Pack 1

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/958484

These updates should be installed in the following sequence:

1. Install NDP20SP2-KB958481-x86.exe

2. Install NDP30SP2-KB958483-x86.exe

3. Install NDP35SP1-KB958484-x86.exe

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

KB 961118 – Inbox PCL Printer Driver update

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

MORE INFORMATION: This update for .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 fixes the issue described in this Microsoft Knowledge Base article:

KB 961118 - All the PCL inbox printer drivers become unsigned after you install the Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 Service Pack 1

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/961118

-Gina

Companion Setup Tour Part 3: Create USB Flash Drive Install

posblog — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 18:00:00 GMT

On part two of our tour last week, we discussed MUI languages. We will conclude the tour this week with a look at one more wizard provided by Companion Setup.

POSReady allows for installation from a bootable USB Flash Drive. The Create USB Flash Drive Install wizard allows you to configure a USB drive as POSReady installation media. Unlike the previous two wizards I explained, which could only be accessed from within a POSReady installation, this wizard can be run on any Windows system.

This wizard will detect all USB drives connected to the system that are of an appropriate size to store the POSReady installation. When you select the drive you wish use from the dropdown menu and click Install, the wizard will format the drive, prepare it as bootable device, and then copy over the necessary files.

When the process completes, your USB drive will be fully functional POSReady installation media. This also means that it includes its own Companion Setup. During the initial preparation of the USB drive, you could have also selected various Companion Programs and MUI Languages to copy over as well such that they would be available when launching Companion Setup from the USB. And of course, you can use the Companion Setup on your newly generated POSReady USB media to generate even more POSReady USB media!

And that concludes our tour! I hope you enjoyed the trip and learned a few things along the way. Be sure to watch your head when disembarking the bus and don’t forget to tip your driver!

Ryan

National Retail Federation (NRF) and the Retail Industry Leaders Association (RILA) have suspended merger talks.

posblog — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 22:25:00 GMT

National Retail Federation (NRF) and the Retail Industry Leaders Association (RILA) have suspended merger talks.

Previously it was announced that the NRF and RILA had agreed, in principle, to merge; however, this week the NRF president has indicated that the boards of both groups have decided to end merger discussions. Since the merger announcement, it was unclear, what, if any, impact this would have on the various ARTS initiatives. During this time, Microsoft has continued to remain an active member of ARTS especially as this pertains to the Unified POS standard specifications. Microsoft’s POS for .NET remains the best choice for .NET applications that wish to interface with POS peripherals in accordance with the UnifiedPOS standard. In order to help .NET developers learn more about POS for .NET and the Unified POS standard, we have recently created a new forum under the .NET developer community. The forum is available here:

http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/posfordotnet/

- Sylvester