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Emulator with MSFP/AKU 2.0

The Windows Mobile 5.0 Emulator preview is an invaluable tool if you have to support Windows Mobile 5.0 devices. However, to date, (April 2006), the only image that has been released with the latest software has been a landscape Smartphone (see here: http://blog.sembee.co.uk/archive/2006/04/09/10.aspx). Smartphones don't make very good emulators, and their functionality is very limiting compared to a full Windows Mobile device. 

However, one of their OEMs has released an image, but this is a little more difficult to get hold of. Not only that, but the image is for one of the most popular Windows Mobile devices in the USA.

The PALM Treo 700w.

Getting the Image

There is a little more effort required to get the emulator files for the Palm Treo 700w as it it is tucked away inside their developer programme.

Therefore you need to join their developer programme, which is free of charge. It requires a working email address as they send you the login information by email.
http://pluggedin.palm.com/regac/pluggedin/index.jsp

Once you have become a member, go to the Treo 700W page and download the 26mb zip file. After unzipping the file, you will find a single MSI.

Unfortunately, like the SDK from Microsoft, this MSI requires the presence of Visual Studio to install.
This isn't a major problem. As you may have read on my web site, I have a technique to break in to the MSI file and extract the files that you need.
http://www.amset.info/pocketpc/wm5emulator.asp

Once you have extracted the contents, get the bin file from the folder "0409" and the skins file from the folder Treo700w1-10 (should be an XML and some image files). Put them in the same folder, somewhere easy to remember as you need to enter the path in to a command line.

Using the Image

Once again, it requires a command line start of the Emulator. Here is a sample, where the bin file and the skins have both been dumped in to the same folder, called 1, in the root of the C: drive:

C:\>"C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Device Emulator Preview\DeviceEmulator.exe" "C:\
1\nk.bin" /skin "C:\1\Treo700w.xml" /p /memsize 256 /s "C:\Program Files\Microsoft\
Device Emulator Preview\treo700w.dess"

Command lines as my previous blog posting, but in case you are reading this standalone:

/skin is the location of the XML file. Enclose in " if the path contains spaces.
/p enables the NE2000 network card
/memsize is the amount of RAM allocated to the device. 256 is the max
/s is the place to save the image

All other options outlined on my web page at amset.info apply to the image as well.

Notes and Observations

Make sure that you give it more than 64mb of RAM, as per my command line above. Less than that and everything doesn't load correctly.

It appears that the actual push functionality doesn't work, which is not surprising as push only works over a mobile phone connection, which the emulator doesn't have. All other functions work correctly.

I was able to get SSL certificates installed on the device, so if you need to import one then this shouldn't be too difficult. Use the Storage Card trick (on the page at amset.info linked above).

E12 (aka Exchange 2007)

One last word - this image works wonderfully with E12. On my Beta system it connected straight away, did the online lookup to the GAL and basically everything worked as it should.

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