Pocket PC Software on WM5 Smartphone

[Guest goatpunch]

Hi,

I've had a look around and haven't been able to find much information on taking software designed to run on Windows Mobile 5 Pocket PC and installing it on a WM5 Smartphone.

The advantage of a Smartphone for me was the smaller form factor, the huge disadvantage so far is the pain of getting stuff to run on it- it seems that nearly every time a company updates their software to WM5, they forget to release a version that runs on WM5 Smartphone. One big selling point of WM5 is the fact that it's the same OS underneath on both PPC and Smartphone.

The first obvious hurdle is getting the Pocket PC App to install. With some applications (e.g. Skype) it's not too hard to extract the binary executable from the CAB and just run it on the smartphone, but it would be nice to be able to either simply tweak the CAB so that it can install on Smartphone , or even better hack the phone so that it doesn't refuse to install 'Pocket PC' CABs.

A guy recently posted a freeware application called SPHelper which emulates a mouse cursor, so there is an answer to the problem of not having a stylus.

I think that the top and bottom menu bars are slightly different heights between Pocket PC and Smartphone- does this cause any problems, or just a few lost pixels?

Anyone got a 'Pocket PC Emulator for Smartphone' in the works? How about a device in Smartphone form factor, but WM5 PPC isntalled and a (thinkpad style) Trackpoint mouse instead of a stylus?

Edited April 3, 2006 by goatpunch

[Guest looeee]

Its not that easy but not impossible.

Your best bet would be to get a PPC or to use an emulator and do something far cleverer than I'm suggesting ... but I don't have either.

Go to install the PPC app but don't connect the smartphone because you get that "wrong device" error. Go to c:\program files\ms activesync and dig out the CAB file from one of the subfolders. Some packages you just get the CAB and don't need this file

Extract all the files using winzip.

You'll see that they all have scrambled names

Sort them by size and starting from the smallest, put them into Notepad. You are looking for a file that contains a list of (the original) filenames.

Once you've found this file, rename all your scrambled filenames to the real filenames (you may have to do a bit of guesswork). Often it is obvious what to rename the files to. Sometimes you have a choice of candidates.

Some tips that may help are:

exe and dll files often (but not always) have version tabs, so if you right-click on the file in Windows Explorer, go to properties and it has a version tab then that file is a dll or exe and not some other file like txt jpg.

exe files have icons so if you have a choice of candidates for your exe and you change the extension of one of them and you see an icon, then that's your exe.

so you've got your files, copied them to the phone but the app doesn't work ... what now?

well chances are that one of the dll files may need registering. grab dependencywalker from dependencywalker.com and put all your files into it. There is a window center-right that lists all the function exports.

If you see an entry called DllRegisterServer then you'll need to register it on the phone with a program called RegSrvCE

This technique will not always work. Pocket PC is not the same operating system as smartphone. There are several things that it can do that smartphone cannot.

Please can you share any apps that you can get going? I am gutted that Pocket Acrobat doesn't work, but use the PocketPC version of Realplayer daily.

looeee

[Guest Tech]

there is a reason for PPC software not working on smartphones and so on - while the OS will be the same, the difference is the form factor/platform and hardware. All this is different causing some apps not to work.

this is why - for example you cannot expect a truck engine to fit in a mini cooper - it aint gonna work ;)

[Guest PeterG]

Let's be careful when we say that the OSes are the same.

I had an issue while porting a PocketPC application to the SmartPhone platform. The particular application used the TabControl. The TabControl is not supported WM5 Smartphone edition.

This is not something that is a hardware or device issue. I view this as a difference in the supported controls that Microsoft has made in the different versions of the WM5 operating system.

So, if you have a application that uses the TabControl on WM5 for PocketPC, it will not work on WM5 for Smartphone.

[Guest goatpunch]

Let's be careful when we say that the OSes are the same.

[...]

So, if you have a application that uses the TabControl on WM5 for PocketPC, it will not work on WM5 for Smartphone.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Thanks for the info. OK, so there are some WM5 PPC controls that are not supported on WM5 SP. What would it take to support these on a smartphone- is there some equivalent to a common controls dll that differs between the two?

I still believe that they are the same OSs underneath, and that there must be ways of convincing PPC software to run on SP.

[Guest swivel]

there is a reason for PPC software not working on smartphones and so on - while the OS will be the same, the difference is the form factor/platform and hardware. All this is different causing some apps not to work.

this is why - for example you cannot expect a truck engine to fit in a mini cooper - it aint gonna work ;)

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Not only was that a terrible analogy, it was also incorrect on all possible levels. You CAN run many PPC apps on a Smartphone. So you're way off base when you say "it ain't gonna work ;)" :roll: