Getting Started with Windows Mobile Development

In this post, you’ll learn everything you need know to get started with the development of Windows Mobile applications ?.

Windows Mobile is a platform for running applications on mobile devices built on top of WINCE 5.0 .

There are 3-different platforms available

  • Windows mobile standard targeting the the Non touchscreen devices .
  • Windows Mobile Professional targeting the touch screen devices .
  • Windows Mobile Classic – Similar to Windows Mobile Professional but without the phone functionalities.

Following are the tools required to develop the Windows Mobile Applications

1. Visual Studio 2005 / 2008 .

Note that Visual Studio Express Edition does not support Windows Mobile Development .

You can download the trial version of Visual Studio 2008 here .

2. Active Sync / Windows Mobile Device Manager

Software to Connect Windows Mobile device with the development computer.

If you are using Windows XP , then ActiveSync is Required . If Windows Vista or Windows 7 is used  , then Windows Mobile Device Center is required .

Download the latest version of Active Sync here .

3. Compact Framework V2.0 SP1 or newer

4. One or more of the Following SDK’s are required depending on the target device .

  1. Windows Mobile Standard : Windows Mobile 6 Standard SDK
  2. Windows Mobile Classic and Professional : Windows Mobile 6 Professional SDK.
  3. WIndows Mobile 6.5 Developer Toolkit – Standard and Professional

5. Click here to download the Standalone Device Emulator 1.0 with Windows Mobile OS Images if required to run the Applications without installing Visual studio .

Choices for Development

There are various options for the developers to develop applications for Windows Mobile . These include

1. Native Code Development using embedded VC++ etc.

2. Managed Code development using languages like C#,VB.NET,Delphi Prism etc and that uses Compact Framework .

    2 Comments

  1. glen weyo
    November 18, 2011
    Reply

    i cannot get the button in my visual studio 2008 while developing a windows 6.0 application using both the .net cf 3.0 and .net cf 2.0. how can i add it.
    or how/where do i add the code for the button in order to use it.

  2. November 18, 2011
    Reply

    Which version of the SDK are you using ? Touch screen or Non – touch screen device ?

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