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Windows Embedded Compact 7 Evaluation Download

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Hey everyone, it is with great joy that I tell you Windows Embedded Compact 7 has been released. It has been well over 8 months since I last posted about the product's status. I am happy to do so now and hope that you test the download and installation experiences. Your feedback will help us improve the product experience.

Here are a couple ways you could help me out.

Our installer, the engine, writes all the logs to the user’s profile temporary directory. Typically this would be the environment variable %temp%. In the instance of WindowsEmbeddedCompact7.exe and WindowsEmbeddedSilverlightTools.exe, we create log files which remove the .exe and add .nnnn.log. So the full string would look something like WindowsEmbeddedCompact7.0001.log.

If you are familiar with Windows API calls and error codes, you should be able to scan the logs and find errors and issues that will help you address the problem you are seeing. If you aren’t familiar with the above, please feel free contact me through this blog by sending me a direct email and I will try to help you directly.

One item I've already found involves the physical product discs. In Compact 7 we introduced a new feature called the Windows Embedded Developer Update. The developer update functionality is installed as a Visual Studio add-in during the Compact 7 installation. We have noticed an irregular occurrence that, after the Compact 7 installation has completed and within the same user session (i.e., the user hasn't logged off or rebooted since completing the install) when starting Visual Studio, users may see a Windows dialog saying, “There is no disk in drive. Please insert a disk into drive D.” This occurs when the Windows Embedded Developer Update checks for an update on-line. So far, we've only been able to reproduce this when the user has removed the disc from the drive and hasn't yet rebooted or logged off after completing the install.

There is no disk in the drive. Please insert a disk into drive D:.

The root issue is straightforward. Windows is simply looking for a disk to be in your CD/DVD drive. This prompt can be dismissed by placing any disc in the drive. It does not need to be the Compact 7 installer disc. We're fixing this right now so that the operating system won't look for a disc in the drive when starting the Windows Embedded Developer Update. We are running the fix through an extended test cycle. If you experience this, please do write me (via this blog) so I can learn more about how it occurred on your system and provide assistance as needed.

Here are three simple workarounds: Either click the continue button 41 times (once for each MSI in Compact 7) or put any disc at all into your disc drive or log off and then log back into the user account. Any of these will dismiss the message and allow for the Windows Embedded Developer Update to continue checking online for new updates.

I will update this post as soon as we release this fix to the field. Your comments and feedback are most welcome.

Comments

  • Anonymous
    March 03, 2011
    This is the awesome

  • Anonymous
    March 03, 2011
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    March 04, 2011
    @Django Thank you for your compliment. @Wilfried If you have a MSDN subscription you will have access to the ISOs directly. We actually have it in mind to build the feature you asked for above. We call it "offline layouts". This would allow you, the user, to select the content you wanted and download it to a selected location without installing afterwords. You could later use that content to install. I will be taking a collection of requests and looking for bugs that make things challenging. I will then post a blog with what I have found and see if those are the features everyone wants. Please check back to my blog from time to time and let me know what you are seeing!

  • Anonymous
    April 12, 2011
    which hardware device can I install on to test? can I install it on my Android cell phone?

  • Anonymous
    April 13, 2011
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    May 05, 2011
    I installed WEC7 on an XP Pro machine that had VS2008 Pro on it.  The install went smoothly, but my VS2008 Pro didn't recognize the WEC7 install and doesn't offer a Platform Builder option on the Tools menu or when creating a new project.  Is there a workaround?

  • Anonymous
    May 05, 2011
    @Curtis There is something you need to look for when installing Compact 7. If you chose a Full install you may have missed it. In a customized install or a Modify through Add/Remove Programs you may see a red circle with an X in it. This is stating that you don't have the required prerequisites on the machine. You need to have VS 2008 SP1 with the Smart Device option installed for Platform Builder to be installed.

  • Anonymous
    July 10, 2011
    What is the reason that VS2010 not being support? :(

  • Anonymous
    July 14, 2011
    @NJK Thanks for your comment. Our team is investigating what it will take to add Visual Studio 2010 support, as well as several other interesting new feature requests. We're at a very early stage and don't have anything more to announce at this time. Our team is working on an updated Compact roadmap and expect to release it at the end of the year.

  • Anonymous
    January 31, 2012
    Hello you wrote at 3-4-11 to wilfried that with a MSDN subscription all updates as a iso image to be downloadabel. But i see only update 1 and update 3 the others are missing. Is that a mistake ? or are they forgotten ? Thanks

  • Anonymous
    May 14, 2012
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    May 15, 2012
    @CEUser, we don't support XP SP2. Please make sure to upgrade to SP3 in order to install Compact 7.