"Stand Alone" Windows Embedded CE 6.0 Test Kit available for download.

The CE 6.0 CETK (CE Test Kit) is now available as a stand-alone download.

This means that testers can download the CETK and test devices (and device images) in development without needing the full Windows Embedded CE 6.0 product.

This is the same CETK that ships with the CE 6.0 Evaluation kit and the CE 6.0 Full Product - you may still be interested in getting the CE 6.0 development tools if you are interested in looking at the source code for the CETK tests or need to develop your own custom CETK tests.

- Mike

Comments

• Anonymous
  January 04, 2007
  Thanks for doing that for test engineers. However, could you do the simple OS build kit for OS developers. I don't appreciate the CE6 OS development to be so.... VS dependent.

• Anonymous
  January 05, 2007
  Hello, Thanks for the news. But can't the Windows Embedded CE team stop releasing programs using that web setup bootstrapper? Its use is undocumented, it is heavier (the setup package must be downloaded and copied multiple times) than a local setup, it requires connectivity, it obliges a session with administrator rights to walk and to download from the internet. The web setup certainly furnishes benefits but I hope you will consider these remarks for the team’s excellent future product release. Regards.

• Anonymous
  January 05, 2007
  Sebastien, Thanks for the feedback.  We're currently re-evaluating our need for this particular download scenario in future releases. In the past, the thinking has been that downloads of very large files are too unreliable, so we try to break the large downloads into smaller chunks which have demonstrably higher download success rates.  (The Windows Embedded CE 6.0 CETK is approximately 137MB) That leaves us with the problem of trying to optimize the user's experience with these numerous small chunks (making sure that they get them all, that they run the right files, etc.).  The web-based install is currently the best way to manage that. For some of our larger releases (for example, Windows Embedded CE 6.0 itself), this also allows customers to only download the files that they require (for example, not downloading the MIPS CPU support if they don't want to install it).  No other technology allows that flexibility. Once again, though, thanks for your feedback.  We're looking hard at that (and related) scenarios for the future releases. Thanks, Robert McIntyre (MSFT) Program Manager, Windows Embedded CE 6.0 Setup

• Anonymous
  January 07, 2007
  Hi Robert, Thanks for your response. Mike, I’m sorry to use your comments for this –now off-topic- subject. Robert, as a user of CE, I am pleased with the fact you're trying to make Windows Embedded CE related setup flexible and you are relying on the more standard and transparent Windows Installer for that. However, as I said before I find the actual process obscure, unnatural and annoying. Here are some of my concerns:

• the setup bootstrapper still support some common command lines switches -like the /A-. If their functionality seems to work correctly, their objectives cannot be fulfilled by the very nature of this particular setup.
• the setup bootstrapper always download the Windows CE 6.0 Test Kit.msi and copy it using its URL encoded name at the root of the system drive. If so why the user may not initially download this file when he choose to deploy this program? This renders any online/offline setup scenario impossible apart if I write my own bootstrapper.
• this process has bad user interactivity: if the msi package can't be copied you don't always know a precise reason for it (there seems to be two main root reasons: Internet download problem and limited rights to write the file).
• the setup bootstrapper doesn't default and doesn’t allow to set any logging for the msiexec service unless I have enforced it on my computer using a group policy or regedit. This renders the setup process difficult to understand and to debug.
• the Windows CE 6.0 Test Kit.msi always downloads files it references from the Internet. It randomizes the setup process length and result.
• the Windows CE 6.0 Test Kit.msi present only one feature so why is there a need to download files from the Internet?  Why don't you integrate this feature in the msi database or in a cab file accompanying it? If this companion file is missing you could always automate its retrieval from Internet and warn the user.
• I can’t repair the setup without having an Internet connexion and nothing specify it before the repair process stops. And I think I could extrapolate it to the Windows Embedded CE 6.0 Evaluation setup. In this case I would like to download first a core setup files (using Windows Installer features) required for any install with its bootstrapper and eventually download optional (processor specific features or tools for example) parts of your setup. For flexibility and because of how I understand Windows Installer architecture, I need to have a local copy of the setup files I want to interact with. In fact I don’t want automation, because there is always a scenario that it cannot cover. Again I fully enjoy the fact your team use a Windows Installer based process. Thanks, Sébastien Mouren