Application Activation
4/19/2010
At the point of manufacture, applications can be pre-bundled on Windows Mobile devices. Application activation allows mobile operators to provide subscription-only services to users. When a user subscribes to a service that requires the use of an application that is pre-bundled on the device, the mobile operator can activate the application over the air.
You can accomplish application activation by pushing a message to the device over the air. The activation message, contained in an XML file, specifies values that are set in the device registry and enables the use of the application.
These registry keys can be placed into the secure portion of the registry. This ensures that only an entity with sufficient rights will be able to modify the key, thus activating the application.
After the Push Router authenticates the source of the message, it passes the data to the Configuration Manager, which determines which Configuration Service Providers will handle the activation request. The Registry Configuration Service Provider processes the registry update.