Windows Mobile Device Center and Vista: Did You Go Back to XP?

[Sven]

Originally Posted by emuelle1

I'm sticking with WMDC and Vista for now, although I admit that I can't help but wonder what MS was thinking with the WMDC. I wonder if the WMDC was designed more for the Zune and Windows Mobile was thrown in as an afterthought before release.

????what??? WMDC has nothing to do with the Zune. It has it's own sync process. Doesn't use Sync Center, WMDC, or Windows Media Player. It's as if it wasn't MS at all. No different than buying an iPod as far as compatibility with stuff that doesn't have to be installed with it.

As far as WMDC is concerned, I am still on it, on my Vista desktop, but have upgraded my Vista laptop to XP because I needed a reliable sync solution. WMDC has twice now decided it wasn't going to recognize any of my devices. I've got it back, wasting numerous hours in the process, but I never had near the aggravation with any version of AS. It irritates me everytime I look at the eyecandy that was obviously a greater priority than functionality.

[Sven]

Originally Posted by emuelle1

I'm sticking with WMDC and Vista for now, although I admit that I can't help but wonder what MS was thinking with the WMDC. I wonder if the WMDC was designed more for the Zune and Windows Mobile was thrown in as an afterthought before release.

????what??? WMDC has nothing to do with the Zune. It has it's own sync process. Doesn't use Sync Center, WMDC, or Windows Media Player. It's as if it wasn't MS at all. No different than buying an iPod as far as compatibility with stuff that doesn't have to be installed with it.

As far as WMDC is concerned, I am still on it, on my Vista desktop, but have upgraded my Vista laptop to XP because I needed a reliable sync solution. WMDC has twice now decided it wasn't going to recognize any of my devices. I've got it back, wasting numerous hours in the process, but I never had near the aggravation with any version of AS. It irritates me everytime I look at the eyecandy that was obviously a greater priority than functionality.

[heliod]

I am one of the guys still with Vista, and I have a suggestion to everyone having problems:

I came to notice that most of the problems are connected to USB connections. Then I have just disabled the USB Sync, I connect the plug only when I need to recharge, but the real Sync I do via Bluetooth. Has been working very well for me since then.

[Mark from Canada]

Isn't it great. :evil:
It took them years and removal of features from Active Sync piece by piece and they still managed to not make it more stable.
So - when nobody thought that it could get any worse they introduced WMDC - maybe just to make Active Sync look good.
I used to have many problems syncing - which are really hard to diagnose because you have no clue what the prolem is.
For me it turned out that it didn't like some appointments.
So, instead of syncing everything else and tell me where the problem lies, it just didn't sync. It just said Sync failed. No reason, no help, nothing.
...but the connection was there because I could connect from the PPC to the Internet.
That seems like a great opportunity for a third-party sync.
Mind you - maybe not: I used to sync everything with AS, now I have separate sync apps for Outlook (WMDC), databases (DOTR), eWallet and I have to open AvantGo and start syncing manually.
Is it just me or do get things more complicated?
I guess the next step is to have no sync at all - and then to not allow smart devices to connect to the PC at all...
Oh yes - and that I can't modify my PPC Start Menu from the PC any more is :roll:

Mark

[ctmagnus]

I've had very few issues to date. I occasionally lose the partnership (something that never happened to me with ActiveSync) but I find that if I wait until everything is done syncing then drag my eWallet files to the device (as opposed to copying them over while syncing is still happening) there are no problems.

[alanjrobertson]

Wow, I'd heard WMDC was pretty rubbish but didn't know it was this bad! In all fairness to Palm, they might be going down the tubes but at least I can sync my TX with using the latest Hotsync in Vista without a problem! (and that's with the option of either syncing to Outlook or Palm Desktop).

Alan

[derylmccarty]

I my case I could not force ROM load my ATT 8525 using Vista (Ultimate) and WMDC (E.g. going from WM5 to WM6) In all other cases Vista and WMDC easily sync'd CABs, music and files. Since I have a removable HD (with windows shut down) I merely removed the Vista HD and booted up with the old XP and Active Sync 4.5 and did the ROM loading. Then back to the Vista HD, boot and go. My day to day Operating system is Vista (U)and until something better comes along, it will continue to be. (Linux and Apple do not offer anything for me.)

[Oleander]

I'm the one in charge of smartphones at work, so I just had to try out Vista when I read about the new WMDC. I made a fresh install of Vista just for testing out WMDC - I really have no need for the other stuff in Vista since what I feel is the shortcomings of XP has been fixed better by 3'rd party software than by Vista. A 30% performance decrease in most of the applications that I use, is not something I need just to get more eyecandy.

Whatever happened to the database file system btw?

It lasted 1 week! On some devices it just stopped working and on others there were so many problems that it was just ridiculous - and that's on devices that all sync to Exchange. I wouldn't dare think how crappy it was if you had to sync by it!

At least on AS 95% of the time, you just have to delete the partnership to get it working again...

I never thought that I would actually come to a point where I would recommend AS over something else.. :?

[Sven]

Originally Posted by Oleander

Whatever happened to the database file system btw?

WinFS just wasn't going to be ready in time for the expected release of Vista. I heard Jim Alchin speak about it one time and he was very disappointed about it. Realities though were that a new OS needed to appear, just because that is how the market works, but the SQL backed file system wasn't going to make it. At the time it was still in the works, but since Mr Alchin left, I don't know where this stands.

At least some of the benifits of such a construct are still there. It has been a while since I hunted for a program or document in Vista. With the background indexing, I just hit the Windows key and start typing a program name or some piece of what I am looking for and it does a passable job of finding it.

I would dearly love the dynamic organization that a DB based file system would bring, but I am a bit skeptical that the system can effectively tag the files to make that happen.

[absynth]

honestly i am surprised to see anyone go to vista. i have yet to see anything about vista asside from some icing visual effects that makes it worth it.

this is just one more reason to wait. active sync is great. HOW CAN YOU BREAK A PROGRAM THAT IS ALREADY WORKING MICROSOFT?? dear lord in heavan!

seriously :roll: microsoft, is it really that hard to make an improved app? can't existing knowledge of what works not somehow carry over into a new application? blows my mind.

Thanks
Caleb

[Russ Smith]

Aside: When I first started seeing comments about Vista as "just eye-candy" and such, I wondered how they could have missed all the rest. Now I realize that Microsoft is a bit to blame. The sales folks seem to concentrate on the showy things rather that the major changes (almost all for the better) under the hood. Networking was completely overhauled with major improvements in stability and efficiency. SP1 will capitalize on the efficiency with even better throughput. Graphics-wise, Vista finally moves away from bit-mapped frame-buffers to actual rendering. Aside from the eye-candy, it also means that windows work faster, better, and with fewer "artifacts." ...and so on.

Now, back to topic: I'll agree that my love-hate relationship with ActiveSync has continued through it's latest incarnation in WMDC. As a result of e-mail synchs either just plain not working or hanging in mid synch, I've decided not to do e-mail synching at all. Everything else works just right for me. My wife, however has had problems with older Task and Appointment items overwriting newer ones on her PPC with both ActiveSync and WMDC, usually wiping out carefully taken notes :evil:

It did seem to me that WMDC was an afterthought itself. Vista was available in beta for months and then WMDC rolls out after Vista 8O
On the one hand, I can see where some improvements have been made. On the other (and far more serious, I think), it seems the software engineers may have missed the first goal to make it work as often, with as few errors, glitches, and just plain hangs as possible, then go about adding nice new features. Of all the features of a Windows Mobile device, I think the one thing that's on nearly every customer's mind is Personal Information Management. If you can't get that right (and synching is a large part of that), people will look elsewhere. Fortunately, for MS, Palm doesn't do much better with synching.

I did software engineering myself, so I don't think it's out of line to wonder why this has been such an issue throughout the WindowsCE lifetime. Synching requires some strategy, true, but I can't see why it's so hard to get it right.