09-30-2005, 06:00 PM
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Executive Editor
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 29,160
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The New Windows Mobile 5 Application Installation Routine
One of the changes in Windows Mobile 5 that you'll notice right away when you install a program is how it deals with device security and the location of installed files. Since April of 2000, it's been a huge pain point with Pocket PC users that in order to get an application installed onto your memory card you have to click "No" to the desktop ActiveSync question of "Install to default location?". There's nothing intuitive about that question, and as such most new users tend to go hunting for the solution to how they get programs installed onto a memory card instead of precious main RAM.
Windows Mobile 5 solves this issue in two ways. The first is that it's not longer possible to install programs into RAM - everything goes into the Flash ROM area. This was a side effect of moving to the persistent storage model. The intentional solution to this problem comes from porting the install routine from the Smartphone world (like so much of Windows Mobile 5). When you start an installation on your desktop PC, ActiveSync will no longer prompt you for where to install the software - it just runs. I'll discuss the rest of the process in a series of four images.
Figure 1: Some programs will trigger a security warning like this. I've only seen it once, so I'm not sure how PDAmill's install routine is different from what other developers do, but it's nice that Windows Mobile 5 prompts the user with this security warning instead of just executing.
Figure 2: This is what you'll see in almost every case when installing a program. Windows Mobile 5 gives this generic security warning, though it may not if the application is fully signed and coming from your mobile phone carrier.
Figure 3: Once you approve the installation of the application, you can then chose a location for it to install. This screenshot was taken on a Dell Axim X51v with a CF card, so the options showing are Device (Flash ROM) and CF Card. If I had an SD card in the X51v, it would have shown up here as well. I believe this screen comes up for any type of install routine, including CAB installs, which allows the user much greater control over managing their storage. Great!
Figure 4: The last step seems largely unnecessary, but I suppose it's beneficial to tell the user that the application is fully installed, and how they can reclaim storage space by uninstalling it.
Overall, this new method for managing program install locations is much-improved over the previous method, and should result in less devices running into the problem of running out of storage space. Now if only Microsoft would add a way to limit the cache on Pocket Internet Explorer...
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09-30-2005, 06:16 PM
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Pupil
Join Date: Feb 2002
Posts: 42
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Thank goodness! this is good news. Every person that I helped initiate into the PPC world had this confusion. Some of them are still confused.
And persistent storage is such a good idea. I have a couple of non-techie friends who have PPCs and who occasionally have a hard reset because their battery ran out. They don't understand why their PPC loses its data - after all, their cell phones don't lose data in the same situation.
I am going to encourage everyone to upgrade.
Julio
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09-30-2005, 06:57 PM
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Oracle
Join Date: Mar 2005
Posts: 980
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The warning that you are getting with that DLL is because that dll is being registered as a system/share dll.
Jason are you aware of this other problem:
http://www.pocketnow.com/index.php?a...ews&id=702
Currently Dell uses a Security Prompt every time you run an application:
When you approve the application it seems like the resource file (MUI) from that application is not being approved and as result the EXE can't use it. If you disable that Security Prompt (something that can't be done unless you change a registry key) your executable can see and use the MUI file freely.
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09-30-2005, 07:11 PM
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Thinker
Join Date: Dec 2006
Posts: 450
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Nice overview 
You might want to mention when you install a newer version of a program, instead of overwriting it, it actually uninstalls the older version, then it installs the new one (and of course asks where to install it; it is a good thing that it does not assume that you want to install the new version to the same place), instead of just overwriting one. It is a nice feature too.
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09-30-2005, 07:25 PM
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Pupil
Join Date: Feb 2003
Posts: 11
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That's nice, but still it doesn't allow you to specify a path other than "device" and "CF card"? I'd like more flexibility like install into "\SD card\programs\utils" rather than the root. Oh well we still have cabinstl. Do we?
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09-30-2005, 07:53 PM
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Pupil
Join Date: Jul 2002
Posts: 22
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Actually I suspect PDAmill are using a setup DLL, which provides the ability to customise the setup process beyond what the cabinet file script allows. For example, we selectively install device-specific components.
__________________
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Mike Dimmick
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09-30-2005, 08:03 PM
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09-30-2005, 08:22 PM
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Sage
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 779
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If it uninstalls older versions instead of overwriting them, does that mean it loses things like registration keys and settings?
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09-30-2005, 08:50 PM
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Pupil
Join Date: Jul 2007
Posts: 13
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by dannyl
That's nice, but still it doesn't allow you to specify a path other than "device" and "CF card"? I'd like more flexibility like install into "\SD card\programs\utils" rather than the root. Oh well we still have cabinstl. Do we?
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While you can't specify a directory, the default directory on the card is \programs. WM5 puts a program directory on the card just as there is one in main memory. It also puts a /my documents folder on the card as well. Nothing seems to get installed into the root directory of the card.
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09-30-2005, 09:38 PM
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Philosopher
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 578
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by jglev
Quote:
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Originally Posted by dannyl
That's nice, but still it doesn't allow you to specify a path other than "device" and "CF card"? I'd like more flexibility like install into "\SD card\programs\utils" rather than the root. Oh well we still have cabinstl. Do we?
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While you can't specify a directory, the default directory on the card is \programs. WM5 puts a program directory on the card just as there is one in main memory. It also puts a /my documents folder on the card as well. Nothing seems to get installed into the root directory of the card. |
That's great news.
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