Windows Mobile Device Center and Vista: The Sad Reality of a Failed Combination

[Mike Temporale]

<p>From Day 1 there have been rumblings of problems between Microsoft's newest operating system, Vista, and the latest version of Active Sync, renamed Windows Mobile Device Center (WMDC for short). It started out with the odd person claiming that WMDC won't see their device. I never had any problems sync'ing my BlackJack with Vista. In fact, I found it to be better and smoother than before. Unfortunately, my luck has run out and sync'ing with my laptop has become more of a headache than anything else. It's getting to the point that I have to wonder why I'm wasting my time with this? Perhaps I'm better to switch to a feature phone and forget about sync'ing my contacts and data with my laptop. The main thing stopping my right now, is that I would actually have to pay for that feature phone. I've got a couple Smartphones here in the office and it's hard to justify spending money on another phone. </p><p><img border="1" alt="" src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/500/spt/auto/1187705796.usr3.jpg" /></p><p>I can hear you asking &quot;Mike, what seems to be the problem?&quot;, and &quot;What's the error message you're getting?&quot; The answer, unfortunately, isn't that easy. </p><div style="page-break-after: always;"><span style="display: none;"> </span></div><p>&nbsp;</p><div style="page-break-after: always;">The problem is that Sync Center just won't see my phone. When I connect the phone via USB it plays the connection sound and then the disconnect sound, but nothing ever happens. And the error message, well there isn't one. Sync Center doesn't even show that an attempt was made to connect. The whole time, I'm just stuck starring at the WMDC screen you see above. There's no flicker of hope. The only software that has been installed on my laptop in a long time is Visual Studio 2005. I know that's not the problem since I was having these problems prior to installing VS. It's just gets worse and worse as time goes by.<p> </p><p>The only way I have found to sync is to restart both my laptop and my phone. The start Outlook on the laptop (if it's not started before I attempt a connection, WMDC will be upset and future sync's just won't work). Then before anything else happens, I can connect the two and things seem to work. I do feel it's worth pointing out that having to reboot both the phone and laptop prior to a sync is not a feasible solution. I'm glad it does work for me, but it's just not the process I want to do every time I need to quickly sync before running off to a clients site.</p><p>And; Yes, I do know that I could go with Exchange Active Sync and that it has been more reliable for those that are using it. However, I can't bring myself to pay more money to Microsoft (or a 3rd party who ultimately pays some cash back to Microsoft) for another sync solution when the included sync is so broken. Plus, it still doesn't solve getting my eWallet or other files onto my phone. </p><p>It's my guess that the WMDC team doesn't even use the desktop sync. Perhaps they use it once in a while and for the odd test, but for day to day, they're using Exchange Active Sync and missing out on all the fun we're having. They should really be forced to use WMDC as their only means of sync for the next 6 months. Then, I would like to hear how they like this tool. </p><p>I could go on and on, but I have to reboot so I can sync the details from a recently updated contact before I run out of the house for the day. Argh...</p></div>

[ebarry51]

If you can't deal with the issues any more and need to ditch some of your spare smartphones, I'd love to ditch my failing Cingular 2125! :D

Seriously I can't wait for a worthwhile smartphone to come out on AT&T to replace this thing...the d-pad and select button respond perhaps 10% of the time. Quite frustrating.

I just wish that tilt was coming in a bit cheaper. I may just settle for a BlackJack if they ever come out with the official WM6.

Anyway, long time lurker, keep up the great work, new design looks great!

[adamhodge]

I had this same problem. For me it turned out to be some services I stopped. We never needed them in XP and everything worked but now WMDC has been written to require them. You need the Windows Driver Foundation running. Obviously you need the 2 or 3 Windows Mobile services. There might be some other but I know I had that driver foundation service stopped but I could not sync my phone after that.

[stevew]

I was syncing just fine for awhile then all of a sudden it quit. Same as you Mike. I get nothing when I plug it into my laptop. Nothing from sync center and nothing from WMDC. I would go to a 3rd party but I can't do that either cause I can't install anything if WMDC doesn't even recognize my devise.

Wonder if something in the Windows updates may have broken WMDC. I don't know but I'm getting sick of the whole smartphone and Microsoft combo. The iphone is starting to look better all the time. :mad:

[alex_kac]

I hate to say it, but the real answer is to upgrade to Windows XP :) I don't know a single techy or heck even lay person who recommends Vista. Everyone of them know that Vista is currently not production quality. Even my secretary's doctor told her to stay away from Vista. Every security and IT guy I know says they refuse to install Vista on any home machines and so on.

Its not just WMDC. There are *so* many broken things in Vista.

WMDC is just one thing that's very broken. Let me tell you something else. I have been discussing WMDC with a friend who recently had a very long discussion with the WMDC guys in Seattle in a private room (i.e. this wasn't an email or phone conversation). WMDC is very broken. There are several major issues with WMDC internally that make it almost impossible for any application developer to actually use WMDC for ActiveSync plugins or RAPI without some level of failure.

When the Editor of PC Magazine tells people that Vista is not usable, you know something is wrong. I can go on and on. Will Vista get fixed up? Sure or most likely. I bet SP1 will make a lot of this go away. But until then if you want a reliable Windows OS, go back to XP.

[chaznet]

Oddly enough -- I have better, more trouble free results syncing via Bluetooth to WMDC than using a cable. With each update to WMDC, SmartphoneNotes sync breaks -- then Syncdata.it issues an update to fix it. Must be a pain for them. Glad I sync Outlook stuff via a Hosted Exchange service...

[alex_kac]

Oddly enough -- I have better, more trouble free results syncing via Bluetooth to WMDC than using a cable. With each update to WMDC, SmartphoneNotes sync breaks -- then Syncdata.it issues an update to fix it. Must be a pain for them. Glad I sync Outlook stuff via a Hosted Exchange service...

That's because WMDC keeps changing critical behavior and such without any notice to devs. Microsoft broke a lot of things in WMDC and then they broke more in 6.1 trying to fix some of that...

[Jason Dunn]

I hate to say it, but the real answer is to upgrade to Windows XP :) I don't know a single techy or heck even lay person who recommends Vista. Everyone of them know that Vista is currently not production quality. Even my secretary's doctor told her to stay away from Vista.

My, that's quite the sweeping condemnation! I guess I'm the exception - I recommend Vista to people if they're getting it on a new computer with drivers written for Vista. My wife uses it on her desktop PC at work and has no problems. She also uses Vista on her laptop, originally designed for XP, and it works fine.

I do not recommend it to people who have systems currently running XP unless they're tech-minded and willing to hunt for drivers and whatnot. I'm running Vista on six computers here and it works quite well. Not perfect mind you - a few glitches here and there - but overall it's just as stable as XP ever was for me.

WMDC is a complete disaster, but I don't think that's Vista's fault - Office 2007 kicks ass and runs very well, as does Firefox and almost every other program I use. If the WMDC developers want to blame Vista instead of their own coding efforts, that says a lot about them.

Mind you, maybe I'm not as technically proficient as your secretary's doctor and don't know what I'm talking about. :p

[alex_kac]

My, that's quite the sweeping condemnation! I guess I'm the exception - I recommend Vista to people if they're getting it on a new computer with drivers written for Vista. My wife uses it on her desktop PC at work and has no problems. She also uses Vista on her laptop, originally designed for XP, and it works fine.

My point is that even lay people are seeing how disastrous Vista is. I've found business applications that won't run on it (Doctor office's apps, insurance agent apps, and more).

Don't get me wrong, I don't "hate" Vista. I don't care for it much honestly (I think its way too obnoxious, too cluttered, slow, and such but that's a personal opinion and would not be the reasons I myself would tell people not to use it) I just think that it really needed more time to bake. Not only that but so much hardware doesn't work well with it.

It works great for you, great :) But let me say again - when the editor of PC Magazine says Vista is not ready and 8 months after general release companies like Dell are still selling XP on their machines because of customer demand you have to ask yourself why.

***long quote trimmed by mod JD***

[stevew]

What's a good 3rd party replacement for WMDC? Any recommendations?

[Menneisyys]

My, that's quite the sweeping condemnation! I guess I'm the exception - I recommend Vista to people if they're getting it on a new computer with drivers written for Vista.

Agreed. I find Vista actually better on my IBM Thinkpad a31p than XP. It boots in definitely faster (from hybernation) and - yes, I know, it's quite strange on a 768 MByte RAM machine - definitely faster. (The latter may also be explained by the fact that Vista (Ultimate) already contains a lot of stuff you need to install to XP as a third-party app or program. For example, DVD playback, notebook battery handling etc. The latter, for example, makes it possible to completely get rid of IBM's similar tool for pre-Vista OS'es).

I also need to add that I only use my a31p as a word processor / DVD playback while riding the bike for some fat burning / Web browser / generic Vista and Windows Server 2008 tester machine - that is, I've installed few add-ons (Office 2007 and Opera being the most important). This means, as my work computer is still running XP, I'm not really suffering from legacy software incomatibility issues.

***long quote trimmed by mod JD***

[Ronil]

Hi Mike,

I feel your pain, one recommendation is using a free exchange service like mail 2 web. I have used them in the past and it worked out quite well. Right now I am lucky to have exchange running in my company so can just use my coporate account for push. Hope this helps.

[Mike Temporale]

Yes, Vista has problems. However, I find it better overall than XP. I think the big difference comes when you buy a machine that comes with Vista on it versus upgrading an older machine. When I upgraded my old laptop I had nothing but headaches with Vista. But once I got my new Fujitsu preloaded with Vista it's been solid and fast.

Regardless - the point here is that Vista + WMDC + WinMo6 just doesn't work. All 3 of those products are the latest and greatest from Microsoft. Yet, it feels like they were never tested with each other. And that's just unacceptable, IMHO.

Oh, and I forgot to mention that if I have my Microsoft USB Wireless mouse plugged in and try to sync it will never work. In fact the mouse starts to act fuuny. :mad:

[Mike Temporale]

I feel your pain, one recommendation is using a free exchange service like mail 2 web.

Yes, I could go and switch to a free hosted exchange service. That's great if all I ever want on my phone is contacts, calendar and inbox. It does nothing for files like my ewallet. And as much as I want to switch to push email, I shouldn't have to do it just because the desktop sync solution is so horrible.

Let me put it this way, a new customer walks into the carriers store and picks up a great new Windows Mobile device. They get home and try to sync it with their shiny new computer that runs Vista and they can't. The user experience is broken - badly. They aren't going to know to sign up for mail2web or 4smartphone and sync OTA. They're just going to pack it all back up and return it to the carrier and then bad mouth Microsoft because of the bad experience they had. And rightly so. Ultimately that will result in more and more lost sales.

Out of box it needs to work and it needs to keep working past the 30/60/90 day mark.

[Jason Dunn]

Hey Alex, I found a few more things I don't like about Vista, and some things that I do like:

http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/articles.php?action=expand,12496

:D

[simpsonsFAN]

I had exactly the same problem with vista ! The problem turned out to be that windows live onecare firewall was blocking WMDC connecting to my dell axim x51v, there are instructions to allow the connection on the MS website here: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsmobile/devicecenter/onecare.mspx

-Chris

[Richard76]

Not to hijack your thread, but this problem predates both Vista and WMDC. I had these issues when I moved from PocketPC 2003 SE to Windows Mobile. For some reason my laptop would just not recognize my device but when I installed it on my PC, it would sync fine. I ended up having to copy my business Outlook PST file over to my PC just so I could sync my device. And, of course, then had to keep two versions up-to-date.

Quite frankly, this was one of the reasons that I abandoned WinMo for business and moved over to the "Dark Side". I have never had one second's worth of trouble syncing with BB (nor did I when using the Palm platform).

[Sven Johannsen]

What's a good 3rd party replacement for WMDC? Any recommendations?
AFAIK, there aren't any. It would seem the possibility is greater with Vista as it allows connectivity to the WM device without WMDC installed. With XP and AS even the third party solutions depended on the AS conduit for connectivity.

I'll have to go with the 'Vista is fine, WMDC is horrid.' Spent almost two weeks trying to get a number of WM devices to sync, again. They had all been fine for some time, but just decided to quit. Finally had to un-install every vestige of WMDC and WM related drivers, and it picked up like it was the first time I ever hooked one up.

Last night tried to update a WM device with the OEMs update ROM/update software. WMDC just died leaving the device a brick. Fortunately I had an XP laptop around to resurrect the little guy. If I had just got a Vista machine and paid a premium for an unlocked device for which the OEM had an upgrade, I would have been one unhappy camper. As it was, I spent way to much geek time messing with the WMDC issues, requiring more than average savvy, and extra available hardware/software.

WMDC is wholly unsuitable for public consumption, and unfortunately if you depend on WM devices, it prevents Vista from being an option.


Vista itself, I have had very little issue with, barring a few items for which drivers are unavailable. That's not a MS issue though, it is a device OEM decision.