Windows Mobile Device Center Poked Me In The Eye

[Ed Hansberry]

It is amazing to me how the synchronization experience continues to get <i>worse</i> as time goes by. As slow as it was, some of the most reliable syncronizations were via serial cables with Windows CE Services 2.x back in the late 90's. Now everything is so fast and simple with USB. :roll: <br /><br />Last week I sat down at my month old brand new freshly formatted Vista Ultimate laptop to do my weekly ritual of synchronizing my documents and make a copy of everything on my SD card. I had set the partnership up the day after loading the OS, and after a few reboots, soft resets and some WMDC automatic updates, everything was working fine. Then last week, I docked the device and got an error in WMDC. I unplugged my device and plugged it back in. It started to sync and I thought all was ok. However, I soon realized that my partnership had been renamed. It now said "Ed's Smartphone" instead of HansWizard. WMDC proceeded to then rename my sync folder on my PC from "Documents on HansWizard" to "Documents on Ed's Smartphone." This was especially useful to me now as applications like ListPro, eWallet and HanDBase no longer knew where to find the files. :evil: This turned out to be not much of a problem though, as WMDC also decided to delete about 90% of my files from both the PC and device, so there were really no files to be found. :bad-words: It was that same feeling when you get poked in the eye. It hurts, you aren't sure exactly what happened and you can't quite regain your senses fast enough. You are just stunned.<br /><br />Fortunately, I had backed up my machine to a USB drive recently, so I got my files back as they existed on my PC, but a weeks worth of work on the device was now gone. Thankfully, no new userIDs and passwords had been added to eWallet on my device, but I still lost some info in ListPro, PocketBible and a few other apps.<br /><br />Preparing for the worst, today I made a copy of the My Documents folder on the device before starting the sync routine. I am happy to report it wasn't necessary. WMDC refused to connect at all. No amount of rebooting, bouncing WMDC services or device soft resets would fix it. Therefore, nothing no my PC or device was deleted. Of course, I have files out of sync now. Thanks goodness for Exchange as that is how my PIM info is sync'd. <br /><br />It is really a sad state of affairs when I pull out my device to do something and think "why bother? I'll never get this data to my PC reliably anyway." I am to the point now that if I can't put it in a task that syncs back to Outlook, I just about don't fool with apps on my Pocket PC anymore. I never thought I'd find myself wishing I could install ActiveSync.

[whydidnt]

Ed,

I can feel your pain. It seems that with each release of AS, WMDC or whatever MS calls it, we lose features AND reliability. You would think they could get one or the other right. I had a similar issue with my i730 and WMDC, where no about of hammer swinging would get device to be recognized by by Dell Laptop. Fortunately, I was just in progress of updating my laptop, and haven't had problems, yet, with my new machine. I'm pretty sure it's only a matter of time though.

It's quite obvious MS has virtually no interest in supporting sync with our devices other than over the air with Exchange. They have no concern over third party applications and the whole companion to your PC thing has been thrown out the window. One more reason I am hoping we will see a linux based competitor spring up over the next year. MS only seems to regress unless a pushed by a true competitor in whatever space they compete in.

[burtcom]

Windows Mobile Device Center is :evil:

At work I still have XP -- and syncing there is nice.

At home with the Vista box -- well, I've had my device renamed, etc...

But most irritatingly I can't copy largish files to the device using the Device Center -- it starts then reports an error. For these files (MP3s and movies) I have to take out the microSD, put it in it's adapter, plug it in to the Vista machine and then copy.

This is a known reported issue -- I hope MS fixes it soon.

Oh, and Ed, on your device look at Start>Settings>Connections Tab>USB to PC. If "Enable advanced network functionality" is checked, uncheck it, and see if that helps you get the partnership back.

[alex_kac]

I am usually on the forefront of everything gadgety, but Vista is one of those things I plan to stay away from until its baked. Its sad that even after 5 years (I know, even less considering MS had to "reboot" Vista dev) Vista is in this state.

I stick with XP for now. And even there I rarely use AS since its still fairly flaky.

[Jason Lee]

I've had WMDC remove my profile for me once so far... :evil:

I just had to start all over and resync everything.. Which, of course, duplicated many of my appointments and contacts.

I gave up on syncing files LOOOOONG ago after loosing weeks worth of work on several occasions. I just use Spb Backup to back my device up to my SD card and manually make backups of my important files and such. I will never rely on "Syncing" for a backup again. I've lost way too much that way. Syncing for me is only used to keep my PIM data synced between my ppc, laptop and exchange server. I don't trust is as far as i could throw the CD. ;)

[dma1965]

I gave up on Vista and went back to XP because of all the syncing issues. Fortunately, this was easy because I am running both XP and Vista on my Intel Macbook in Parallels. It just became to much of a hassle to deal with the various Vista quirks. I finally swithched when it refused to sync, deleted my partnership, and then would not allow me to recreate it again.

I really tried to get used to Vista. I gave it a full month and decided to deal with it. I finally realized that I had settled, much like two people who live with each other sometimes do, even though they are not happy with the arrangement. It was not until I went back to using XP that I realized how absolutely crappy Vista was. I really hate Microsoft for cramming this down our throats. :evil:

[T-Will]

I am usually on the forefront of everything gadgety, but Vista is one of those things I plan to stay away from until its baked.

Same here, I'm usually one of the "early adopters" (completely crashing my PC with early versions of Memphis, aka Win98). I installed Vista on my laptop, but now it takes nearly 5 minutes to boot into a usable state (XP would take about 1 min). Since my main XP box works fine and I haven't had any major AS issues, I'm going to stick with XP for a while (might need to replace my main hard drive soon though, it's about 4 years-old).

I'm surprised Microsoft hasn't implemented some type of file storage within Exchange/Outlook that would allow Windows Mobile Devices to sync files directly with the server. At that point I'd most likely switch to using Exchange only.

[Brad Adrian]

I'm not a programmer, so I know that I'm a bit naive when it comes to my expectations. But, to have a system that's set up and working and suddenly have it go kerflooey just seems silly. If my device/PC setup doesn't work consistently, 100% of the time, it's of no use.

It's like back when the whole disappearing notifications issue came up years ago; if I can't trust things to notify/synch/etc. the same each day, it's WORSE than having nothing at all.

[HaraldB]

Well, I thought I was alone with my sync problems, so I really don't know if I should smile or cry after reading this...

On about every other sync attempt I get an error telling me that it failed, and I should be prepared on losing new items on the next sync. Sweet...

I started out running Office 2007 on Vista but had to give up on that, since 80% of the times I started Outlook I was told the .pst file wasn't closed properly and it would have to be checked. Performance would go down during that check. Fortunately the check was usually only 45 minutes (!) and that made Outlook ready to go again, until the next time I started it. I trashed Office 2007 and now run 2003 again. It's better, only I have to remember to start Outlook before cradeling my WM5 pda or I get a sync error and the part of Outlook that is automatically started to sync crashes and demands a reboot of the pc.

Of course MS doesn't allow us to sync using wifi. That goes without saying. But couldn't they at least then make Bluetooth work? I have two dongles and none of them is supported by Vista. One of them (Tecom BT3030) is completely unknown and the manufacturer doesn't even seem to remember making it, so it is now at the bottom of the drawer. The other one (Microtune) seems to be recognized by Vista, but unfortunately PC Windows and Mobile Windows are incompatible, so no protocol for syncing (ActiveSync) can be recognized by either device. Doesn't really matter, though, because at least once every week the pc forgets all about the Bluetooth settings and I have to set up everything from scratch.

All the sync'ing capabilities I had 1-2 years ago with XP, ActiveSync and WM2003SE are gone now. MS has destroyed everything. Now there's only USB and Windows Mobile Device Center left, and it hardly ever works. Funny that while the hardware developes at incredible speed, software is a completely different matter. Well, at least we don't depend on MS for making hardware, or we'd be screwed!

If I hadn't paid good money for Vista I'd consider going back to XP, but I keep hoping for a patch to solve these problems. I am naive that way.

[griph]

I have to say that I am sooooo glad for once I wasn't tempted to be an 'early adopter' of Vista/Office 2007! I feel for you guys - really! But cant help remembering back to early days of XP. I'm waiting until SP1 is out (at least). AS4.5 is already bad enough! Come on MS - get this sorted! :evil:

[nGage]

I'm an IT professional and usually very happy to sit back and wait for the problems to be ironed out, apart from maybe an install on a sacrificial machine, but I have "Vista'd" 2 laptops a desktop and will probably also upgrade my media centre. I am very happy with my Vista experience as a user and have not experienced any of the sync issues (so far). I could not go back to XP just from a user experience point of view. Vista is not perfect, but by comparision to XP SP2, my experience of Vista is that it handles problems (yes it is not perfect) in a much more graceful fashion than XP. Happily for me there are Vista drivers for pretty much all of the hardware on all of the machines I have installed to, which I think has helped the overall situation. I could take or leave the Aero look, but to me, I just find Vista fits the way I think and work better than XP ever did.

Sorry you guys have all had bad experiences, I just thought I should mention that my experience to-date is a very happy one.

Hope things work out for you all.
Cheers.

[T-Will]

nGage = Micro$oft spy! :evil:

:lol:

[ntractv]

I have a HP notebook running Vista Ultimate and must admit I have not had one problem syncing my Treo even after a hard reset and forgetting to do a backup. WDC picked right up and the only difference I experienced was the WDC renamed my snyc folder to "Documents on myname Smartphone 2"

[NorCalGuy]

I am running Vista Business and Office 2007 on my work laptop and XP Pro and Office 2007 on my home desk top. My Sprint 6700 sync's on both without any problems. I have not lost any programs/data or settings. I must be living in the right part of California

[WorldofPPC]

This is really weird. In installed Vista on New Year´s Day (by MSDN Download), and synced ever since on a daily basis. In the early days with Beta 3 of MDC, as soon as it was available with the release version.
Roughly 15 devices, their OSes spanning from WM2003SE (BenQ P50) over WM5 (all AKUs) and WM6 (HTC Vox). NO (!!) real problem with all these syncs!
Only minor concern was syncing a T-Mobile Ameo (the German version of the HTC Advantage) for the first time, that was solved by unticking "Enabble enhanced USB functions" (or whatever it´s called in an English OS :-D).

[Lex]

We are, sadly, in the period of the public beta of Win Vista.

[Jason Lee]

I have had no problems with vista itself. I like it a lot. It is the most stable OS i have ever seen from MS. The UI enhancements are great.

I just had WMDC blow up on me once. :) I don't blame that on vista.

[myrampar]

I've had similar issues with WMDC and Vista Ultimate with my Verizon XV6700. It started throwing up errors and refused to sync on a few occasions and I ended up deleting the partnership and starting over.

What I can't seem to figure out is that BT sync is fairly stable for me but USB sync is flaky. I connect the device with the USB cable and I hear it connect and disconnect a few times but doesn't complete a sync. I then unplug it and connect it again and it works.

Someone mentioned going to Start>Settings>Connections Tab>USB to PC and unchecking the option to "Enable advanced network functionality" and see if that helps you get the partnership back. Is this a Smartphone specific setting? I don't see this option on my device.

There are many things I like about Vista (Search, launching apps from the Start Menu, the many visual changes) but I've thought often about starting over and going back to XP or possibly even dual booting XP and Vista. I just wish my new HP w/ Vista worked with QuickPlay Direct to watch DVDs w/o booting into Windows. That's one reason I picked it over other similar machines. :?

[burtcom]

Someone mentioned going to Start>Settings>Connections Tab>USB to PC and unchecking the option to "Enable advanced network functionality" and see if that helps you get the partnership back. Is this a Smartphone specific setting? I don't see this option on my device.

It's on my WM5 (well, now WM6) E-TEN Windows Mobile Pro device -- I dunno if it's on Smartphones... I have seen it mentioned on the Microsoft support site, so it must be a fairly-standard control panel item, at least for WM5 and 6.

Of course, there's always the possibility that Verizon disabled it :evil:

[Dyvim]

Someone mentioned going to Start>Settings>Connections Tab>USB to PC and unchecking the option to "Enable advanced network functionality" and see if that helps you get the partnership back. Is this a Smartphone specific setting? I don't see this option on my device.

It's on my WM5 (well, now WM6) E-TEN Windows Mobile Pro device -- I dunno if it's on Smartphones... I have seen it mentioned on the Microsoft support site, so it must be a fairly-standard control panel item, at least for WM5 and 6.

It was added in one of the AKU's for WM 5. Maybe 3.3? All I know is that it's not on my WM 5 E-TEN M600. So you may or may not see it in WM 5 depending on which AKU you have.

[myrampar]

It was added in one of the AKU's for WM 5. Maybe 3.3? All I know is that it's not on my WM 5 E-TEN M600. So you may or may not see it in WM 5 depending on which AKU you have.

That explains it. I'm running the latest 'official' release from Verizon which is AKU 2.2. I believe some people have installed AKU 3.5 over at the PDAPhonehome forums with good success, so I might give that a shot.

Well, I'll keep my fingers crossed as my device and WMDC are playing well together for now. :wink:

[Ilium Software]

Wow Ed. Sorry for that nightmare. That sounds ugly in a big way.

I guess what all this makes me wonder is, what can companies like Ilium Software can do to help with this? I mean let's just pretend for a minute that these MS issues aren't going to get cleared up in the near future. Do you have specific things you would like to see developers like us do to help with this? Are there tools, features, or functions that might make life easier in the wake of sub-par WMDC sync experiences?

Marc Tassin
Ilium Software
--------------------
[email protected]
+1 (734) 973-9388
---------------------
http://www.iliumsoft.com

And be sure check out our blog! http://blog.iliumsoft.com/

[Jason Dunn]

My opinion of WMDC is so low that I'm no longer shocked when I read horror stories like this. That's truly sad. :?

[Gerard]

I guess what all this makes me wonder is, what can companies like Ilium Software can do to help with this? I mean let's just pretend for a minute that these MS issues aren't going to get cleared up in the near future.

Well sure, I'd like to see some clever third party developer come up with a workaround, an end-run of some sort, as Microsoft seems a trifle confused in all this. I'll not say, as some do, that they are not interested, or that they are trying to force users to use Exchange; there are more than enough real conspiracies going on without inventing trivial ones. No, it's more a matter of net incompetence. As individuals I've no doubt at all that the Mobile Development Team (or whatever) are really great folks, most of whom are rather more talented than the average software developer. As a team, under the auspices of Microsoft (queue earth rumbling, flashes of lightening, etc.), they become a sort of mindless mob, desperately seeking to please not the end users, but rather the marketing and management types who haven't the foggiest clue as to what users want and need.

I'm not a Vista user, not really. My wife just bought her second computer ever, after 7 reasonably happy years struggling with WinME, and me struggling a bit more trying to trouble-shoot the thing in spite of my not knowing a word of Japanese and it being a Japanese OS version... She finally lost wireless connectivity, too many bumps on the protruding (Microsoft) Wi-Fi PC card, tore the pins free of the motherboard. So she's got this nifty Toshiba Satellite, lovely thing, cost only a bit over $1000. And I'm tech support around here, so I've been busy trying to stay out of her way, while getting all the interfering, hand-holding, ridiculous junk out of her way too. Finally found a good tip on disabling the absurd, often 5-steps or more permissions ritual for setting up new programs, while keeping the PC relatively secure.

Fortunately for my blood pressure, she has a small cloth bound book, lively hand made thing, in which she keeps her addresses and such. Most of the pages are empty. She's fussy about whose numbers and email addresses get in there. In the ten years or more she's had it, the darn thing has never once crashed, hasn't lost so much as a digit of one phone number. That's reliable tech. Wish I could say the same, about my 12 Pocket PCs, my Activesync experience, all the fun and games Microsoft makes us do just to keep these little marvels working.

So, preamble out of the way, here's why I'd love to see Ilium or someone else make a good alternate solution for PIM and perhaps file synching. Eventually, and it's seeming more and more like an inevitability, I'll probably buy a UMPC to replace the very ancient PC I've been using through all those PPCs. It's running well, finally, as I use a bare-bones version of XP which is more or less rock solid. I've even managed more or less to synch, though the odd time it still duplicate contacts. Sprite Backup to the rescue, every time. Oh, and last week it deleted all contacts from the PC and PPC, just for fun, but again, Sprite was there for me. But with the UMPC, it's seeming very likely I'll be stuck with Vista. As I'd like to keep my phone - a Motorola, and don't get me started about Mobile Phone Tools... oy - sort of up to date with my PPC, and there's no direct way to do it (and no, I'm not going to get another phone with alternate com functions, this one works well and that's good enough), tossing stuff from the PPC to the PC via Activesync then on to the phone seems about my only option. With Vista, it seems that will be an even worse struggle.

So here's my suggestion, at last. What about a program with both PPC and PC versions, which shares the same format for database import and export? That way, all a user would have to do is make database backups with this program on whichever machine was dominant, then swap files via card or whatever, then import with the sister app on the other machine. This could work for WM phones and non-phone devices, PCs of whatever vintage, whatever. Of course you'd have to figure out how to capture the data and convert to a universally usable format, but perhaps even CSV would work if you got it all right.

The tricky part of course is where, for example, changes have been made on both PPC and PC since last 'synch' and the user doesn't want these lost. Activesync is great at losing such changes, so users who really want to lose data can stick with that, or WMDC, or whatever nightmare comes next. I'd suggest making a 'merge data' feature part of this program, a sort of smart filtering setup, with a few user-definable options, where in cases of questionable conflict a pop-up would ask 'how should I treat this situation?' and then offer a couple of options like 'skip' and 'overwrite' and 'cancel', along with another button to go to a new window where details of old and new data were comparable directly, not just a guess as it is with Activesync.

Since Activesync's user definable options for 'combine' and 'dominate' (either PPC or PC, or server) has never worked for me, and presumably for others (who am I kidding; I've seen hundreds of painful postings over the years regarding this disaster area, tales of woe indeed), it's obviously an area where a lot of focus is needed. Make the combining of database entries transparent, no hidden changes or behind the scenes decisions by developers 'for the good of the ignorant user.' Make it simple, but configurable. Most of all, make it consistent from PPC to PC versions, so there's absolutely no confusion as to what you are choosing when you tap an option on one or the other.

If you can tack on file synching, with user-definable folders or types etc,, so much the better. If that's too much, fine, there is hardly a notebook PC out there without a couple of memory card slots, and adapters are dirt cheap anyway (saw a decent SD USB adapter for $5 the other day up the street), so users can always move these manually. I'd suggest keeping it focused on PIM databases. Maybe make another client for file synch, as it'd probably require different sorts of tools for comparing files anyway, and of course have to handle much larger pools of data.

And nice one, that joke about 'let's just pretend for a minute...' very cute. As if things can't get a whole lot worse...

[Jason Dunn]

Fortunately for my blood pressure, she has a small cloth bound book, lively hand made thing, in which she keeps her addresses and such. Most of the pages are empty. She's fussy about whose numbers and email addresses get in there. In the ten years or more she's had it, the darn thing has never once crashed, hasn't lost so much as a digit of one phone number. That's reliable tech. Wish I could say the same, about my 12 Pocket PCs, my Activesync experience, all the fun and games Microsoft makes us do just to keep these little marvels working.

I'm all for reliable tech as well, but I'll point out that as reliable as the book is, there's only one of it: if she loses it, damages it, or it's destroyed somehow, all of that precious data is gone forever. I'll take the hassle of digital management any day of the week because it means I can replicate and protect myself from data loss.

[Gerard]

No argument from me, Jason. I've tried since 2000 to get her to see how electronic storage of contact data, even in Outlook if nowhere else, provides a layer of security. Of course it only does so if one makes regular backups.

[Brad Adrian]

...as reliable as the book is...
Good point, but I'd bet that most of us technophiles would have to admit that it wasn't the backup capabilities that got us hooked on our digital pals, it was the allure of shiney diodes, speedy silicon and tactile screens.

And so was born, "Why? Because I Can!"

[Gerard]

For me, it was the embarrassment of missing appointments, leaving clients standing at my door, ringing the bell (most often with a doublebass), while I was away grocery shopping or visiting family... or worst of all, sleeping late. It happened only a few times, and musicians are wonderfully forgiving for the most part. It became plain that my memory, and paper agenda - which lived beside my (landline) phone - were not reliable/availabe enough. I looked at Palm devices, never having heard of anything better, but got lucky with timing as Pocket PCs were just about to be released - my Casio E-115 took 5 weeks to arrive. I've not missed an appointment since.

Shiny? Diodes? Cool, but not enough motivation to buy. Were it only sheer tech magic attracting my attention, I'd probably be a digicam freak. As I'm not wealthy, I've compromised, and have used 4 CF camera cards for my various PPCs (Casio, HP, Pretec, and the current Flycam 1.3Mp).

[PeterChenoweth]

I am a supporter of Microsoft. I make a living writing software using Microsoft development tools to be run on Windows PC's. While I am not a Microsoft fanboy, I generally find most of their products to be worthwhile.

Activesync is not one of those products. I have never experienced a truly stable version of Activesync. 3.8 came pretty close, but the rest have been junk. I don't ever even bother syncing up my WM5 machine anymore, simply becasue I've grown so tired of reinstalling Activesync or redoing my Address book and Calendar from duplicated entries, missing entries, and old entries overwriting new ones. I've missed meetings, lost phone numbers, farked up my bank accounts, and had edited versions of documents dissapear because of it's 'synchronization'. :evil: And I'm still on XP! 8O

I still can't believe that after 6+ years of development, Microsoft still can't get Activesync right. The development crew should be ashamed of themselves. If I churned out software that was that bad, I'd be looking for a new job. Why they haven't scrapped it and started over is beyond me.

I now use my WM5 machine for media, email and surfing. All of my important contacts and meetings are kept in a Franklin Covey planner. It's stone-age technology and I hate it, but it hasn't yet randomly changed a phone numbers or dropped an appointment.

[Gerard]

Why they haven't scrapped it and started over is beyond me.

But isn't that what Windows Mobile Device Center is? I thought they did scrap Activesync, and that WMDC is the new synch software, written from the ground up, not using any Activestink code. Isn't that how it was being billed during development?

[PeterChenoweth]

But isn't that what Windows Mobile Device Center is? I thought they did scrap Activesync, and that WMDC is the new synch software, written from the ground up, not using any Activestink code. Isn't that how it was being billed during development?

That's interesting. I don't know one way or the other. If the WMDC is completely new, that's a promising start (though not so promising based on the OP!)

[FormerMVP]

The best synchronization model is Palm's HotSync. Never heard of lost records, and should you lose all the data on your device, you simply re-sync, and you get all your application *and* the data back. As simple as that, and it always works!

I've developed HotSync conduits and ActiveSync SSP (the equivalent of conduit). When you compare Palm's basic approach with ActiveSync over-engineered "partnership" model, you can see why there are so many issues with ActiveSync/WMDC release after release: because it's so complicated given its intended purpose.

WMDC - from a developer's standpoint - is essentially ActiveSync with a different UI. I'm sure that there are plenty of over-engineered implementation changes to explain all these WMDC issues reported earlier.

The problems that we face as ActiveSync SSP developers is when customers experience some synchronization issues where we have no clue where the problem is from. The ActiveSync's partnership design is fragile and re-creating partnerships have solved nearly all issues reported to us about synchronization errors that appear to originate from our SSP. Unfortunately, MS has invested a lot in this and is for sure not going the change the model.

They could at least stop trying to "refine" it, both from an implementation standpoint and from a UI standpoint. In ActiveSync, there was one window (ActiveSync) and you could tell what was being synchronized (the number of records, etc). In WMDC, first you get Sync Center (totally, totally useless), and then WMDC where first you have to wait a few minutes (why?) before things get going (with no feedback at all) and then you essentially do not know what is being synchronized. Not great. Horrific user experience given the time it takes and the poor reliability record.

Palm's HotSync is also pretty mute at reporting the status of the synchronization, but there's one big difference with WMDC: it always works. I'm no fan of programming Palm OS (I much prefer Win32 and MFC), but I have to admit that they got the application installation and synchronization rock solid from the start (what... 10 years ago?)

[mhowie]

The best synchronization model is Palm's HotSync. Never heard of lost records, and should you lose all the data on your device, you simply re-sync, and you get all your application *and* the data back. As simple as that, and it always works!
...

Palm's HotSync is also pretty mute at reporting the status of the synchronization, but there's one big difference with WMDC: it always works. I'm no fan of programming Palm OS (I much prefer Win32 and MFC), but I have to admit that they got the application installation and synchronization rock solid from the start (what... 10 years ago?)

I was just about to post a similar line of thinking. I have been a PocketPC user since the early iPAQ 3700 days (I hope I remembered the model number correctly!), and have gone through a number of devices, but longingly recall my Palm Pilot days when there was never an issue related to syncing. Datebk2/3/4/x and HotSync were a formidable combination!

[AKAJohnDoe]

I just got a new notebook with Vista Home Premium and like it.

Thunderbird and Firefox are working fine and I was able to copy over my previous Thunderbird eMail folders and import my bookmarks into Firefox and my RSS feeds into Sage.

I've got my PDA syncing via the new Windows Mobile Device Center, with SplashID, PocketQuicken, and ListPro all working alongside and syncing as well as running the desktop components. WMDC Works quite well for me.

I've also got Photoshop CS2 installed and running.