Installing .NETCF 2.0 Runtimes

Marcus has posted some instructions on installing .NETCF v2.0 runtimes to a Windows Mobile 5.0 device. Of course you may wish to deploy to Pocket PC 2003 devices too, again it's a RAM install, and you can follow the same basic steps. There are a few points to note:-

• You can still build an Autorun in .NETCF v1.0 code as all Pocket PC 2003 devices will have at least the RTM release of v1.0 in ROM. Autorun on devices with multiple card slots can be flaky this was improved in v5.0
• The CAB file for Pocket PC 2003 is much larger (5.1mb) since Pocket PC 2003 doesn't support compressed CAB files. By default you'll find it here:-

C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\SmartDevices\SDK\CompactFramework\2.0\v2.0\WindowsCE\wce400\armv4\NETCFv2.ppc.armv4.cab

• The Autorun code will require modification because it relies on managed ConfigurationManager - you can either P/Invoke DMProcessConfigXML or use an available wrapper (if your device is a Phone Edition device) or OpenNETCF Registry wrapper - works for all PPC2003 devices.
• You'll need to modify how the Autorun determines the path of the SD card on which the files are contained. One solution is to check for potential storage cards with this code:-

http://www.opennetcf.org/forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=432

• Place some token file on your SD card and check for it's existence on each returned path, then when you have your SD card folder you can programmatically install the cab file(s). Again I shouldn't need to give you any hints as to where to find a Process class for .NETCF v1.0