eVB Development | Starting Out

Installing MS ActiveSync by Derek Mitchell

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You are rudely awoken by the dull thud of a well wrapped package hitting your front door. Cracking the front door you are releaved to find a delivery from 'Fragile Electronics Overnight' instead of your mother-in-law. Could it be... yes it is... finally your iPAQ has arrived from, only two months after you ordered the instock item. Gingerly you unwrap the new love of your life. After carefully checking the unit for damage you are releaved to find that all is copacetic. You race to your PC rip out the device, fling the QuickStart package aside and plug it into your USB port. You need to start developing fast - it's been three months since that late night viewing of 'American Beauty' prompted you tell your boss to step off.

Well before you start your new career as a Pocket PC developer you need to install ActiveSync. You can find the latest version of ActiveSync (~4MB) at the Microsoft site. This guide is not intended as an insult to the honest-to-goodness brains that most of us are born with, but if you are anything like me you like to know the ramifications of loading specific software on your meticulously maintained PC; namely what is being loaded and how you can configure those options. This tutorial walks you through a MS ActiveSync Build 9587 install on Windows 2000 Professional with SP1.

1 Plug your new Pocket PC into the cradle and connect the power supply - do not attach it to your computer at this stage. In addition, if you receive your Pocket PC in the colder months let it 'warm' to room temperature first before powering it up or initiating the first charge cycle.

2 Initial Setup Screen

3 Select Installation Folder

4 Get Connected

At this point you need to locate a free USB port and plug in the USB connector attached to the Pocket PC cradle. Your PC should momentarily flash a dialog box stating that it has foung new hardware and is installing your device.

5 Found new hardware

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