- Getting started_: using the emulator

After installing the tools and writing your first app, here are some tips on using the Windows Mobile emulators.

1. There are 2 ways (at least) to start an emulator. One is to create a new Windows Mobile device application, write a simple program, and deploy to an emulator. The other way is to launch the Device Emulator Manager (in Visual Studio .NET 2005, click Tools-> Device Emulator Manager), right-click on one of the emulators in the list, and click Connect.
2. My favourite emulator is Windows Mobile 5.0 Pocket PC Phone Emulator. It does what a normal Pocket PC can do, and more. We'll explore the phone features in another post.
3. You can "cradle" an emulator. This is akin to physically slotting an actual Pocket PC PDA into its cradle, except that you are doing it to a virtual PDA (i.e. the emulator). To cradle a running emulator, right-click on the item that corresponds to the emulator in the Device Emulator Manager (i.e. if you're running the Windows Mobile 5.0 PPC Phone Emulator, right-click on "Windows Mobile... Phone Emulator"), and click Cradle. The ActiveSync icon in your systray should start spinning, indicating that synchronization is in progress. If this is the first time you are cradling the emulator, a wizard will pop up. Just go through it as you would with any other wizards (I'd uncheck all the checkboxes).
4. Turning off the emulator is easy, just click the close button (the cross at the top right). HOWEVER, always remember to Uncradle the emulator first. When prompted to save state, click Yes. (If you forget, which I sometimes do, you'll find that ActiveSync is unable to detect the emulator. In this case, do a soft-reset by clicking File-> Reset-> Soft.)

Now, let's write your second app, which is a BROWSER!

Categories: [Getting started_] Tags: [netcf2] [Compact Framework] [Windows Mobile]