Network User Interface Migration (Windows CE 5.0)

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In Windows CE 5.0, Network UI and the security support providers (SSPs) use the new credential manager infrastructure. These changes may impact OS developers that have their own customized Network UI.

The following table shows how the differences in functionality between previous versions of Windows CE and Windows CE 5.0.

Previous functionality New functionality
If a user selected Save Password, Network UI called CeCredWrite to cache user and domain information, and Network UI set the password to NULL. If a user selects Save Password, Network UI calls CredWrite to cache user information, domain, and password.
SSP attempted to cache the credential that was passed into it by using AcquireCredentialsHandle. If Network UI previously called CeCredWrite, then the credential would be cached. SSP reads cached credentials by using Credential Manager. It does not attempt to cache the credential.

Credential caching is handled by the caller of the SSP, which is Network UI in this case.

All communication between Network UI and SSP is through registry settings. Network UI communicates directly with Credential Manager to cache credentials and provide the password.

SSP communicates directly with Credential Manager to retrive cached credentials, if any.

Credential Manager OS developers that have their own version of Network UI should make the following changes:

  • Update Network UI code to use Credential Manager APIs. For more information, see Credential Manager Functions.
  • To display cached credentials, which minimizes user input, use CredRead instead of CeCredRead.
  • To save a user-provided password, call CredWrite instead of CeCredWrite.

For other potential migration issues associated with Credential Manager, see Credential Manager Migration.

New functions were also added to Windows CE 5.0 that allow you to programmatically close a username and password dialog box. The following table shows these new functions.

Function Description
GetNewPasswordEx This function is similar to GetNewPassword, but also returns a handle to a window that can be used to dismiss the dialog box programmatically through CloseUsernamePasswordDialog.
GetUsernamePasswordEx Similar to GetUsernamePassword, but also returns a handle to a window that can be used to dismiss the dialog box programmatically by using CloseUsernamePasswordDialog.
CloseUsernamePasswordDialog Allows you to programmatically close a username and password dialog box.

For general migration information, see Migrating from an Earlier Version of Windows CE.

See Also

Network User Interface

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