Application Development Considerations for Windows Mobile 6.1

  • Article

4/12/2010

This topic contains information about changes to Windows Mobile 6.1 that impact application developers.

Home Screen Plug-ins

Windows Mobile 6.1 features a new home screen layout, called Sliding Panel Media, that does not support the previous home screen plug-in model. If an application uses a home screen plug-in, instruct the user to switch the device to the classic home screen layout, as shown in the following steps:

  1. In Control Panel, open Home Screen.
  2. In Screen Layout, choose Home.
  3. For the layout, choose an option other than Sliding Panel Media.

Camera Disabled By Security Policy

Security policies in Windows Mobile 6.1 provide a mechanism for the administrator to remotely disable the camera on a device that is enrolled on the network. If a security policy disables the camera, the effect depends on whether the application controls the camera using the native API or the managed API:

  • The native function, SHCameraCapture, returns the error code ERROR_RESOURCE_DISABLED.
  • The ShowDialog method of the managed class, CameraCaptureDialog, returns DialogResult.Cancel, which is the same return value as if the user pressed the Cancel button.

To determine if the security policy is in effect before attempting to call one of the camera APIs, examine the CameraEnabled value under the following registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\State\Hardware

Name Type Description

CameraEnabled

REG_DWORD

Specifies whether the camera is enabled or disabled.

If set to 0, the camera is disabled. All other values indicate the camera is enabled.