Device Emulator for Windows Mobile

4/8/2010

The Device Emulator is a tool that mimics the behavior of a hardware platform for Windows Mobile. It provides a virtual hardware platform that you can use to test applications on multiple virtual devices.

The Device Emulator runs code compiled for ARM microprocessors, and it provides a high degree of fidelity with an actual, target, consumer device.

The Device Emulator supports the following features:

  • Configurable screen resolution
  • Flexible display orientation
  • Host-key combinations that support special functionality
  • Serial port mappings
  • Storage card emulation
  • Networking support

In addition, the emulator supports multiple development environments, such as Visual Studio 2005, Visual Studio .NET 2003, and Windows CE 5.0 and later. You can develop an application in the environment you prefer, and then use the emulator to realistically test your application. To support this variety of development environments, documentation for the Device Emulator is provided in a help file directly associated with the emulator software.

Accessing Device Emulator Documentation

The Device Emulator can serve as a substitute for a physical device during much of the development cycle of a smart device project.

The documentation for the Device Emulator is attached to the emulator itself, rather than part of the documentation of the development environment. In this way, the Device Emulator can be used from various development environments, including Visual Studio 2005 and Visual Studio .NET 2003.

To access Device Emulator documentation

  1. From the Device Emulator window, choose Help, then Contents.

    The Device Emulator online Help file opens. You can browse the topics, or search for a particular topic.

For more information, please see this Microsoft Web site.

New Features in Device Emulator Version 2

Device Emulator version 2 is backward-compatible with version 1. Version 2 supports existing OS images and existing savestate files, and integrates into existing versions of Visual Studio. However, Version 1 is not forward-compatible: it may not support savestate files or new OS images created by Version 2.

Features that are new in version 2 include:

  • Improvements to execution and debug/deploy performance.
  • Improved hardware support, including notification LEDs, handset support, battery, and backlight/contrast adjustment.
  • Accelerated video support for Direct3D Mobile.
  • Backlight support.
  • Improved folder sharing.
  • Emulation of battery and notification LEDs.
  • Coordinated NAND Flash.
  • USB host mode.

See Also

Other Resources

Development Tools and Resources for Windows Mobile