TECHBLOG

The latest update for Windows Embedded Standard 7 Service Pack 1 is now ready to be downloaded from the ECE. Toolkit Update via ECE: https://ece.partners.extranet.microsoft.com/ece/Embedded/Products/ProductSupplements/Embedded/EmbeddedStandard7/DisOEM-WES7MnthlyUpdsandFeatures.htm Apart from the Service Pack 1 for the operating system the package also adds new features such as WMI layer for filter drivers, SKU Compliance packages, etc. For a full list and more details have a look at the previous Service Pack 1 feature post.

The new version introduces a new feature to display all the dependencies of a selected Feature Package. This will help you to find out why certain components are pulled into the image. Show Dependencies To display the dependencies just double click on a Feature Package or select it and click “Show dependencies”. The following dialog will display all Feature Packages that are needed by the selected Feature Package. DISMUI will also try to load Driver Packages from the Distribution Share to display them properly in the dialog. If a dependency could not be located it will be displayed in the [...]

Matthew Tundo from the Microsoft Embedded Team has created an excellent how-to for recreating an answer file from an already deployed Windows Embedded Standard 7 image. This can be very useful in case you have only created the image with Image Build Wizard or in case you have created the image with Image Configuration Editor but lost the answer file. The tutorial makes use of two tools: PkgScan TAP With these two tools it is possible to retrieve the feature package and hardware information from the deployed file. Using the created output files you are able to recreate your answer [...]

Microsoft has released the Service Pack 1 for Windows Embedded Standard 7. This includes all updates from Windows 7 Service Pack 1 plus additional benefits for the Embedded version of the operating system. Features which are new to the SP1 version Windows Embedded Standard 7 are: SKU Compliance Packages These packages allow you to make sure that only features which are licensed for a specific SKU (e.g. WS7E) can be executed on the system - a special licensing service in Windows ensures this. This way you can build a full image with a WS7E SKU Compliance package but only the [...]

Microsoft has created an interface for the Windows Management Instrumentation for the Enhanced Write Filter and File Based Write Filter. This feature is available for Windows Embedded Standard 2009 and Windows XP Embedded SP3. With it you can control the state and poll settings and other values through WMI. Also the goal of this is to have full control over the filters with the Windows Scripting Host. The new features are contained in the March 2011 Update and can be found here: Windows Embedded Standard 2009 Windows XP Embedded SP3

The newest version of Windows Embedded Compact has been released and can already be evaluated. To download the evaluation version visit the new Windows Embedded website: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsembedded/en-us/downloads/download-windows-embedded-compact-ce.aspx   Windows Embedded Compact 7 is a small footprint, realtime OS for consumer and enterprise devices. For details about the new version visit: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsembedded/en-us/develop/windows-embedded-compact-7-for-developers.aspx

Internet Explorer 9 introduced a new feature called Site Pinning which allows users to pin websites directly to the taskbar. The Elbacom website also supports this feature now. The jumplist of the pinned site contains the most important links to specific places on our websites. To enable the new feature just drag the tab of www.elbacom.com in IE9 to your Windows 7 taskbar.  

The Driver Injector tool allows you to find suitable drivers for your target device automatically. The tool can be a great help if you have previously extracted all driver with Driver Extractor and want to inject them again automatically. Or if you have a driver CD/DVD and want to inject all drivers automatically to the image without having to install every device manually. Driver Injector needs a Target Analyzer Output file which contains all the device information from the target device and a driver search path. Then the tool will find all matches and allows to inject them with one [...]

DISMUI also works with the Windows Embedded POSReady 7 Community Technical Preview. So you can easily use the tool as a graphical wrapper to activate and deactivate Windows Features. However there are a few things needed to make it work. Here is a description which things need to be changed and why: Creating a Distribution Share directory structure The current version DISMUI only searches for packages in a valid distribution share folder structure. This means that there should be specific subfolders in which the packages are located. However the POSReady 7 CTP DVD contains all feature packages in a flat [...]

Microsoft just released a tool for Windows Embedded Standard 7 (but also interesting for the upcoming POSReady 7) called CBS Package Inspector. The tool allows opening and inspecting Feature Packages, Updates, etc. These packages are delivered as CBS packages (Component-Based Servicing) and can be applied via DISM. Why is this tool useful?   See the whole content of a package including possible sub-packages Check the dependencies of packages See which files and registry entries are created or modified To download the tool and for more information please visit the Microsoft Code Gallery page.