New Features in Windows CE .NET 4.0

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The following table shows the operating system (OS) features that were new for Windows CE .NET 4.0. For more information, see New Features in Windows CE .NET 4.2, New Features in Windows CE .NET 4.1, and New Platform Builder Features in Windows CE .NET 4.0 and 4.1.

Feature Description
Wireless LAN (802.11) — Automatic Configuration and Enhanced Security Automatic Configuration is a method built in to the operating system (OS) to locate and configure 802.11 networks. IEEE 802.1x is a standard for port-based network access control and Extensible Authentication Protocol (EAP) provides authentication support that allows network access to 802.11 wireless networks.
Accessibility This feature includes high contrast mode, mouse control through keyboard, sound signals, and sticky keys. This functionality enables a person with disabilities to use a computer more easily.
Advanced backlight This feature is a new Advanced button in the Backlight control panel that enables a platform developer to provide and display an Advanced Backlight Options dialog box.
Advanced printing This feature is a new Advanced button in the Page Setup common dialog box. A printer driver developer can use this button to expose advanced printing functionality to the user.
ATAPI PCI/IDE storage block driver This feature is a fully functional device driver that provides compact disc (CD) and digital video disc (DVD) read support.
Agfa AC3 font compression and decompression This feature reduces the read-only memory (ROM) requirement for font files.
Bluetooth This feature is a short-range wireless technology that enables data communication between devices. Bluetooth provides support that enables the following scenarios:
  • Using a Bluetooth-enabled cellular phone as a data modem (Dial-Up Networking profile).
  • Exchanging files and objects with any Bluetooth-enabled device using Object Exchange Protocol (OBEX).
  • Provide network access both as a local area network (LAN) access server and as a client (LAN access profile).
Board support packages (BSPs) This feature provides device driver and OAL infrastructure to write BSPs for custom hardware and standard development boards (SDBs) by re-using existing driver code. Includes prebuilt support for the following off-the-shelf SDBs:
  • National Geode SP4SC30 Development Platform for National Geode microprocessors
  • Lanner EM-350/EM-351 single board computers (SBCs) for National Geode microprocessors
  • Advantech PCM-5822/PCM-5823 SBCs for National Geode microprocessors
  • x86-based SDBs including the Windows CE PC-based hardware development platform (CEPC)
  • Emulator
  • Intel SA-1110/SA-1111 (Assabet) Development Kit for SA1110 microprocessors
  • Intel XScale Microarchitecture Handheld Development Platform
  • ARM Integrator AP SDB for ARM920/ARM1020 microprocessors
  • Hitachi SH7750 HARP SDB for SH4 microprocessors
  • Hitachi SH7729 HARP SDB for SH3 microprocessors
  • NEC DDB-Vrc5476 (Boston) SDB for MIPSIV Vr5432 microprocessors
  • NEC DDB-Vr4122 (Eagle) SDB for MIPSII Vr4122 microprocessors
Browse For Folder dialog box This feature enables an application to display a dialog box that allows a user to select a folder.
Chinese application support Applications are fully localized for Simplified and Traditional Chinese.
Chinese operating system (OS) The OS is fully localized for Simplified and Traditional Chinese.
Microsoft ClearType support This feature supports the display of TrueType fonts using the Microsoft ClearType® technology to enhance the reading experience. Support is available for screens with depths equal to 8 bpp, 16 bpp, 24 bpp, and 32 bpp.
SIP-based Communications Service (RTC Client) API This feature is used by application developers in the following ways:
  • To build text-messaging applications.
  • For Voice over IP (VoIP).
  • For IP telephony bridging from IP to Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) telephony.
  • To receive and send presence information.
Component services (COM and DCOM) The entire Component Object Model (COM) and Distributed COM (DCOM) implementation is now organized into components, allowing platform or OS developers to get subsets of the functionality with a savings in resource requirements. You can choose MiniCOM, which supports only the free-threading model and in-process communication, or the full DCOM, which also supports automation marshaling.
Customizable user interface (UI) This feature is used to customize the appearance of common controls, Window controls, and non-client areas. It enables you to implement a library that does the drawing for the controls you want to customize. Sample code is in %_WINCEROOT%\Public\Common\Oak\Drivers\SkinnableUI.
Data marshaling This feature provides an IDispProxy sample that enables VARIANTs to be marshaled to remote servers. For more information see Marshaling Support.
Device driver loading model This feature includes the following functionality:
  • Bus drivers load device drivers onto their respective buses.
  • Device-specific information has been removed from the Device Manager and added to the appropriate bus driver.
  • A registry enumerator has been added.
  • The ActivateDeviceEx function has been added to offer more functionality than ActivateDevice. Both of these functions replace RegisterDevice.
Device interface notifications This feature alerts registered client device drivers and applications about the addition and removal of interfaces, rather than devices.
Digital Rights Management (DRM) This feature enables the playback of audio and video content from Active Streaming Format (ASF) files that copyright owners have protected from unauthorized playback or duplication with DRM version 7. This feature also includes support for DRM license management and transfer associated with Windows CE-based devices.
Direct3D This feature supplies a set of APIs for easy-to-use, basic support for interactive 3-D graphics applications. Direct3D also provides device-dependent access to 3-D video-display hardware in a device-independent manner.
DVD-Video API This feature is a complete middleware framework for supporting DVD-Video playback applications. This includes the ability to interact with custom playback elements, such as storage devices and decoding solutions, exposed through COM interfaces, as well as an API layer to expose and access data encoded in DVD-Video format standard.
DVD-Video renderer This feature provides the driver interface required to support DVD video and audio playback on Windows CE-based devices.
DirectMusic This feature is used to work with message-based musical data in the Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI) format and convert it into wave samples using either hardware or a software synthesizer. DirectMusic also has a dynamic compositional engine that can rearrange human-authored musical elements in response to program events at run time.
Extensible Authentication Protocol (EAP) This feature supports plugging-in authentication schemes such as token cards, biometrics, and others.

For Windows CE .NET, 802.1x supports EAP.
Event-based notification trigger This feature enables an application to create a named event that can be used to trigger an application when a specified time has been reached or a system event has occurred.
Fiber API This feature is used to port applications that were designed to schedule their own threads. Fibers are units of execution that are scheduled by the application. Fibers run in the context of the threads that schedule them.
File-based notification database The notification engine now supports the use of a database file existing on any file system. An OEM can define the location that is used to store the notification data. Previously, if you had a device that did not persist RAM and you used the notification subsystem, you were forced to copy the database from the object and then back when you shut down the device.
Font loading directory This feature specifies the directory from which the OS loads fonts.
Font versions These features are different versions of TrueType and AC3 font files that contain different subsets of characters and font sizes of the original files. Consequently, the developer has improved control over the size of font files.
FTP server sample This feature supports the minimum implementation of the server-side FTP server based on RFC 959. This sample implementation includes configuration values, transfer parameters, and the ASCII and Image Type data types. Source code for the sample is provided.
GB18030 data converter This feature supports the conversion of text encoded for the GB18030 standard from the People's Republic of China to native encoding that the OS can display.
Headless dialog boxes and message boxes This feature supports the customization of dialog boxes and message boxes so that you can process the information presented in these resources in the manner that is needed for your device.
Hive-based registry This feature enables support for a hive-based registry that stores registry data inside files, or hives, which can be kept on any file system.
IEEE 1394 This feature's supported modules are the following drivers:
  • IEEE 1394 bus driver, which provides a hardware-independent interface to the IEEE 1394 bus. A driver for a device that connects to the IEEE 1394 bus is above the IEEE 1394 driver stack. The driver communicates with the device by sending I/O request packets to the IEEE 1394 bus driver.
  • IEEE 1394 AV/C VCR subunit driver, which provides applications with the ability to control devices on the 1394 bus that export an AV/C tape subunit API.
  • IEEE 1394 streaming filter driver, which is a particular device driver that acts to pass through most commands, but filters out commands specific to its purpose and takes explicit action on them. It explicitly filters out and completes high-level API commands intended to carry out tasks, including starting a stream and sending a frame.
  • IEEE 1394 unit filter driver, which is an optional component that should be included to export functionality from your product through an AV/C subunit.
  • IEEE 1394 virtual VCR driver, which is responsible for the underlying protocols responsible for managing a virtual subunit and a virtual VCR subunit. It does not perform any tasks related to streaming media or emulating a VCR.
Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.5 for Windows CE This feature replaces the generic Microsoft Internet Explorer. It supplies nearly all the functionality of the desktop version of Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.5, including script hosting for Microsoft JScript® version 5.5 and Microsoft Visual Basic® Scripting Edition (VBScript) version 5.5, URL management services, Microsoft Passport authentication. In Windows CE .NET 4.2, this feature is upgraded to Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0.
Installable ISRs This feature enables interrupt service routines (ISRs) to be installed after a kernel is built, hooking into existing interrupt requests (IRQs).
I/O Resource Manager This feature is used to indicate which given resources, such as address or IRQ, are available to a calling device driver. Resource conflicts on your platform can therefore be avoided.
Japanese Edit Control, Level 2 This feature supports edit control level 2 as a default. Level 3 support is still available and the default can be modified.
Japanese input methods (IMs) This feature's new IMs include the following functionality:
  • Bushu-kensaku, a search by radical engine that enables complex Kanji character selection based on radicals.
  • Soukakusu-kensaku, a search by stroke engine that enables complex Kanji character selection based on character strokes.
  • Microsoft Kana IM is an on-screen keyboard that enables the direct input of Hiragana and Katakana using a traditional phonic layout.
  • Microsoft Roma IM is an on-screen keyboard that enables the direct input of the Western alphabet through a traditional keyboard layout.
  • Multibox is a sample IM for use with the HWX handwriting recognition engine that enables Japanese handwriting input.
Japanese Pocket Input Method Editor (IME) version 2.0 This feature includes a new dictionary compiler, user dictionary and word registration, multiple dictionary support, new registry settings, and broader support for input methods. The kernel and UI codes were separated. The UI module is a customizable sample.
Kerberos This feature is a protocol implemented as a security package that is accessible through the Security Support Provider Interface (SSPI). Kerberos offers the following benefits:
  • More efficient authentication to servers. The application server does not need to connect to the domain controller to authenticate each client because credentials presented by the client provide authentication information.
  • Mutual authentication. Both the client and server are able to verify each other's identity.
Korean IME97 This feature's kernel and UI are now separated into separate modules. The UI module is a customizable sample.
Korean Handwriting Recognition (HWXKOR) This feature is a sample UI for use with the HWX handwriting recognition engine. HWXKOR supports user-drawn Hangul and Hanja.
Korean application support Applications are fully localized for Korean.
MediaSense This feature improves the roaming experience for mobile device users by allowing an enabled device to recognize that it is physically disconnected from a network to which it was previously connected. This is accomplished through the use of network adapters that detect voltage levels in the connection line.
Message Queues — Point-to-Point This feature supports the new Windows CE-based data structure provided by Coredll.lib. Message queues are useful for point-to-point interprocess or intraprocess communication and are functionally similar to pipes.
Mounting an external file system as root This feature supports storing files and directories off the root directory, as if it were the RAM-based file system.
Mouse wheel This feature supports a wheel mouse as needed.
Multilingual User Interface (MUI) This feature enables the user to switch the UI language, allowing a platform developer to create one ROM image for multiple markets.
Multiple screens This feature supports the use of a maximum of four screens connected to a Windows CE-based device to function as one large, combined screen.
Name registration This feature supports dynamically registering the name of the device with the WINS server, enabling Windows CE-based devices to be found and connected to using the name of the device in addition to the IP address.
Media Access Control (MAC) bridging This feature interconnects network segments in a multiple-segment network by forwarding frames from one segment to another.
NDIS 5.1 This feature provides support for Network Driver Interface Specification (NDIS) 5.1 features, including send cancellation, new object identifiers for wireless WAN, signal strength, 64-bit counters, MediaSense, wake-on-LAN, serialized miniport, packet stacking, increased statistic capacity, and performance improvements.
Network and Dial-up Connections UI This feature provides a new network control panel UI to establish and manage network connections, thereby replacing REMNET. This UI supports the configuration of 802.11 adapters for 802.1x and 802.11 automatic configuration. It also enables the configuration of LAN connections and the ability to enable and disable connections.

For Windows CE .NET 4.0, the functionality of the Network Control Panel in Microsoft Windows CE 3.0 was divided between the Networking and Dial-up Connections and Owner Properties dialog boxes. These dialog boxes are accessible from Control Panel. Similarly, for Windows CE .NET, the functionality of the Communications dialog box in Windows CE 3.0 was divided between the PC Connection program for Microsoft ActiveSync® parameters and the System program for device name parameters.
Object Exchange Protocol (OBEX) This feature is a generic connection-based protocol used for transferring objects from one device to another. It implements OBEX 1.2 support for both Infrared Data Association (IrDA) and Bluetooth technology, and supports both file browsing and object push.
Partition Manager This feature manages, loads, and unloads logical partitions on a storage device.
PCI bus driver This feature enumerates the PCI bus, and for every device it finds, it configures the device and searches for and loads an appropriate driver. PCI devices no longer need to be listed in the registry under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Driver\BuiltIn.
Microsoft Pinyin 2.0 IME for Windows CE This feature is an intelligent, bigram-based IME for Simplified Chinese that allows Shuang Pin or Pin Yin input.
Power Manager This feature manages system-wide and device-level power states. Drivers register with the Power Manager and report their capabilities. Applications can then turn devices on or off based on user-defined system states.
PPShell driver This feature was redesigned as a parallel class driver. It uses the underlying Microsoft Windows NT® 4.0-based or Windows 2000-based parallel port arbitrator, Parport.sys.
Dial-up Networking (RAS/PPP) Point-to-Point Protocol supports Remote Access Server (RAS) scripting and the Extensible Authentication Protocol. RAS scripting enables OEMs and ISVs to automate dial-up networking.
Protected store API This feature provides a convenient solution to cryptography, key management, and user experience issues to protect sensitive information and prevent data tampering.
RAS Server/PPTP Server This feature enables other devices to make dial-in connections or use PPTP to tunnel to a Windows CE-based device.
Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) This feature enables a thin client, for example, a Windows-based terminal, to communicate with a terminal server. The RDP client includes high-color resolution, local printer support, and local audio playback.
Remote Network Driver Interface Specification (RNDIS) This feature supports network devices with Plug and Play I/O buses, such as USB, IEEE 1394, and InfiniBand technology. It extends the NDIS architecture and leverages familiar driver interface semantics.
Services.exe This feature is a tool that supplements the existing Device.exe process in loading system services. It expands the Device.exe functionality by hosting services that do not require direct access to the system and isolating those services from the system services. In the event of a service failure, separating the services protects a system service from failing as well. This increases device stability in a service failure and decreases the likelihood of a crash of the entire Windows CE-based device.
Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) Support for Windows CE Web Server This feature has been added to the Web server to allow the Web server and Web clients to communicate by using encryption.
Shared Debug Ethernet Driver This feature, also known as VMINI, enables debugging and production activities to share a single Ethernet port.
SOAP Toolkit This feature consists of a client-side component that allows an application to invoke Web service operations and a server-side component that maps invoked Web service operations to COM object method calls.
Simplified Chinese Pocket IME and IM This feature is a compact Input Method Editor (IME) for Simplified Chinese. It supports the Pinyin IM and Shuang Pin IM. The UI is provided as a customizable sample and a Shuang Pin on-screen keyboard input method (IM) is provided.
Smart Card Encryption Provider Windows CE provides a sample Windows for Smart Card cryptographic service provider (CSP) in source code form. This CSP shows how to properly integrate a smart card with the various functions and services that are provided by the Microsoft CryptoAPI.

The sample, Scwcsp, is available in %_WINCEROOT%\Public\Common\SDK\Samples.
SOAP Reliable Messaging Protocol (SRMP) Message Queuing (MSMQ) defines and implements an XML-based SOAP extension. The SRMP enables message exchange and provides support for several services and kinds of message notifications.

This SOAP-based protocol supports the following features:

  • Express messages
  • End-to-end reliable messages
  • End-to-end authentication
  • Notifications of message delivery
  • Message authentication and digital signatures
Storage Manager This feature is responsible for all external storage items, including all file systems and block drivers. All file, data, and volume manipulation goes through the Storage Manager. It acts as a central location for all I/O to the disk or other permanent storage medium.
TCP/IP Windows CE .NET includes support for an updated TCP/IP stack. The TCP/IP stack is comparable to what is available on Windows XP.
Telnet Server Sample (Telnetd) This feature can be installed on Windows CE-based devices to allow remote administration and troubleshooting through a standard Telnet client.
ToolTips This feature is a small pop-up window that displays text describing the purpose of a tool in an application. Windows CE .NET provides enhanced ToolTip functionality that is similar to the ToolTip functionality provided on Windows-based desktop platforms.
Traditional Chinese Handwriting Recognition (HWXCHT) This feature is a sample UI for use with the HWX handwriting recognition engine. HWXCHT supports user-drawn ideographs and characters.
Traditional Chinese Pocket IME and IMs This feature is a compact IME for Traditional Chinese. It supports the Phonetic input method and Chang Jei input method. The UI is provided as a customizable sample and on-screen keyboards are provided for the Phonetic and Chang Jei IMs.
Transcriber Handwriting Recognizer Application This feature is an application that recognizes all handwriting, whether it is cursive, printed, or a combination of both. In addition to recognizing letters, numbers, and words, Transcriber recognizes common symbols and various control gestures. Transcriber supports English (US), German, and French.
Unicode surrogates This feature supports handling and displaying Unicode surrogate pairs.
Unified audio model (UAM) and sample drivers This feature enables support for both waveform (WAV) audio and Microsoft DirectSound® in a single driver.
UPnP control point This feature can use the Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) API to learn about the presence and capabilities of devices that are registered on the network.
UPnP device host This feature consists of device-hosting services and a set of COM interfaces, as well as an API that facilitates UPnP device hosting on a Windows CE-based platform.
USB class drivers The following sample universal serial bus (USB) drivers are provided:
  • USB human interface device (HID), which is a USB client driver and does not directly interface with any hardware; therefore, it has no platform-dependent driver (PDD) and no device driver service-provider interface (DDSI). It uses the USB driver interface (USBDI) to communicate with the USB host controller and the physical device. Because the HID driver manages devices typically controlled by other drivers, the device driver interface (DDI) is a combination of available DDIs.
  • USB printer class driver. The driver sample is in %_WINCEROOT%\Public\Common\Oak\Drivers\USB\Class\Printer. The driver DLL Is USBPRN.dll. This sample driver is not backward compatible.
  • USB mass storage class driver. The driver sample is in %_WINCEROOT%\Public\Common\Oak\Drivers\USB\Class\Storage. The driver DLLs are called USBMSC.dll and USBDISK6.dll. This sample driver is not backward compatible.
  • USB host controller driver. Windows CE provides sample drivers for both open host controller interface (OHCI) and universal host controller interface (UHCI) compatible host controllers.
  • USB function controller driver, which exposes an appropriate device class interface to another USB host system, such as a Windows-based development workstation. It is typically used to provide USB connectivity between a Windows CE-based device and a development workstation. Windows CE provides several sample USB function drivers that expose both a serial and Remote NDIS (RNDIS) interface.

Also provided are several sample USB function drivers that support the Netchip NET2890 controller, XScale, and SA1110 CPU-native USB function controllers.
User profiles This feature enables an OEM to store multiple user-specific settings on a device.
Window properties This feature enables applications to assign data to a window as an application-defined property.
Windows Media Player This application sample includes new features, such as Playlists, Content Discovery and Management, and Favorites.
Windows Media Technologies This feature includes codecs for high-fidelity, low-bandwidth encoded multimedia streams.
Windows Thin Client Sample code from version 1.5 of the Windows-based Terminal (WBT) Kit was incorporated into the new Windows Thin Client configuration. The Windows Thin Client configuration has all the SNMP and local browser capabilities as WBT 1.5, as well as support for new RDP features.
Windows Sockets (Winsock) 2.0 This feature's API supports the following:
  • Winsock 2.0 service providers, which enable OEMs and ISVs to add support for additional protocol stacks or write providers that manipulate packets before the packet is sent over TCP/IP, IrDA, or any transport installed on the device.
  • Scatter and gather, which is used by applications that send and receive formatted data.
MSXML 3.0 Windows CE includes both a full-featured XML parser and a miniparser, which supports SAX-based parsing on devices that require XML support in a small footprint. The full XML parser is a componentized parser based on the desktop version of Microsoft XML Parser version 3.0 (MSXML) SP1, and supports the Document Object Model (DOM), error codes, XMLHTTP, XSLT, XQL, SAX, document type definition (DTD) and schema verification, and caching.

See Also

Changes in Platform Builder | Migrating from Windows CE 3.0 to Windows CE .NET | What's New | New OS Features

Last updated on Wednesday, April 13, 2005

© 2005 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.