Tip of the Month (November 2011)

Installing the Visual CE Runtime

The Visual CE Runtime is what takes a form you designed and displays it on the handheld screen. It also takes the data you enter in your form and saves it to the database. There are several ways to install (or re-install) the Visual CE Runtime. This month's tip-of-the-month describes different ways to do this.

• When you install the Visual CE Development Environment on the desktop, the installer installs the Visual CE Development Environment on the hanheld. The Visual CE Runtime is part of the Visual CE Development Environment. If you are the developer and you need to re-install the Visual CE Runtime on your handheld, simply reinstall Visual CE on the desktop.
  Important note: If you are trying to install your application on someone else's handheld, you should not install the Visual CE Runtime this way. This is in violation of your Visual CE license.
  • The Visual CE Personal Edition license only allows you to install Visual CE on you own device.
  • The Visual CE Pro Edition license only allows you to install the Visual CE Visual CE Runtime on other people's devices, not the Visual CE Development Environment
  If you need to install the Visual CE Runtime on someone else's handheld, do this using one of the other options below.
• If you have a Visual CE Pro Edition, in "C:\Program Files\Windows CE Services\SYWARE Visual CE" there is a files called VICERT.xxx.CAB. Copy the apropriate file to the handheld and then, on the handheld, use file explorer to navigate to it and double click it. There are several VICERT.xxx.CAB files. The different files are for the different processors and versions of the operating systems. The vast majority of people would use VICERT.ARM_5.CAB
  Important note: You should use the VICERT.xxx.CAB files, not the VCE.xxx.CAB files. The VCE.xxx.CAB files are the Visual CE Development Environment.
• If you have a Visual CE Pro Edition, use Visual CE's FILE | CREATE DISTRIBUTION FILES. This will create an installer for your application. This installer includes the redistributable components...including the Visual CE Runtime.