INFO: VBCE: Differences Between Emulation and the Remote Device

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This article was previously published under Q192998

SUMMARY

This article describes some of the differences between Windows CE Toolkit for Visual Basic (VBCE) applications run in the emulator, on a desktop computer, or on a remote device.

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Font and palette issues can arise from differences between fonts and colors available on the remote device and in the emulator. The emulator gets such information from the Windows NT, Windows 2000 or WindowsXP operating system.

The emulator can display any font properly installed on the host desktop. The remote device can only show the fonts available to it. Font substitutions will be made based on family and spacing:

   Font name         Family     Spacing
   ---------         ------     -------

   Arial             san serif  proportional
   Courier New       serif      fixed
   Symbol            symbol     proportional
   Tahoma            san serif  proportional
   Times New Roman   serif      proportional

In Visual Basic, the default font is MS San Serif. It will display properly in the emulator. However, the font does not exist on remote devices and will be substituted with Arial. See the REFERENCES section below for more information.

As with fonts, any color available to the desktop machine can be displayed in the emulator. However, the remote device has a more limited color palette and colors will be mapped to the nearest similar color:

   Black / Silver
   Red / Maroon
   Green / Lime
   Olive / Yellow
   Blue / Navy
   Teal / Aqua
   Purple / Fuchsia
   White / Gray

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Remote Tools

Most remote tools shipped with VBCE only work on the remote device, not in the emulator. The Windows CE Registry Editor and the Control Manager are the only remote tools that work in both environments.

Application Manager (CeAppMgr.exe) cannot be used to install applications in the emulator. The program resides on the desktop computer, and it is responsible for adding and removing applications on the Windows CE device, as well as deleting the application files from the desktop computer.

Windows CE Application Install Wizard (InstWzrd.exe) runs on the desktop computer and creates an installation program for your application. The installation program can be run from the development machine or other machines to install the application onto the remote device.

Windows CE Heap Walker (ceheapwk.exe) enables you to view detailed information about heap identifiers and processes that are running on the remote device. It is also useful to determine if an application has memory leaks.

Windows CE Process Viewer (cepview.exe) displays a graphical view on the desktop computer of Windows CE process and thread characteristics. The Process Viewer enables you to view memory usage and search for memory leaks.

Windows CE Spy (cespy.exe) displays a graphical view on the desktop computer of Windows CE system processes, threads, windows, and window messages running on the remote device.

Windows CE Zoom (cezoom.exe) captures an image from the remote device and displays it on the desktop computer.

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Communications

Access to the serial ports on the desktop machine from the emulator requires a special driver, WCEEMULD. This file is installed as part of the "Device Driver Development Kit" (DDK), which can be installed during the Handheld PC Platform SDK installation. Please see the REFERENCES section below for further information.

The VBCE Winsock control does not function in the emulation environment. The emulator does not support IRDA.

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System

Clipboard: The emulator environment shares the clipboard with the desktop operating system.
Memory: Available memory values cannot be changed in the emulator.
Object Store: The Object Store is the central container for all WCE files on both the remote device and emulator. In the emulator, you can choose a different Object Store to use.
ControlBox: VBCE forms have a ControlBox property that enables display of the ControlBox in the upper-left corner of the form. The ControlBox will only display in the emulator, not on the remote device.

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