Expert: Werner "Menneisyys" Ruotsalainen

You’ve installed a new application and, now, can’t boot in your Pocket PC? Ever wondered how you can boot into a Safe Mode similar to the desktop Windows Safe Mode to disable all third-party applications and services? Read this!

In the (highly recommended if you still haven't read it!) Safe Mode Bible, I’ve explained what Safe Mode applications there have been on the Pocket PC. Back then, in September, there were only three of them: the built-in Safe Mode in the commercial Spb Pocket Plus and iLauncher 3 and, finally, the, then, free but not WM5-compliant, 1-series of SafeMode by monoCube (mCube).

The author of the latter has just released a WM5-compliant, greatly enhanced version of SafeMode. It has every bells and whistles and is, right now (before the release a new version of SKTools, which is rumored to receive safe mode capabilities some time), the most safe application because it’s able to filter:

1. INIT applications - these are low level applications, such as older versions of "Mad Programmer’s ForceHiRes" or "XCPUScalar"
2. Services - these are system applications; they are not visible with the task manager, and generally run in the background
3. Startup applications - startup links, placed in "Windows\Startup"
4. Today plugins - SafeMode 2 disables all Today plugins, replacing it with it's own interface, as a reminder you're running in SafeMode
5. Input methods - all non-standard Input methods (custom keyboards etc) are disabled
6. Pocket Internet Explorer plugins (such as MultiIE)
7. Other extensions, found in system registry

Unfortunately, it’s no longer free: it costs $6.95. There’s an unrestricted 14-day version available.

Please visit the homepage of the application HERE for more information / for the download.

UPDATE (04/10/2007): Just Another Mobile Monday frontpage

I've just updated the tutorial "Can I change the language a given Web page is requested by my Web browser on my Pocket PC?" with a newly-found Netfront 3.3 bug. I’ve also slightly modified the PIE-related part with new, WM2003-related info.

Make sure you check it out

1. if you would like to know how you can request non-English Web pages (when they're available on a multilanguage page) on an English Pocket PC.
2. would like to know more about the new bug I've discovered

Thanks to feedback I've received all around the Web, I've just posted a revised, updated edition of the today-published Safe Mode article ( http://www.pocketpcmag.com/blogs/index.php?blog=3&p=1255&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1 ).

1. A quick (executive) summary

If you don’t want to read the article in its entirety (I DO recommend the latter – it contains a LOT of never-before-published tips and plain English explanations of what is happening behind the scenes!), here’s what you should do:

1. depending on your preferences, get either Spb Pocket Plus or iLauncher, install it
2. if you encounter boot-in problems (the device wouldn’t boot after installing a new application and resetting the device), make sure you quickly (in less than one minute after the first reset attempt) reset the device so that the Safe Mode boot message is triggered and displayed
3. when the above-mentioned message is displayed, tap the screen area; Spb Pocket Plus / iLauncher will boot in Safe Mode
4. now, simply go to Settings/System/Remove Programs and remove the application
5. finally, click the “Reset” button on Spb Pocket Plus / iLauncher. It’ll reboot in the standard (non-safe) mode – now, without the offending application.

1.1 Non-bootable Pocket PC’s?

However much the Windows Mobile operating system is much safer than many desktop operating systems, there may be cases when things just go wrong and you just won’t be able to boot in: after resetting the device, it will just hang at the boot splash screen.

This is particularly true of cases when you install new software. There are some well-known software products (or unlucky combinations of them) that are bound to cause sometimes severe, reset-time problems. Just two of the well known “dangerous” cases:

1. some old(er) ThinkOutside StowAway drivers (for example, version 4.3) installed on some specific Pocket PC models (for example, the Fujitsu-Siemens Pocket Loox 720): after the (self)-reset upon installation, the device, in general (particularly if you don’t enable Bluetooth before starting the install), most probably just hangs and not even subsequent resets help in most cases.
2. trying to install the two great Pocket Internet Explorer / Internet Explorer Mobile plug-ins MultiIE and PIEPlus on the same time (not all the time, mostly when it’s not a clean device). In these cases, if you’re unlucky enough, the device is rendered unbootable and you will need to do a hard reset if there are no other chances to make it work again. (Note that alone these plug-ins cause no problems at all. Also note that this is the case with all the versions I’ve tested – even the latest ones.)

In this article, I explain how, with which applications you can fight all these problems. First, I provide a generic overview of the booting sequence of the Windows Mobile operating system so that you know where things can go wrong. Note that you don’t need to understand it: if you don’t, it’s no problem, you will still understand the rest of this article. However, it casts light on a lot of issues discussed in the article and, therefore, is highly recommended.

Read more!

UPDATE (04/04/2007): some bad news for WM5 / WM6 users: while the driver memory shortage is indeed much less prevalent in WM5+ operating systems, it certainly exists.
(End of update.)

You may have already heard about the difference between driver memory (don’t confuse it with the ‘static’ storage memory!) and dynamic memory. The two have nothing to do with each other. That is, you can have even 100 Mbytes of free dynamic (program) memory while having no driver memory at all.

The shortage of the driver memory is very well known for many WM2003SE device users; for example, those of the Pocket Loox 720. On the Loox, upon (re)enabling Bluetooth, you often run into this error message complaining about the lack of the driver memory. Other, mostly WM2003SE (and, to a much lesser degree, WM2003) users have also run into this problem.

Some programs use more and some less driver memory. For example, the Widcomm Bluetooth stack in the Pocket Loox 720 and in the WM2003SE HP iPAQ hx2xxx series uses quite a lot of driver memory. Other applications that consume a lot of driver memory are, for example, Qmail, the great alternative E-mail application, the beta (past) versions of Opera Mobile, the best Web browser for the Pocket PC (the final, trial/commercial version released late May has much less driver memory usage), the also nice Web browser NetFront 3.2/3.3, Adobe Acrobat Reader 2.0, TextMaker and PlanMaker by Softmaker.

Read more!