Cheryl on the Web

The pocket PC (PDA, handheld, whatever you call it) is generally a status symbol for those in the management echelons of an organisation. Today, I aspired not to those ranks but to the ranks of a geek: I wanted to pretend to have a pocket PC running on my computer so I could test out a few websites.

If you have Windows XP and want to do the same, read on for instructions…

First, you’ll need to download and install the following pieces of software:

• Microsoft Device Emulator 2.0 Beta. This is your very own Pocket PC - not quite the same as the PDA your boss might have, but hey, we can’t all be that special. I tried using the released version 1 of this (comes with Visual Studio 2005 so I already had it) but got nowhere - it doesn’t have very good support for using your computer’s network connection, so I recommend going for this beta install, worked for me.
• ActiveSync 4.2. We will use this to allow the handheld to access the network over your computer’s network connection. At the end of the ActiveSync installation, it will ask if you want to reboot for the changes to take effect, just click no. It will also have a screen there saying that it should have detected your pocket PC and, if it wasn’t detected, click Next to search for one. You can just click cancel there; we’ll get back to that.

Second, follow these steps to get the emulator going:

1. Start up the Device Emulator Manager using the link on the Start Menu.
2. Select “Pocket PC 2003 SE Emulator” from the list and then choose “Connect” from the Actions menu. Wait until you see a PDA-looking window appear (cool!) and until the Device Emulator Manager shows a green arrow next to “Pocket PC 2003 SE Emulator”, indicating the device is connected.
3. Again select “Pocket PC 2003 SE Emulator” from the list and choose “Cradle” from the Actions menu. (If that’s not an option then somehow you didn’t get it connected in the previous step.)

Third, follow these steps to get the emulator onto your PC’s network connection:

1. Open ActiveSync. From the File menu, choose “Connection settings…”. It will say “Waiting for device to connect.”
2. Click the “Connect…” button. It will open a very green Get Connected window. Click the Next button on that window. Cross your fingers. It should find your “Pocket PC”; if it doesn’t, you probably didn’t cradle it.
3. When ActiveSync connects to the Pocket PC, it will open a “New Partnership” window - you don’t need that, click Cancel and then “OK” on the alert it gives you. You will also notice something happening on your Pocket PC, that is good!
4. Finally, on the Pocket PC (in the emulator): from the Pocket PC Start menu, choose Settings. Choose the Connections tab, and click the Network Cards icon. Make sure it says, My network card connects to “Work”. Click the round “ok” on the upper right to return to the Connections tab.
5. Click the Connections icon. Choose “Set up my proxy server”. Make sure the checkbox “This network connects to the Internet” is checked. Click the round “ok” on the upper right.

That should do it! Choose Internet Explorer from the Pocket PC Start menu and away you go. When you are done, choose “Save state and exit” from the File menu of the emulator so that next time you don’t have to do the last few steps about setup.

If this doesn’t work for you, let me know! If it does, you can tell me that too ;)