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Windows XP Embedded

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Posted March 4, 2003

Chat Date: February 18, 2003

Please note: Portions of this transcript have been edited for clarity

Chat Participants:

  • Arnie Brackett, Quality Assurance for the Embedded Authoring Tools
  • P. Venkatraman, Developer in XP Embedded Tools Group
  • Jon Fincher, Program Manager, Windows XP Embedded
  • Ravi Gopal, Product Manager, Windows XP Embedded
  • Bill Luan, Program Manager on the Windows Embedded Team
  • Stephen Berard, Program Manager Windows Embedded
  • Ravi Gopal, Product Manager, Windows XP Embedded
  • Anil Ingle, Development Manager, Windows Embedded
  • Steve Jang, Program Manager, Windows Embedded

Moderator: Mike Fos (Microsoft)
Welcome to today's Chat. Our topic is Windows XP Embedded. Questions, comments, and suggestions are welcome.

Moderator: Mike Fos (Microsoft)
Let’s introduce our hosts for today.

Host: Jon (Microsoft)
Jon Fincher, Program Manager, Windows XP Embedded

Host: Ravig (Microsoft)
Ravi Gopal, Product Manager, Windows XP Embedded

Host: Pvenkat (Microsoft)
P. Venkatraman, Developer in XP Embedded Toos Group.

Host: Bill L (Microsoft)
I am Bill Luan. I am a Program Manager at the Windows Embedded Team. I am responsible for the XPE tools.

Host: Sberard (Microsoft)
Stephen Berard, Program Manager Windows Embedded

Host: Arnie B (Microsoft)
Hello my name is Arnie Brackett - I work in Quality Assurance for the Embedded Authoring Tools

Moderator: Mike Fos (Microsoft)
Welcome everyone, let’s get started!

Host: Bill L (Microsoft)
Q: I'm interested in Embedded but not quite sure about its capabilities. Would the Start menu show up on an embedded system?

A: There are a lot of product info on the MS Web site XPE link. But a quick intro here: XPE is based on XP Pro so it’s 100% binary compatible with XP Pro. This means compatibility at all levels all the way to Win32 APIs – any application you design that runs on XP will run in the XPE environment. In addition, XPE has some additional embedded features such as SDI, EWF, flash support, etc. You basically build your own runtime image using XPE TD tool, and you can incorporate your own app by componentizing it using the CD tool. In terms of what menu to show up, you have a lot of controls to the runtime properties, using the property settings of the OS components.

Host: RaviG (Microsoft)
Q: In MSDN Q&A is says that Embedded XP Evaluation is included in MSDN Universal. I can not find it in my Universal subscription, nor in the subscription index.

A: XPE Eval is included w/MSDN Universal. However the kits will not be available until February.

Host: Jon (Microsoft)
Q: I would like to know how to build a network connection w/out Explorer component. When I use netsh w/out explorer I get the Connection GUID instead of the name and this prevent me from using in the script.

A: This has been covered in the newsgroups at microsoft.public.windowsxp.embedded. Basically, you need to examine the registry at HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Network. There are a keys corresponding to the GUIDs for each network adapter.

The name is under <GUID>\Connection\Name. Once you have found the correct name, you can use the corresponding GUID in your script.

Host: Sberard (Microsoft)
Q: What's the thought on making a XP embedded system withstand unexpected power downs. Using EWF for sure, but any other pointers?

A: There are a number of things you can do to avoid loosing data.

1. Put a UPS on the system to protect from power loss.

2. Use NTFS as your file system. NTFS is very tolerant of failures and can often recover from faults automatically.

3. Use EWF to protect your volumes and allow you to recover in case of a major failure.

Host: Steve Jang (Microsoft)
Q: Is it possible to use EWF on only one partition?

A: Yes, if you are using RAM EWF. But not if you are using Disk-based EWF partition.

Host: Arnie B (Microsoft)
Q: Is the control of start menu content the same for XPE as for XP? Is the primary purpose of XPE the footprint size?

A: Start Menu control works as it does in XP and is also configurable in Target Designer before the image is created. The footprint size is definite advantage to using XPE as well as providing a quality platform for many types of single purpose devices. There are quite a few advantages to using XPE.

Host: Bill L (Microsoft)
Q: Is the control of start menu content the same for XPE as for XP? Is the primary purpose of XPE the footprint size?

A: This depends on how much control you want to have. You can control what to show up on the desktop, for example, using the UI Core component property settings when you building your image in TD. You can of course, include all the necessary feature OS components that enable you to do full control post boot just like you do in XP. The purpose of XPE is more than just control footprint size (although that’s a big part of it since most of the embedded scenarios deals with footprint issue), it’s for building special purpose OS images that is specifically designed for your device scenarios. Also, as mentioned, there are special embedded features in XPE which enable developers to do special things that facilitate the embedded deployment.

Host: RaviG (Microsoft)
Q: Just to clarify. XPE Eval will be included in MSDN Universal but it is not now?

A: Yes. This kit will not be available until later this month.

Host: Jon (Microsoft)
Q: I also would like know how to use the "Customized Shell Explorer"

A: Can you clarify what you want to do here? There is no component with that name, so I'm not sure if you want to customer the Explorer Shell component, or create a new customized shell component.

Host: Jon (Microsoft)
Q: Is there any realistic expectation on release time for QFEs or is it just sit and wait at this point?

A: Unfortunately, John, I've got no release date to give you right now. As soon as I do, I'll post to the newsgroup, but until then, yes, we're at a sit and wait point.

Host: Bill L (Microsoft)
Q: If any updates to TD are done in the near future (service packs), a suggestion: put a control on the toolbar to turn autoresolve on/off and have the status displayed in the status display area.

A: Thanks for the suggestion. Right now there’s no plan for any immediate SP for the tools. But we will definitely keep this feedback in mind if we do, and will consider this for future generation of tools. Thank you very much for the feedback!

Host: Steve Jang (Microsoft)
Q: Just to clarify: is it possible to make two different partitions in a Flash Disk, make the former write-protected and the latter not?

A: If you have the flash disk partitioned this way, you can specify to protect the one of the partitions using EWF. Of course, you can leave the second partition unprotected.

Host: Bill L (Microsoft)
Q: elko: hi;about embeded tech. what about winxp backdoor?

A: Whada ya mean? There is no back door :-)

Host: RaviG (Microsoft)
Q: JohnV: Is one of the updates to be expected a fix similar to the patch for SQL for slammer?

A: There already is a fix for SQL Slammer on our website. We will be releasing a number of other fixes (such as IE).

Host: Steve Jang (Microsoft)
Q: Can XPE be used with the Server Appliance Kit (SAK)?

A: No. SAK is designed to run on Windows 2000 Server, and XPE doesn't support SAK.

Host: RaviG (Microsoft)
Q: My interest for Embedded is purely of private interest/learning and not my normal work development. Can I license XEP + 1 runtime or is it only for OEM?

A: You can order evaluation kits from our website. However these won't be available until later this month and the runtimes time bomb after 120d.

Host: Bill L (Microsoft)
Q: Then is it possible to store event files (.evt) in a location different than the default one? For example in the second non-write protected partition...

A: We are not sure exactly the issue here, but this seems to be not a problem particular related to XPE but rather a general OS question. You may want to check with the OS and app dev newsgroups to see if others have suggestions on a custom app to change the event log properties.

Also check the MSDN articles to see if this has been answered before. In addition, just a suggestion, you may want to check reg key to see if there’s a special key control the location/name of the file, as options may be available to rename or move the log files to help you solve the problem.

Host: Steve Jang (Microsoft)
Q: Is it possible to enable and disable EWF at run-time?

A: There is an EWF utility that you can use at runtime. However, the actual action of enabling/disabling can only happen at restart, because we need the operating system to be in quiesced state to ensure safe disk state. For instance, if we took a snapshot of the disk that is unsafe to boot into (because disk caching and other OS activities).

Host: Bill L (Microsoft)
Q: elko: in hacker world i heard about that a back door in every win version...

A: Not true. :-)

Host: RaviG (Microsoft)
Q: CF for CE is cool, but are we going to get at least some sort of granular component for the full framework at some point to avoid the huge install?

A: At this point in time, no; however we realize this is an issue w/the .net framework component and are working w/the vs team on further reducing the footprint.

Host: Bill L (Microsoft)
Q: okay; about new compatibility in win xp that allow old windows executable…

A: You can easily find out if your custom app will run on XPE by test running it on XP Pro first. If it runs there, it should have no problem running on XPE, provide you componentized it properly, and included all the necessary OS components in your runtime configuration.

Host: Jon (Microsoft)
Q: Is it possible to store event files (.evt) in a location different than the default one?

A: The registry keys that control the Event Log are under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Eventlog. The owning component for that key is "Event Viewer". It may be possible (emphasis on 'may') to modify that key in your configuration before you build to relocate the event logs to a different source. We have not tested nor verified this scenario yet, so you'll be blazing a trail.

Host: Steve Jang (Microsoft)
Q: Thanks a lot. Where can I find the utility? Is it a 32bit app or a 16bit app?

A: Add "EWF Manager Console application" to your configuration, and you will get ewfmgr.exe in your runtime. To clarify, this is a 32-bit application that changes the configuration of EWF for the subsequent boot, so that you can either enable/disable/restore/checkpoint on your next boot.

Host: Anil (Microsoft)
Q: About old executables compatibility in win xp how from programmable face ms do that? i mean is it a new APIs only or it represent new algorithms im a programmer & want to know

A: What exactly do you need? The Win32 API is backwards compatible down to Win9x.

Host: Jon (Microsoft)
Q: The compatibility form in win xp please tell me about the background code that make any win9x.exe run on winNT?

A: We don't have any information on that specific code. You might want to ask the question in one of the general microsoft.public.windowxp newsgroups. The "Inside Windows NT" book may also be helpful here.

Moderator: Mike Fos (Microsoft)
Thanks for joining us today and thanks for the questions. It's time for us to go now. You'll be able to find the transcript of this chat soon on the MSDN Web site at https://msdn.microsoft.com/chats/recent.asp

For further information on this topic please visit the following:

Newsgroups: Mobile and embedded application development topics

Embedded Transcripts: Read the archive

Website: Visit the Mobile & Embedded Developer Center

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