Windows Embedded Standard 2009 (December 9, 2008)
Chat Topic: Windows Embedded Standard 2009
Date: Tuesday, December 09, 2008
Please note: Portions of this transcript have been edited for clarity
Shayna Begun [MS] (Moderator):
Welcome to today's chat with the Windows Embedded Standard team! A few weeks ago we officially released Windows Embedded Standard 2009, the next generation of Windows XP Embedded. We've got the program managers, developers, and testers involved with Windows Embedded Standard online today to talk to you about this very exciting release. Please feel free to ask any questions about this product, or any previous product. You can also give us your feedback on your experiences in using the products.
We are pleased to welcome our Experts for today's chat. I will have them introduce themselves now.
Introductions:
Donbym [MS] (Expert):
Hi I'm Donby Mathieu (donbym), I'm a Program Manager focused on Performance for the Windows Embedded Standard team. I'm relatively new to the team.
lyallen_MSFT (Moderator):
Hi, I'm Lynda Allen, a Program Manager on the Windows Embedded Standard team.
Gina [MS] (Expert):
Good morning. I'm Gina Bentley and I am a Program Manager on the Windows Embedded Standard team focusing on Servicing and Support for our Embedded products.
Luca [MS] (Expert):
Hello, my name is Luca Amapane and I am a Program Manager on the Windows Embedded Standard team.
Nick -MSFT- (Expert):
Good morning, afternoon, or evening. :) I'm Nick, a SDET on the Windows Embedded Standard team.
Jim Medding [MS] (Expert):
Hi, I'm Jim Medding. I'm a senior SW development engineer with the Windows Embedded Standard test team.
Brandy [MS] (Expert):
Hi, I'm Brandy Griffin, I'm a technical writer on the Windows Embedded User Assistance team.
Chesong [MS] (Expert):
Hello, I am Chesong Lee, a Software Development Engineer for Embedded Enabling Features on the Windows Embedded Standard team.
Oren [MS] (Expert):
Hi, I'm Oren Winter and I am a development manager in the Windows Embedded Standard team.
Shayna Begun [MS] (Moderator):
Hello, my name is Shayna Begun and I am a program manager on the Windows Embedded Standard team.
Peter Felts [MS] (Expert):
Hello, I'm Peter, a new Program Manager in the Windows Embedded Standard team. I am focused on Thin Client technologies (RDP, Headless devices, etc.).
BChoi_MSFT (Expert):
HI, I am Componentization Test Team Lead for Windows Embedded Standard.
Preston [MS] (Expert):
I'm Preston VanderWeyst. I'm a software development engineer on the Windows Embedded Standard team.
lesleyb_msft (Moderator):
Hi, I'm Lesley Bacon, a Program Manager on the Windows Embedded Standard team.
Milong [MS] (Expert):
Hi, I'm Milong Sabandith, a Development Lead on the Windows Embedded Standard team.
Weijuan Shi [MS] (Moderator):
Hi, my name is Weijuan Shi, Program Manager of the Customer Strike Team for Windows Embedded Standard.
MattKell_MSFT (Expert):
Hi there. I'm Matt Kellner, an SDET with the Windows Embedded Standard team.
Shayna Begun [MS] (Moderator):
Let's begin the chat!
Start of Chat:
Luca [MS] (Expert):
Q: Can .Net framework 3.5 be already installed in an image through FBA or does it need to be installed manually? If yes, how can it be done?
A: .NET 3.5 can be installed during FBA by checking the "Install .NET Framework 3.5 Install Package during FBA" checkbox in the .NET 3.5 settings of the component.
Chesong [MS] (Expert):
Q: Does WES support SDHC and if yes, what is the maximum capacity for the sc card?
A: WES support boot from SDHC/SD cards if they are attached through PATA/SATA bus. If they are attached through SD bus, WES does not support booting from them. The maximum capacity limitation should be same as of Windows XP.
lyallen_MSFT (Moderator):
Q: Is it possible in WES to change the minimal default screen resolution? Currently, it is 800 X 600, can it be changed to a lower value, like for a QVGA display for example?
A: You can change the resolution in the display driver component in Target Designer. However, you will be restricted to the range of display settings that that particular driver supports, as well as your monitor.
Chesong [MS] (Expert):
Q: We have a driver that support the different resolution of our lcd screen (from 800X480 to 1024X768, using scaling and panning), but if we switch for a resolution higher than our lowest one (800X480), we cannot select it and 800 X 600 becomes the min one?
A: Is this limitation from the Display control panel UI or from the API level?
Chesong [MS] (Expert):
Q: From the display control panel UI
A: Can you try in a programmatical way? It seems like the limitation is from the UI
Chesong [MS] (Expert):
Q: yes, we can revert back to the resolution but not from the display control panel applet. Or the other way from the display applet is in the settings tab -> advanced -> adapter tab -> list all modes and choose our lowest resolution
A: It seems like a limitation of the display control panel applet. What kind of devices is it? Is it required to have that resolution in the generic display control panel applet? As an alternative, you can integrate display resolution change function in your application.
Oren [MS] (Expert):
Q: Can a Visual C++ Redistributable package be included in an image?
A: If you find that there is a VC runtime that is not included in our release (for example - new / beta releases of VS) and it is redist binary you can include it in the image manually by "wrapping" it with an SLD (i.e. creating a component for it) and include it in your build.
lyallen_MSFT (Moderator):
Q: Can I customize the boot screen with Windows Embedded Standard?
A: You can add your own splash screen at boot time by including your own .bmp. Use the /BOOTLOGO switch to have Standard display an installable splash screen instead of the standard splash screen. First, create a 16-color (any 16 colors) 640x480 bitmap and save it in the Windows directory with the name Boot.bmp. Then add "/bootlogo /noguiboot" to the boot.ini selection.
Luca [MS] (Expert):
Q: What are the general differences between XPe and Windows Embedded Standard?
A: Windows Embedded Standard 2009 is the next generation of XP Embedded and provides new and exciting features such as Silverlight 1.0, .NET 3.5, SCCM and SCOM 2007 support, Sysprep, Kernel Mode Driver Framework, additional device drivers, Service Pack 3 and much more. Also, Windows Embedded Standard 2009 comes with the Microsoft standard 10-years lifecycle support.
Milong [MS] (Expert):
Q: Why is FBWF's dynamic mode flaky when the cache usage gets near 300 MB when my system has 3GB of RAM?
A: For FBWF dynamic mode, the memory is allocated from the system PagedPool. For your particular image, it appears FBWF is able to allocate about 300MB for its own use. You also have the option to use Pre-Allocated mode where we allocate using an MDL. This should give you are larger limit.
Milong [MS] (Expert):
Q: Thank you Milong, will this be fixed going forward?
A: This is a limitation of the OS. It won't be fixed XPe. However in our next release based on a newer OS platform, the limit will be much higher.
Oren [MS] (Expert):
Q: Is there any possibility how to mark a removable drive (e.g. CF card in a CF reader) as Removable? It is shown as "fixed disc" and thus no "eject" is possible in need of exchange these cards. (CF card is with "removable" flag not set)
A: If this CF card connected to the IDE/SATA it will show up as fixed. If you would like to change it to show as removable I know of only one way which is to do it programatically by creating a lightweight filter driver on top of it which will intercept a device capabilities query and will report that the media is removable.
Shayna Begun [MS] (Moderator):
Q: Where are the security updates for Windows Embedded Standard, shouldn't some have released by now? I didn't see any updates in October or November.
A: There is a blog article discussing changes to our security updates. This article includes information on Windows Embedded Standard updates: https://blogs.msdn.com/embedded/archive/2008/12/02/what-s-new-in-security-update-servicing.aspx.
Preston [MS] (Expert):
Q: Can this limitation in the display applet be managed to disable this lowest display resolution and set it to our lowest value?
A: Unfortunately, the display applet will not allow you to set the resolution below 800x600. You might want to provide the resolution switching functionality in a custom application.
Luca [MS] (Expert):
Q: How can I add Silverlight to my image and why would I want to?
A: Silverlight is a cross-browser, cross-platform plug-in for delivering the compelling media experiences and rich interactive applications for your embedded device. To add Silverlight to your configuration, look for the "Silvelight 1.0 Setup" component in the component pane of Target Designer (in the tree view you find it in Software : System : System Services : Application Support). The component can be installed during FBA by selecting the "Install Silverlight 1.0 Package during FBA" checkbox in the component settings.
lyallen_MSFT (Moderator):
Q: Is there any possibility in target designer to export all the "registry" settings of one component into .reg file? (in need of adding the component into runtime image without rebuilding)
A: Target Designer does not have this capability. You can add registry kesy to the image by using the EXtra Registry node in the configuration, and these will apply when you build the image. You can also add registry info to an image by loading the hive on a dev system and making the changes you want then unloading that hive
lyallen_MSFT (Moderator):
Q: What happened to USB boot, I can't find it in WES 2009.
A: USB Boot 2.0 and its associated components are still available in Standard.
Shayna Begun [MS] (Moderator):
Q: Is there additional documentation or other resources?
A: Outside of the product documentation, we also have a blog article that lists various help resources like our MSDN page, team blog, community forums, etc: https://blogs.msdn.com/embedded/articles/474182.aspx. There is also an XP Embedded Resource Kit which you may find useful: https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=f4a453e2-fcef-49c2-87ac-cebe233a5f8d&DisplayLang=en.
Luca [MS] (Expert):
Q: When will WES be available to purchase from distributor like Arrow or Avnet?
A: Windows Embedded Standard 2009 is already available to purchase since November 1st.
Cuong { Microsoft } (Expert):
Q: Is WES 2009 full available for download from any site? (e.g. ECE) (as a member of "XPe to WES replacement program" I would like to download it instead of buying and paying media, packaging and post cost)
A: Windows Embedded Standard 2009 toolkit is currently only available on physical media for purchase. There is a Toolkit Replacement Program that is available if you have recently purchased licenses for XPe. You can find out details by talking to your distributor.
Questions from our Experts:
Brandy [MS] (Expert):
Q: Hi again, this is Brandy, one of the technical writers for the User Assistance team. Since you're here, I want to take a second to get your input on a question:
If we could provide additional help for one more area of XPe/WES, what would area should it be? And what format would you prefer for the help (i.e. step-by-step, chats, MSDN library, videos)? If you have any other feedback about how help could be more useful to you, don't hesitate to send it to the user assistance team at viewdocs@microsoft.com.
Luca [MS] (Expert):
Q: Hello Everybody - a question for those of you who are already using Windows Embedded Standard 2009: which of the new features of Windows Embedded Standard you found most appealing? If you have feedback, please email wecrt@microsoft.com.
End of Chat
Shayna Begun [MS] (Moderator):
Thank you for joining us today for our chat with the Windows Embedded Standard team.
A special thank you to the product group members for hosting today. If you have further questions, we'd certainly welcome you to post in the Windows Embedded Standard forum: https://forums.microsoft.com/EmbeddedWindows. Don't forget to check out our blog as well: https://blogs.msdn.com/embedded.
We hope to see you again for a future chat!