Alternatives to the .Net CF msi file?

People,

One of my devices stopped working on the USB. Several pro attempts at repair have got nowhere. This means I can't load software via the USB, which of course includes the ActiveSync method. :sign0161:

However, I can communicate from the device via wireless using the "\\MyLaptop\C$\" path name via TotalCommander (I prefer that to the native file explorer for several reasons). This means I can at least run CAB files which are on the laptop directly from the device. So all is not lost.

BUT.....

In the repair cycle, the device was hard reset. :BangHead:

Hence I no longer have v2 or 3.5 of .net cf!!!! And I can't restore it because it doesn't normally come as just a CAB file. :sign0161::BangHead:

So, :sign0085: does anybody have either of those as just a CAB file, or know where they can be found in that form? Even some conversion utility would do, so long as it runs on the laptop.

Binaryfish - Download .NET Compact Framework

Is this what you are looking for ?
If not, pm me tomorrow and I'll reply with a few download links.

Edit: I think I have v3.5cab on my device. As above

After installing .Net CF 2.0 on the desktop you can find the cab files under:
C:\Program Files\Microsoft.NET\SDK\CompactFramework\v2.0\WindowsCE\wce500

Thanks gents. Both of those seem to come to the same cab file, so I'll try that tomorrow. It's too late tonight and anyway I've been down the pub, grin!

Strange things....

1) the installation for 3.5 doesn't seem to do that, but now I know the cab file name to look for as next para

2) I just acquired Less MSIerables which allows looking into msi files, dozens of files so it's totally not clear which you want but, in 3.5, those "missing messages" cabs appear to be there! (but not in 2!)

Just to confirm everything is now OK on that device (apart from the duff USB of course). So thanks again.

Using the cab file names you supplied as a guide, I actually did it from the 3.5 msi using Less MSIerables. So clearly this tool works and I can therefore recommend it, especially as the author is clearly educated and equally clearly has a sense of humour (re the app name!). It doesn't seem to require installing either which makes a pleasant change.

THE BEST ANSWER would be if there was a replacement for ActiveSync which worked via wireless. I understand ActiveSync used to do that. Trust Microsoft to remove something that was actually useful. Then people wonder why some of us say Microshite. Sorry for the rude name, but that lot have caused me decades of grief, this is "just one more thing that proves the point".

One other related issue. If I can refer to the laptop from the device via wireless using a file explorer on the device (the "\\MyLaptop\C$\" dodge), how do I do the reverse from Windows Explorer on the laptop? I've tried "\\MyDeviceName\" but that failed, said it didn't know the name. Maybe it isn't possible?

RacingDog said:

I understand ActiveSync used to do that.

Click to expand...

I believe that was removed out of corporate data security concerns to ensure that a device has to be physically present at and attached to the computer that is to access it. Similarly WiFi access to the network from the device is disabled while ActiveSync is running and replaced by a link through the host computers network connection if any.

Maybe it isn't possible?

Click to expand...

I don't think it is possible. I think the device only has an SMB client and cannnot function as an SMB server.

agraham said:

I believe that was removed out of corporate data security concerns ......

Click to expand...

In case you haven't noticed I am not a corporation, neither are millions of others. Microsoft don't care.

Which is what you would expect from the company who's rep on a tv documentary said they don't do testing, that is what customers are for. Really.

So, nice to know the reasons why, but please don't become their appologist.

BTW, ActiveSync has an option to allow other wireless operations which defaults to not.

Still, I'm amazed no-one has produced a replacement app, it's the sort of thing people usually do.

With your opinions on Microsoft I wonder why you demean yourself with a Windows laptop and a Windows Mobile device. I do not regard myself as a Microsoft apologist but having used their products from the very beginning of their existence I do have a lot of respect for them as a company. You are entitled to your opinions, which are obviously different to mine, but I do wonder why you seem to have the need have to air them so stridently?

I don't want either, especially the phone, but that came from my eldest son, you want me to hurt his feelings by not using it? My PPC was from a friend who thought I might be interested. The laptop, previously a normal PC, was also not my choice, I had to have compatibility with work. As a result I have a back catalogue of my work which would take ages to translate. My cancer means I have only a 1 in 3 chance of making it beyond the next 4 years, so reworking a back catalogue is in the "I have better things to do" category. But also there are things I want from third parties that are sadly more available on Windows. It was not my choice that the industry went the wrong way (as it always does).

That is why I am trapped into using this muck. You stopped being surprised yet?

I call it that because of a long catalogue of needless and basic failures of the software over the years (eg losing hours of work on early Word documents by simply using the basic facilities, ditto Excel, I would have minded less if we had been trying anything complex); because of needless changes to facilities which didn't need changing and which went from working to not; because you are expected to pay to talk to them about failures caused by their lack of testing; because home users are expected to be only able to cope with peer to peer networks so have to pay for corporate software they don't need just to be able to connect to a server; because everything they produce seems to be huge, complex and resource hungry; because the Visual whatever help system is unusable unless you happen to ask the right question which is almost like knowing the answer, cf Borland where mostly you just go straight to what you want; etc etc etc. I could extend the list for a long time. You getting the idea on that one now?

RacingDog said:

That is why I am trapped into using this muck. You stopped being surprised yet?

Click to expand...

I don't regard it as "muck", I have found C# and .NET the greatest boost to both my productivity and interest since Turbo Pascal and Visual Basic 3.0 which were my previous touchstones for increases in effective development. The fact that it scales effortlessly from device to desktop is awesomely useful.

No. I haven't stopped being surprised except to the fact that you have a massive chip on your shoulder. I sympathise that you have to make the best of your time but you should spend it as you want, not through some perceived obligation to others. It's your life - go ahead and hurt your sons feelings, just honestly tell him you are not interested despite his generosity. Do what you really want to do what others want you to do? Don't conform to others expectations if you don't want to - I've learnt not to but it still seems to upset others that I don't want to do Christmas, for example, as they do - so what! Water off a ducks back, their problem, not mine!.

You getting the idea on that one now?

Click to expand...

Nope I have used various IDE's over the years, including several Borland ones for Delphi and C/C++ and some for embedded processors you have probably never encountered that never made the mainstream. I'm playing with Java and Eclipse at the moment (guess why) and none of them can hold a candle to Visual Studio as far as I'm concerned.

You missed the point, the back catalogue is not archive, it is in regular use. I can't throw all that away.

I spent most of my younger years selfishly doing my own thing. It's time I cared a bit about others, otherwise I don't deserve their care. This is not a situation in which to be lonely, really it just isn't.

I hope when you refer to Visual Studio you don't include VC++, which was barely "Visual" compared to say VB. The level of GUI abstraction was pathetic. I did a very simple GUI once in both (managerial indecision), VB was 5 pages of code, VC++ was 16. Three times the effort for the same result, what a time waster!

I don't have a chip on my shoulder, I just recognise crap software and aren't nancy enough to keep quiet. Whilst MS is better than it used to be, the early stuff was so flaky it wasted vast amounts of time. Not just for the technical staff either. I can't forget or forgive that.

Perhaps I am biased in one sense. Internal metrics in the company I was in regularly showed I was achieving far fewer bugs per 1000 lines of code than anyone else, despite having the same productivity. Whilst that was a source of pride it was never the point for me. The point was that every one else was so uncritical that they accepted the higher levels as normal and never did anything to change that. It begged the question, if an idiot like me can do it, then why were these talented individuals not trying to do the same? And that is not an ironic use of talented, in all other respects they were seriously talented. Hence people not taking bug production seriously has always been an issue, so when that MS moron went on TV and said that testing was what customers were for, well that was just unforgivable. That is my wasted time and money that these jokers don't care about. It is everyone else's wasted time and money.

I can't admire a company that publically despised testing, how can you?