Start the first project of Windows Embedded compact 7-cepc on the Virtual Machine

Welcome to the next generation Windows Embedded Ce (compact 7): http://www.microsoft.com/windowsembedded/zh-cn/products/windowsce/default.mspx

Start the first project of Windows Embedded compact 7-cepc on the Virtual Machine

Recently, Microsoft released the Windows Embedded compact 7 (wec7) Public Community Technology Preview (pctp) version. It is not clear whether or not wince7 has been renamed wec7. At least currently, developers call it wince7, which is also a continuation of their expectations for wince.
As a preview version, pctp has provided most of the content of the official version. As a technical developer, we can establish a wec7 project to test various new features of wec7.
As the first wec7 project, the best thing is to run the cepc (hereinafter referred to as virtual cepc) on the Virtual Machine. Because our development tool is originally a PC, no external hardware is needed, you can start to play with wec7. The purpose of this article is to help you establish the wec7 Virtual Machine cepc project on your PC and start your own wec7 journey.
For more information about how to install the wec7 development environment, see the relevant articles.
Next we will start our first wec7 tour:

1. System Requirements
For Windows 7 users, install the following software and environment:
1. Windows 7 Professional Edition, Windows 7 flagship edition, or Windows 7 Enterprise Edition (unfortunately, Windows 7 family advanced edition is not supported)
2. Windows Virtual PC
3. Visual Studio 2008
4. Windows Embedded compact 7

Windows XP or Windows Vista users need:
1. Windows XP Professional Edition, Windows Vista commercial edition, Windows Vista flagship edition, or Windows Vista Enterprise Edition
2. Windows Virtual PC 2007
3. Visual Studio 2008
4. Windows Embedded compact 7

Note that if you want to create a cepc project, you must select the X86 architecture support when installing wec7.
Here we use Windows 7 as the platform to introduce the entire project establishment process. Similar to Windows XP and Windows Vista.

Ii. Make a cepc System Image
To run wec7 under virtual PC, you must first create a cepc project to obtain the system image. Therefore, the following steps are required:
1. Create a basic project under platform Builder
2. Configure the project to meet the requirements of virtual cepc
3. add and delete system components
4. Select the appropriate virtual PC keyboard driver
5. compile the project

The following describes these steps in detail.

Create a basic project under platform builder:
This step is very easy for developers who have used earlier versions of wince. Open wec7's Development Environment Visual Studio 2008 and select "file" to create a new project.
On the "new project" Page, select "platform builder 2008" and select "OS design" in the template on the right. The name is vcepc.

Configure the project to meet the requirements of virtual cepc:
Click "OK" and then go to the BSP selection window. Select "Virtual PC: x86" here.]

The design template page appears. on this page, you can select the template you want to use in the simulator. Here we select Enterprise Web pad as the basic template of virtual cepc.
On the design template page, open the "PDA device" directory and select "Enterprise Web pad ".

Click "Next" to go to the application and media page. You can select any media components and applications you want to add to the project.

For demonstration, click "Next ". Next, go to the network and communication settings page. Here we select "Wired Local Area Network", so that we can connect to the local PC through the Virtual Network Card.

After selecting the project, click "Next" and we will go to the last step of creating a new project. Here we have an option that allows you to compile the project immediately after completing the configuration. We need to make some modifications later, so leave this option empty here.

By now, all the new projects have been created. Click "finish ".
In this case, a security warning window may pop up based on the system components you choose. You only need to select "acknowledge.
Add and delete system components:
You can add other system components as needed.
For example, if you are interested in wec7 Silverlight for Windows Embedded (SWE), we will add swe support to our project.
In the development environment of the project, select the "catalog items view" Configuration window. (If your development environment does not display the catther items view by default, you can select "other Windows" under the "View" menu and then select "catalog items view ") choose "core OS"> "Windows Embedded compact"> "shell and user interface"> "Silverlight for Windows Embedded ". Select "Silverlight for Windows Embedded ". Select "file"> "Save all" to save the changes.

Select the appropriate virtual PC keyboard driver:
Next we also need to add the keyboard driver to the project. The settings are slightly different depending on the Virtual PC version you are using.
As shown in the preceding method supported by Swe, find the path "BSP"> "Virtual PC"> "device drivers"> "keyboard" in "catalog items view ".
If you are using virtual PC 2007, select "vcepc keyboard driver: vpc2007". If you are using Windows Virtual PC, select "vcepc keyboard driver: win7vpc ". The environment we use here is Windows 7 with virtual PC, so we chose the latter.

After adding the component, select Save.
Compile the project:
Select "build solution" in the "build" menu of the development environment to start the compilation process.
In the "output" window, you can see the information generated during the compilation process. The entire compilation process still takes some time, depending on the speed of your PC.
If an error occurs during compilation, You can carefully compare the preceding setup steps and check whether your system environment meets your requirements. In addition, disabling anti-virus software may solve some compilation problems.
After compilation, you will find the system image file in the following path under the wec7 installation directory: "Your wec7 installation directory/osdesigns/vcepc/reldir/virtualpc_x86_release/nk. bin ". Next, we will introduce how to load the vcepc system image in Virtual PC.

3. Configure Virtual PC (VPC)
After obtaining the cepc image, we need to configure the VPC and create a new virtual machine to run the cepc image.
First, run VPC. A folder named "Virtual Machine" is opened. This is different in Windows 7. VPC is installed as a system patch, and management is not a separate application.
In this folder, click the "Create Virtual Machine" button at the top to pop up the "Create Virtual Machine" Wizard window. Select the folder location of the virtual machine, which is called "vcepc ".

Next, configure the memory and network. The ram size can be specified here, and the default 512 MB is used.

Click Next To go to the virtual hard disk creation window. Here, wec7 has prepared a virtual hard disk file for us, so we select "use existing virtual hard disk ", then go to "Your wec7 installation directory/platform/virtualpc/Vm/hd0_sample.vhd ".

After clicking "CREATE", you will see a file named "vcepc. vmcx" in the "virtual machine" folder. Double-click to start the virtual machine. You will see the Startup Program as follows:

Press the Space key within 5 seconds to enter the Start Menu:

4. Start cepc
1. Configure platform Builder
After configuring the VPC, we will return the configuration in platform Builder (PB. The system image must be transmitted to the VPC before it can run. We use the technology of virtual network card for this transmission, through the network (friends who have used the wince version before should be clear, the process is similar to the process of downloading an image from eboot. The image is transmitted to the VPC and then started by the VPC. Therefore, the virtual hard disk used in the previous VPC actually contains startup code similar to eboot.
After understanding the principles, the following configuration process is very simple for friends who have used eboot. We need to set up network transmission. First, set Pb.
In Visual Studio 2008, select the target menu, select connectivity options, and then select add device ". The target device connectivity Options dialog box is displayed. Enter vcepc in new target device name and select "Windows CE" in "associated OS design/SDK ", click "add ".
There are several options in target device connectivity options that need attention: "kernel download", "kernel transport", and "kernel debugger ". Under "target device", select the name of your target device, which is vcepc. Select "Ethernet" in "kernel download" and click "Settings" to open the "Ethernet download Settings" dialog box. At present, this dialog box is still blank, because no device has been found to receive the transmission, so we will stop here and continue to operate on our VPC.

2. Set VPC startup parameters
Just now, we successfully entered the boot menu in the VPC. This menu is familiar to everyone, because it looks like an eboot menu. In fact, this is the eboot under x86.
The menu items are as follows:
[1] Show current settings
[2] Select boot Source
[3] Select kitl Device
[4] network settings
[5] display settings
[6] debug port settings
[7] Save settings
[0] exit and continue

We first need to configure the boot source, so select the second item "[2] Select boot source". In the VPC window, enter "2" on the keyboard to enter the select boot source configuration.
There are two options
[1] boot drive
[2] dec21140 at PCI bus 0 Dev 10 FNC 0
Here we select "2 ". In fact, dec21140 at PCI bus 0 Dev 10 FNC 0 is a virtual network card used to share your physical network card and thus communicate with your PC. After the selection, the following prompt will be displayed:
Boot device is set to dec21140 at PCI bus 0 Dev 10 FNC 0
Then go to the main menu.
Under the main menu, we can select "show Current Settings" to check the current configuration. You will see something similar to the following:
Boot Source: dec21140 at PCI bus 0 Dev 10 FNC 0
Kitl device: dec21140 at PCI bus 0 Dev 10 FNC 0
Kitl config: enabled, interrupt mode, vmini Enabled
DHCP: Enabled
Display: 640x480X32/Full Screen
Debug port: COM1 38400 baud

In general, this is enough. But we need to pay attention to the DHCP problem. The virtual network card will try to use DHCP to obtain the IP address. If your router does not enable DHCP, it cannot obtain the IP address. In this case, you can manually specify an IP address. Select "Network Settings" in the main menu, then select "set IP Address", and enter the IP address you want to set as prompted, note that the IP address must be in the same CIDR block as the IP address of your PC. For example, if the IP address of your PC is 192.168.1.2, you can set the IP address of the VPC to 192.168.1.3. Then select "enable/disable DHCP". The system prompts whether to enable DHCP. Enter y to confirm.
After returning to the main menu, we can go to "show Current Settings" again. Then we can see the IP address we just set. Then, select "Save settings" in the main menu to save our settings.

3. Start the cepc Image
In the main menu, select "exit and continue". The following message is displayed when you wait for the image to be downloaded:
Send bootme message (device name PC-0003FF9D5B30, attempt 1)
Send bootme message (device name PC-0003FF9D5B30, Attempt 2)
Here is the bootme message, "PC-0003FF9D5B30" is your device name.
At this time, we will return to the PB's "Ethernet download Settings" dialog box. Now we will see our device name (PC-0003FF9D5B30 here) and IP address in the active target devices list. Select the device name and click "Apply. Close the target device connectivity dialog box.
You can download the system image to the VPC.
In Visual Studio 2008, in the device drop-down box, select the device configuration name, which is "vcepc ". Select "Attach device" in the "target" menu. The "device status" window is displayed, showing the progress and status of the image to be transferred.
On the VPC end, we can also see the progress of the outgoing process. After the transmission is complete, we can enter the wec7 interface.

Now, the creation and use of vcepc are all over. You can practice wec7 on your PC without relying on other hardware, such as the Development Board. At the same time, you can also test your own applications on the PC, especially the Silverlight that you are interested in.
For friends who use Windows XP with virtual PC 2007, the process of configuring virtual PC 2007 is different. The general idea is the same.
Now, let's take action. Create your first wec7 project and try wec7!

References:
1. Mark mclemore, getting started with virtual cepc, 2010-5

Welcome to the next generation Windows Embedded Ce (compact 7): http://www.microsoft.com/windowsembedded/zh-cn/products/windowsce/default.mspx