How to make PPC Green software with wince CAB

Installing the program on the Pocket PC, usually installed on a limited storage space or a specified location on a memory card, is inconvenient, and the installer leaves a lot of installation records in the system directory and registry and consumes the device's storage space. These problems can be solved by using the green version of the software, but software vendors usually do not provide a green version of the software directly to the user, which requires us to do it ourselves.

There are two types of installation programs for Pocket PC software, with EXE and cab as extensions to their files. The EXE format installer is actually a program that contains a CAB format installation package that needs to be run on a computer that has Microsoft ActiveSync installed, and the CAB installation package is sent to the PPC device via ActiveSync to perform the installation process. The CAB format installation file is the installer format that can only be performed on the PPC device, and the PPC device is only a standard installer format for the cab.

To make a green version of the software, we first need to have the CAB format of the installation package, if only exe format installer, we need to deal with it first. We need a computer equipped with ActiveSync to ensure that the PPC device is not connected to the computer, execute the EXE installer, follow the installation Wizard to complete the installation, and usually prompts you to install the program to the device the next time you connect the device to the computer. If the installation path of the program is not prompted during installation, a directory created by the installer will be found under C:Program FilesMicrosoft ActiveSync, which is the CAB installation package we need, and if the program asks for the installation path, The CAB file may be in the specified program installation path.

With the CAB installation package, you can start making the green version of the software. We need to use the "WinCE CAB Manager" program, which is to create or modify the SP and PPC Cab Software installation packages on the PC computer. Using WinCE Cab Manager to open the CAB installation package We got, we'll see a Windows Explorer-like interface with three items in the left pane, files, shortcuts, and registry. The right-hand pane displays the various property values for the CAB installation package. Click on the "File" menu, select Export, Export to INF, and enter a path for export in the pop-up dialog box, click Next, Finish, and export all the files and information in the CAB installation package to our designated directory. Click "Registry" in the left pane, see if the number shown in the right pane is 0, and if not, click the File menu, export, Export to Reg, and export the registry key that the installer needs to be a registry file.

So far, we have all the content of the green version of the software, and the rest is to tidy them up. You can find the "[INSTALLDIR]" directory in the specified export directory, which is the green version of the program, and copy them to any location on the device or card, if you have a "Windows" directory in the exported directory, Then be sure to talk about this. The files are copied to the Windows directory of the device, otherwise the program may not function correctly.

If the green version of the software is not working properly, it may be because the necessary registry keys are missing, and you can try to import the registry file we exported before into the device's registry, and it should solve the problem. Before you import a registry file, don't forget to see if there is a key value in the program path, and if so, change it to the path where you stored the green version of the program.