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Just can't let go of those Windows CE apps? Microsoft has a container for that

(2020/08/12)


Enterprises eyeing their crusty old Windows CE apps with alarm as Microsoft yanks the plug on its legacy operating systems will be relieved to see the company [1]making good on its promised CE container technology.

Lurking within Windows 10 IoT Core Services, the tech ( [2]announced during Microsoft's Build 2020 event) allows those with legacy Windows CE apps to keep the things going a little longer using an ARM32 or x86 Windows Embedded Compact 2013 platform image within the IoT Core system image.

The resulting Windows 10 IoT Core image can then be deployed to Windows 10 IoT Core compatible hardware, affording a path to something a bit more modern without having to go through the pain of a full porting effort (which might, heaven forbid, see some users considering an alternative and decidedly non-Microsoft platform).

Windows CE, or Embedded, has seen other Microsoft operating systems, such as XP, Vista and 7, come and go during its 20 or so years. Various incarnations of the platform found their way onto a variety of PDAs and telephones long before the iPhone became a thing.

The Register's Bork column has frequently received reports of Windows Embedded devices [3]being poorly out in the wild .

The final version, Windows Embedded Compact 2013, will come to the end of the extended support road in 2023, although Microsoft will keep flogging licences for the OS until 2028. Windows 10 IoT Core OS itself will carry on getting security updates until 2029, although 2021's Windows 10 IoT Enterprise will soon be the only non-server version of Windows 10 IoT available once the versions converge into a single Long-Term Servicing Channel product.

Users would be forgiven for being a little confused by the scattergun approach as Microsoft continues to shift the IoT goalposts in its lineup. To recap, Windows 10 IoT Core was aimed at smaller devices while Enterprise was more about full-fat Windows experience (and will shortly be on the receiving end of the Edge browser). Then there is Azure IoT Edge (not the browser) and Azure RTOS (real-time operating system) along with Linux workloads and modules.

The arrival of the CE App Container therefore has given those still clinging to the simpler days of Windows Embedded a bit more breathing space before making the leap to Windows 10 IoT Enterprise.

Or something else entirely. ®

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[1] https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/internet-of-things/moving-forward-with-windows-ce-using-the-windows-ce-app/ba-p/1582360

[2] https://blogs.windows.com/windowsdeveloper/2020/05/26/build-your-iot-devices-with-windows-for-iot-a-comprehensive-platform-for-every-device-developer/

[3] https://www.theregister.com/2020/02/03/tesco_scanner_fault/

[4] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/

iron

I really hope the software I wrote for WinCE 15 years ago isn't still in use.

Anonymous Coward

@iron

Could be - some of those old PDAs have a long life & get scenario of, if software does the job, then people will keep using it, especially if it means avoiding expense of upgrade / new software purchase

Plus you can still buy Win mobile 6.5 kit (e.g. Workabout Pro) that supports CE apps hassle free, so if PDA dies, replacements still available.

I reckon some niche apps, especially will be used for a while yet

.

Thoguht

Plus you can still buy Win mobile 6.5 kit (e.g. Workabout Pro) that supports CE apps hassle free

Good luck with that, WinCE and Windows Mobile diverged a long time ago.

Blackjack

The PDA might be broke but the software may be alive.

I always hated Windows CE it was and is... frustrating.

It doesn't help that Windows attempts at mobile OS and programs used to be infamously bad with only upgrading to poor to the time of Windows 8 and only going to acceptable by the time Microsoft started to pull the plug on Windows 10 Mobile.

I wonder if I still have those old computer mags ranting about Windows CE?

Anonymous Coward

Calling it Wince is absolutely spot-on. It was Windows with a chunk of bad bits removed, leaving you closer to even worse bits.

On the other hand, the TCP camp also has a phrase for OSI people.
There are lots of phrases. My favorite is `nitwit' -- and the rationale
is the Internet philosophy has always been you have extremely bright,
non-partisan researchers look at a topic, do world-class research, do
several competing implementations, have a bake-off, determine what works
best, write it down and make that the standard.
The OSI view is entirely opposite. You take written contributions
from a much larger community, you put the contributions in a room of
committee people with, quite honestly, vast political differences and all
with their own political axes to grind, and four years later you get
something out, usually without it ever having been implemented once.
So the Internet perspective is implement it, make it work well,
then write it down, whereas the OSI perspective is to agree on it, write
it down, circulate it a lot and now we'll see if anyone can implement it
after it's an international standard and every vendor in the world is
committed to it. One of those processes is backwards, and I don't think
it takes a Lucasian professor of physics at Oxford to figure out which.
-- Marshall Rose, "The Pied Piper of OSI"