Making MS ActiveSync portable?

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PeterS
Posts: 2
Joined: Tue Aug 07, 2007 4:30 pm
Location: Zurich, Switzerland

Making MS ActiveSync portable?

#1 Post by PeterS »

Hello everybody

Just read about JPE recently and then found a lot of interesting information and contributions in this forum! Needless to say, I'm new to this topic and have 0 experience with JPE so far. And don't ask why I said it anyway... :?

Anyway - due to some rather rigidly imposed restrictions on the machine in the salt mine, I started wondering if it were possible to have the synchronization software for Windows Mobile devices (i.e. MS ActiveSync) turned portable?
I realize that ActiveSync is quite a package (as it also installs the processes wcescomm.exe and WCESMgr.exe), but before digging into the portability issues with that goal on my mind, I just wanted to ask if anybody has already made some experiences with that application - or if there is a particular reason why this will NEVER work...

Any comments will be greatly appreciated - and even if in the end it does not work with ActiveSync, I'm sure I'll find some other interesting stuff that can be achieved with JPE! (And with that I only mean interesting for me, since I wouldn't dare wanting to define 'interesting' as a generalized classification... :wink: )

Thanks,

Peter
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redllar
Posts: 411
Joined: Thu Aug 03, 2006 7:52 pm
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#2 Post by redllar »

Hey Peter, if you don't get any answers I'd be willing to work with you on attempting to portablize this via JPE. You'd need to do all of the work though since I don't have access to ActiveSync. I'll try and do a bit of research on it just so I know the basics of it.
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Local
Posts: 238
Joined: Fri Aug 03, 2007 3:48 am

#3 Post by Local »

I've had a look at this and I'm puzzled as hell.


There are at least 8 separate processes to activesync and I'm not too sure if any single one controls the others.

The files themselves are split only between the program files common files and windows folders so I assume they shouldn't be much trouble but I'm not sure how to hook every process together.

If it would be any help, I have all of the install separated ready to be tested without an install I could host.
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Chris
Posts: 106
Joined: Sun Dec 03, 2006 10:08 am

#4 Post by Chris »

I think it installs driver and after, it requests restart, so I guess it is not possible to make it portable just yet. But, I'm not sure.
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PeterS
Posts: 2
Joined: Tue Aug 07, 2007 4:30 pm
Location: Zurich, Switzerland

#5 Post by PeterS »

redllar wrote:Hey Peter, if you don't get any answers I'd be willing to work with you on attempting to portablize this via JPE. You'd need to do all of the work though since I don't have access to ActiveSync. I'll try and do a bit of research on it just so I know the basics of it.
Hello redllar

Interesting proposition! Though I must admit that I don't really know what you mean by "all of the work", but (for now) I imagine it can't be as bad as it sounds... As it sounds, you don't have a broadband access to the net (or don't want to generate too much traffic), but that should not be a problem.
So, if you let me know what "all of the work" is all about, I'd say I'm ready to start. ;-)

Local wrote:I've had a look at this and I'm puzzled as hell.

There are at least 8 separate processes to activesync and I'm not too sure if any single one controls the others.

The files themselves are split only between the program files common files and windows folders so I assume they shouldn't be much trouble but I'm not sure how to hook every process together.

If it would be any help, I have all of the install separated ready to be tested without an install I could host.
Hello Local

Now THAT sounds awkward... But it also shows that you are already many steps ahead of what I know about this whole thing.
Local wrote:.... without an install I could host.
What exactly do you mean? A PC would be required for a test installation? If that is the case, I think I should be able to find such a machine around here. You'd just have to let me know (pretty precisely for that matter) what needs to be analyzed before and after (or whenever).

Chris wrote:I think it installs driver and after, it requests restart, so I guess it is not possible to make it portable just yet. But, I'm not sure.
Hello Chris

Which part is the one that is bothering you? The drivers or the restart? Sorry, if this question might not seem too bright, but as I said I'm just at the beginning of the whole matter and therefore currently not in a position to start asking only the relevant and interesting questions...



Please just let me know where and what I can contribute.

Thanks & best regards,

Peter
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Local
Posts: 238
Joined: Fri Aug 03, 2007 3:48 am

#6 Post by Local »

Local wrote:
.... without an install I could host.


What exactly do you mean? A PC would be required for a test installation? If that is the case, I think I should be able to find such a machine around here. You'd just have to let me know (pretty precisely for that matter) what needs to be analyzed before and after (or whenever).
All I meant was I have the whole application waiting, with each driver and file extracted to a seperate folder so it doesn't need installing.

I can't test anything myself right now because my ppc is screwed so I won't be able to test if it actually works or not.
Plus I really aren't ahead of you with understanding the problems.

I just thoughtit might give Redllar or one of the other guru's from here a place to start.


To be honest, I used to use this but never to synchronise with my PC, I can't understand why it would be needed other than the fact that you cannot connect the portable device at all without it.

If you, like myself, only wanted to connect your device and not synchronize it there may be a lot of files you needn't bother with.
Maybe you could try finding out which precise programs you need.

If you want to see how it sets itself up the files are here.
http://www.fileden.com/files/2006/6/17/73655/MSAS.rar

The common files and windows folder are inside the folder activesync that would be in your program files folder.
(It was just to keep it neat not to confuse)

I hope this helps you along the path
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Chris
Posts: 106
Joined: Sun Dec 03, 2006 10:08 am

#7 Post by Chris »

Hello, Peter.
Which part is the one that is bothering you? The drivers or the restart?
Actually, I haven't really done research to know all the files or registry entries created by MS ActiveSync.
But, when I installed the application, it says that it is installing a USB driver. And, I saw that a folder called Drivers contains drivers for
"Windows Mobile USB Function devices for Internet Sharing application", "RNDIS-over-USB host driver" and "serial-over-USB host driver for WCE USB Function devices".
Further more, it asks user to restart. I believe, it needs restarting because it would need to load something on the start of PC or to make sure the driver would be loaded properly.
So, I think, both are bothering me as they seem related. But as I said, I'm not sure as I only do little research and have no necessary device to test.
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menkepie
Posts: 1
Joined: Tue Dec 25, 2007 2:18 am

#8 Post by menkepie »

check this out....

http://www.pocketpc-blog.my1.cc/ppc/ind ... &Itemid=33
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