New Windows Mobile Device Center Update Available

My colleague Jane Ly, a Software Test Engineer on the Windows Mobile team working on the Windows Mobile Device Center, sent along an update on the status of WMDC (replacement to ActiveSync) in Windows Vista and also offers us a tip on a common issue when syncing with Outlook (all versions). Read on ...

"Many have noticed that a Windows Mobile Device Center (WMDC) update has been available since June 15. A newer Beta 2 update is now available and WMDC should prompt you to install it. Currently our Beta 2 updates are only supported on Beta 2 build 5384. You can also retrieve it through the Windows Update service. After the second update installs successfully, the version number listed in WMDC’s About dialog will be 6.0.5460. The latest WMDC contains several bug fixes and is available in Japanese and German.

With the Beta 2 update, you can create partnerships to synchronize your Outlook or Exchange data with your device. Currently, Windows Mobile 2003 devices can only sync with Exchange. Desktop Outlook sync is still not supported yet. For Windows Mobile 5.x devices, both Outlook and Exchange sync are supported. We are supporting Outlook XP, 2003 and 2007 for desktop sync. 

A cool new feature in WMDC is Picture/Video Import. Our application will search in the My Pictures and My Videos folder on your device for items to import. Only well-known picture and video formats will be detected. You will also be given the option of tagging your pictures with a name and date. 

Windows Mobile devices will also be integrated into Windows Vista’s Sync Center. Sync Center shows you a consolidated view of everything that is syncing with your PC. When you create a sync partnership with your PC using WMDC, you will also see sync status summary in Sync Center. 

I have noticed that many users are running into the problem where they are unable to sync Outlook data because of the message “Outlook is not configured” in the partnership wizard. This message means that WMDC is not detecting an Outlook profile to sync with. Usually this scenario will occur if the user has installed Outlook without creating a profile. However, there is a known bug where if you install WMDC before installing and configuring Outlook, WMDC will not detect the profile. This bug will apply for all versions of Outlook, not just Outlook 2007. The workaround is to reboot your machine and then recreate the partnership to include Outlook data. This workaround should work for most users.

Jane"

Thanks for the update, Jane!