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persistencewindows-cereboot
Patrik
Patrik

Reputation: 1336

How to make Custom Application to persist reboot of WinCE 6.0 OS?

I am looking for a solution on how to setup the Windows CE 6.0 design image to integrate my custom application.

I want after building the image and starting it on the target machine to be able to access my application from the \Hard Disk\Program Files\CustomApp folder.

In addition I require the application to be persistent. It must not be lost after reboot.

I am aware of copying the application to the Hard Disk out of the NK.BIN but if is possible I want a solution like adding dlls or other files to Windows folder.

I am usign an SQL CE database along with the application so I want the data to be persistent too.

Thanks in advance.

Upvotes: 4

Views: 5405

Answers (1)

ctacke
ctacke

Reputation: 67168

If the \Hard Disk folder contents are not persistent (and I assume they aren't since you're asking this questions), then getting the app to "persist" can be done only as a slight-of-hand trick, just like the contents of the Windows Folder. At boot, the OS will get expanded into RAM, and if you've included your app in that OS, it will get extracted too.

First, you must include your app files (exe, dlls, all dependencies, etc) into the OS image by adding them to a BIB file.

Next, you must understand that all files get extracted to the \Windows folder. There are no exceptions. If you want it in a different folder, you must use a DAT file to tell the OS where to put it one the OS has been extracted. Be aware that the DAT file does a copy, not a move, so if you want it elsewhere, you'll have two copies of the app on the device. A typical solution is to use the DAT file to place a shortcut, not a full copy.

The last part of your question is the hard, or maybe impossible, part. Your database is not going to persist. You could include a copy in the OS, but every time you hard reset, a new copy of the database as it was when the OS was built will get copied out. No new data will survive.

To get that to work, you need a persistent file store on the device. If you're the OEM, you might be able to implement one with any remaining on-board storage (where the OS image file resides) or with separate mounted USB/CF/SD/HDD media. How you do this is highly hardware and BSP dependent, plus it's way more complex than can be described here on SO.Without knowing anything about the target device, it difficult to even give you any pointer on where to begin. Here's a very generic starting point for Flash storage.

Upvotes: 5

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