Professional Windows® Embedded Compact 7

DEVELOPMENT ENVIRONMENT SETUP

In order to develop Windows Embedded Compact application for an embedded device, you need to set up a development environment that enables you to deploy application from the development computer to the device for testing and debug.

Target Device

A Windows Embedded Compact development environment is not complete without a target device. Whether developing a custom OS design, device driver, programming library, or application, you develop Compact 7 software components for a target device, or family of devices.

If you don’t have access to a real target device, you can use Virtual PC as a Compact 7 target device to test a software function that is not hardware-specific.

Virtual PC is great for learning how to use Platform Builder. Platform Builder for Compact 7 provides the necessary resources, including Virtual PC BSP and a sample virtual machine, needed to work through OS design project and application development exercises. Using Virtual PC, you can work through the exercises to download an OS runtime image to the virtual machine and deploy an application to the virtual machine with Compact 7 OS launched.

The target device, whether real hardware or virtual machine, needs to establish connectivity to the development computer to download an OS runtime image and deploy an application, from the development computer to the device. Depending on the device’s design and available features, it can connect to the development computer via an Ethernet, Serial, ...