Microsoft has just released ActiveSync 4.5. You can download it from the Microsoft Windows Mobile web site.  ActiveSync 4.5 offers some great stability and functionality improvements. The much better USB synchronisation stability and linkages to Exchange Server  SP2 alone justify it's installation for me. It also has a troubleshooter utility to help diagnose the often cryptic ActiveSync connectivity issues. Windows Vista now has its own dedicated Windows Mobile Device Center software instead of ActiveSync. You should not even try to install ActiveSync on Vista. I anticipate these two software utilities will run on somewhat parallel feature paths in the future.  The significance of both of these software releases is only really revealed when you look at their readme files however. 

Both these pieces of software no longer provide synchronisation support for Microsoft Handheld PC or any PC running Outlook 2000 software clients. This effectively confines such owners to Windows XP 2 and Active Sync 4.2 (possibly ActiveSync 4.0 if they want to backup devices using Active Sync), for as long as they continue to actively use these devices or software clients. 

So What's The Big Deal Here?

Surely some of these Handheld OS devices are confined to history and not used in significant numbers? True enough in consumer terms terms these devices are up to 7 years old. They are certainly bigger, heavier, and slower that the sleek devices of today, with poor battery life and even poorer connectivity. In software support terms these are indeed legacy devices. Yet many of these devices continue to be in productive use today, predominately in vertical or niche applications for industry or commerce (surveying, data collection etc). Many may even be running pure Windows CE rather than Pocket PC or Smartphone variant platforms, and using ActiveSync to upload data when cradled. How many parcels do these kinds of devices still deliver or how many meters do they still read?

The developers of these bespoke legacy mobile appications now have some interesting choices to make. If they upgrade the desktop PC aspects of their solutions to Windows Vista they may lose connectivity support for the device. If they upgrade the devices they may need to rework the mobile application for the device and re-equip or  retrain the workforce etc. In some cases the resultant solutions may not offer significantly more functionality for the cost incurred. In many cases this breaking change may allow inclusion of significant technologies such as GPS and GPRS support but for some it may be purely to remain operational.

Some Admissions...

I admit I too was caught out in the rush to upgrade to the new shiny ActiveSync 4.5. Readme's are usually the things I read AFTER I've installed the software and usually only if I'm having problems.  Well this time it came to haunt me. I rushed to install ActiveSync 4.5 without looking at the system requirements. I had a major struggle to install it on one XP machine (more of this in a later post). Then I discovered I had lost connectivity to some of my own devices.

I still have a working HP Jornada 720 mobile device. It runs the Microsoft Handheld PC 2000 OS based on Windows CE. Yes its big, clunky and support for it ended officially four years ago. However it is no slouch and it has a great keyboard. I often used it for writing simple stuff on the move before I got the Orange M5000 (Htc Universal) device. It has Microsoft Word, Excel, and Pocket Access built-in and even Microsoft Powerpoint for creating simple presentations (remember this is long before the Powerpoint viewer functionality in Windows Mobile 5). It is also one of the few devices I know even today that has a built-in SmartCard reader, a PC Card slot (which still works with certain Wifi cards) and a PCMCIA VGA adaptor for hooking up to projectors etc. In its day it truly was "state of the art". A great device and if portability is not a big concern, one that could still be actively used today, by someone with limited demands. There is still an active community for this device and you can even buy fully refurbished devices and related accessories at the dedicated UsedHandhelds site.  

Disconnecting a Dinosaur...

Well after ActiveSync 4.5 was finally installed, I got Support Code 800703fa and was unable to connect or synchronise the HP Jornada 720. I'm still trying to work out why this is and following up on the support code. One thought is that the move to RNDIS network support from PPP which started with Windows Mobile 5 may have helped to obsolete the Handheld PC. I suppose I could uninstall ActiveSync 4.5 and revert to ActiveSync 4.2 as I know this worked previously (the readme has good instructions for this!). Right now however I have no compelling reason to do so and I can probably live without synchronising the HP Jornada.

Watch Out For Microsoft Outlook 2000

Perhaps more concerning for many is the lack of support for synchonisation in Outlook 2000. This probably has a much much higher installed base than those still using legacy mobile devices. So if you can't upgrade to Microsoft Outlook 2003 or the new Microsoft Outlook 2007 then I would strongly recommend staying at Active Sync 4.2.

Further Advice & Info

For more advice and information on Active Sync 4.5 I'd suggest looking at the following MIcrosoft Web Page.