Although server synchronization with Microsoft Mobile Information Server is the only major new feature in this release, ActiveSync 3.5 includes a slew of bug fixes, better remote connectivity, and support for infrared (IR) synchronization on Windows 2000 systems. Microsoft released ActiveSync 3.5, the latest version of the Windows CE connection software, with the introduction of Pocket PC 2002 devices in fall 2001.

When Microsoft introduced ActiveSync 3.0, the company automated the process of setting up Windows CE communications. Windows CE Services switched to using RAS, which is more flexible but complicated-RAS configuration problems accounted for half of all Windows CE 2.0 support calls. H/PC Explorer used a serial port to establish the connection, which limited its functionality. Many of ActiveSync's most intractable problems relate to the connection between the host PC and the mobile device. The earlier Windows CE Services name, however, lives on in the name of the programs that ActiveSync executes when you launch the synchronization software. Microsoft renamed the product to ActiveSync for Windows CE 3.0 when the company introduced the first Pocket PCs. Microsoft changed the name to Windows CE Services for Windows CE 2.0 with the introduction of the color H/PCs and the early, monochrome Palm-sized PCs. ActiveSync began as Handheld PC (H/PC) Explorer for the original clamshell-cased Windows CE 1.0 devices. Fortunately, I also discovered that you can fix most ActiveSync bugs.īefore I jump into ActiveSync's problems and how to fix them, let's review the software's beginnings. Dozens of readers wrote to describe problems that, in a few cases, made their Pocket PCs completely unusable. I asked for reader input in the Mobile & Wireless UPDATE email newsletter. NET Magazine authors were having ActiveSync problems on a regular basis. In my personal experience, such problems are rare. In extreme cases, ActiveSync can refuse to work altogether. For example, if ActiveSync can't communicate with your mobile device, you might have to soft-reset the device or completely reboot the desktop PC. When it doesn't work, it makes life miserable.

When ActiveSync works, it's unobtrusive to the point of being almost invisible. Like most users of Pocket PCs and other mobile devices that run Windows CE, I have a love-hate relationship with Microsoft ActiveSync-the program you use to install software on these devices and synchronize them with a desktop PC.

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