Windows CE Licensing - What's in Core, what's in Pro...

Windows CE (as we all know by now) is a small footprint, hard real-time, componentized, embedded operating system that gets used in a range of cool and interesting devices, from cow milking machines, medical devices, industrial control systems, robots, rice cookers, and land-mine detectors - the operating system is licensed based on the components of the operating system you include in your image.

A fairly common question is how to determine whether the operating system you've built contains core components (approx 80% of the operating system is covered by the core license), or the pro license - there are a couple of ways to find out.

  1. Use the Runtime Assesment Tool to determine which core/pro components you are using
  2. Take a look at the Runtime Licensing Model for Windows CE document - this lists all of the operating system components, and details which are core/pro

- Mike