System pop-ups and message boxes on an Embedded device

Last week I travelled to Las Vegas with the whole family and my parents in law who were visiting us from France. Apart from the fact that our return flight was delayed 3 days because of the bad weather conditions in Seattle the trip was good.

IMAGE_234On our way back, we had time to roam around and in McCarran airport. And I came across these panels displaying departures info. Note the popup in the lower right corner…

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You are certainly familiar with this Windows XP popup. This is something you wouldn’t expect to display on a device such as these panels, right? This is exactly what Windows Embedded Standard and it’s Embedded Enabling Feature will help avoid. First of all Windows Embedded Standard is a modular OS, you select the features you need in your device and no more, which means that you will certainly not include the Windows Shell with it’s desktop, taskbar and start menu. Instead you will set your own application as the shell. Then you will be able to use the Embedded Enabling features such as the Messagebox and pop-up interceptor that will intercept any system message boxes or pop-ups and treat them silently. To learn more about Windows Embedded Standard and the Embedded Enabling Features, visit the MSDN Web Site:
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms912903(WinEmbedded.5).aspx
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms376738.aspx