Windows Embedded Device Manager 2011 released

If you are working on specialized devices solutions like Kiosks, Thin Clients, Digital Signage, and are using Windows Embedded as your platform, you would certainly like to be able to manage your devices (deploy, update, secure,…) the way ITPros manage PCs on an enterprise network. Actually you would want to have tools that integrate in the Enterprise infrastructure and tools.

This is what Windows Embedded Device Manager is about. You can leverage System Center Configuration Manager to manage your devices. the tool not only enables you to deploy and control your devices on your network but also allows to differentiate specific types of devices from others. Imagine you want to deploy a specific update to kiosks and not to Thin Clients on your network while they are both running Windows Embedded Standard 7, well, you can do this independently as the devices will be seen as what they are: kiosk or thin clients, not as PCs…

There is another really important feature that you will like about Device Manager: the tool is able to handle write filters. Just a quick reminder of what write filters are about. These are a feature specific to Windows Embedded Standard that allow to protect part or all of a disk partition by creating an overlay in RAM or in another partition that will abstract the write cycles from the hardware, meaning you can create stateless machines that will reboot from a know state at each power cycle. This feature is problematic for updates as if they are activated, you cannot apply an update to the OS or applications… Device Manger takes care of deactivating and reactivating the filters securely in order to apply patches to protected machines!

Windows Embedded Devices Manager also allows for scenarios where enterprises can work closer to the OEMs regarding devices management.

To learn more about the product, visit this page and read the press release.

You can also go check out this video showcasing Windows Embedded Device Manager and other Windows Embedded products in a cool demo: a full airport check in lounge! How cool is that!