Debugging on CE5.0 device without Activesync

This information ONLY applies to the Visual Studio 2005 Beta 2

Without the help of ActiveSync, VS 2005 does not automatically copy the connectivity binaries down to the device and hence debugging becomes problematic.

In order to use debugger on Windows CE 5.0 devices without active sync, you need to:

Step 1. Manually copy the following files down to the device

Clientshutdown.exe
ConmanClient2.exe
CMaccept.exe
eDbgTL.dll
TcpConnectionA.dll

From the desktop folder:
\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\CoreCon\1.0\Target\wce400\<CPU>, to \windows on device

Step 2. Manually launch the conmanclient2.exe

On the device side, open the command prompt and run "Conmanclient2.exe"

Step 3. Set the correct IP address

On the desktop side, open VS 2005
Tools à options à device tools à devices
Choose Windows CE 5.0 device, click on “properties”.
On the “Windows CE 5.0 device properties” dialog, click on “configure”.
On the “Configure TCP/IP” Transport dialog, choose “use specific IP address” and type in the IP address of your windows CE 5.0 device.
Click OK.

Step 4. Enable the connection (You can skip this step if the security is already disabled on the CE device by setting "HLKM\System\CoreConOverrideSecurity = 1". But disabling security may expose your device to malicious attack)

Run cMaccept.exe

Connect to the device within 3 minutes after you run cMaccept.exe. (The 3 minutes window is for the first connection. As long as you establish the first connection within 3 minutes, the following deployment/debugging sessions using the same VS instance is not limited by this 3 minutes window)

You need to perform Step 4 again when you try to connect from another instance of VS.

Now debugger is ready to go, and you should be able to deploy and debug program(s) running on Windows CE 5.0 device now.