Which Portable Devices?

What devices does WPD support?  

A WPD application (e.g. the WPD API Sample) on Windows XP (with the pre-requisites installed) can connect to these devices:

  • Devices (e.g. portable media players, cameras, some phones) that support Media Transfer Protocol (MTP).
  • Devices that connect using third party or vendor provided WPD drivers. 

A WPD application on Windows Vista can connect to even more devices:

  • Devices (e.g. portable media players, cameras, some phones) that support MTP. 
  • Devices that connect using third party or vendor provided WPD drivers.
  • Devices (e.g. cameras, camcorders) that support Picture Transfer Protocol.
  • USB Mass Storage Devices.
  • Windows CE devices via IPortableDeviceManager::GetPrivateDevices()

In both cases, the WPD Shell Namespace Extension is also a WPD application, so you can check whether your device is visible to WPD by browsing to it using Explorer ("My Computer"). 

What about a Smartphone or PocketPC device?  

On Windows Vista, Windows CE devices register the private WPD interface GUID, and can be enumerated in WPD by calling IPortableDeviceManager::GetPrivateDevices() .  These devices connect to Explorer using the WPD RAPI driver, which provides device browsing functionality.   Content sync is implemented through a different channel.   The WPD RAPI driver is not available on Windows XP.

On Windows Vista and Windows XP, to enumerate content on a Windows CE device for Windows Media Player applications, you can use the Windows Media Device Manager (WMDM) APIs.

How do I install WPD?

On Windows XP, WPD is available when any one of these pre-requistes are installed:

  1. Windows Media Player 11
  2. The redistributable package bundled with Windows Media Format 11 SDK (see release notes)

On Windows Vista, WPD is supported natively for SKUs that include Windows Media Player (e.g. Home Basic, Home Premium, Ultimate Edition ...)

 

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.