42Gears Speaks

Getting rid of annoying prepaid balance notification on windows mobile phones

Prakash — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 03:48:22 +0000

USSD (Unstructured Supplementary Service Data) protocol is used by GSM network to send data to a phone over a real time connection. One of the most common usage is network provider sending back prepaid account balance notification after every call, SMS and data connection. On windows mobile phones, this notification comes up in a balloon at top of screen with a loud and annoying notification sound.
In case you dont bother for these notifications and want to get rid of the annoying sound after every call, set the following registry

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\ControlPanel\Phone]
"SuppressUSSD"=dword:00000001

This will disable all USSD messages popping up on screen. Some network specific commands (mostly starting with # or *) which brings back a notification or a menu will also not work after this change.

Another alternative is to just disable the notification sound associated with USSD messages. This can be done using registry

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\ControlPanel\Sounds\USSDBuzz]
"Sound"="*none*"

This will allow the USSD messages coming up on the screen, but no sound.

Both the above changes might require (depending on OEM implementation) a reboot.

PS: In case you dont have any clue how to edit registry on your phone, there are quite a few registry editors for windows mobile available. This is one of them.

Where to place Google Website Optimizer Control Script to avoid IE quirks?

Onkar — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 05:47:22 +0000

If you are using Google Website Optmizer Control Script to test and improve your website, be careful about where you place the control script in your html page. IE won't like it if the script is placed before the Document Type Declaration. IE might render the content in distorted form severely impacting visitor experience.

Just put the control script after the Document Type Declaration and you should be fine.

Administrators have role-based privileges in SureMDM

Onkar — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 11:19:58 +0000

Our latest Mobile Device Management platform SureMDM supports role-based administration. Whenever a user is created, it is assigned a user type depending on the user's role. Following are the available user types:

Super User
Admin User
Help-desk User
Manager User
End User

Super User
Super User is created during system installation and is the first and most powerful user in the system. A Super User can perform all tasks (Complete user and device management).

Admin User
Admin User is created by a Super User and can do all device management activities.

Help-desk User
Help-desk User can only perform remote support of mobile devices. They cannot perform other device management activities like installing apps on the mobile devices or adding/deleting the devices from the system etc.

Manager User
Manager User can view the list of mobile devices which are allocated to his/her team members. Besides, a manager can also track a worker's location on the map.

End User
End User is basically the user who is using the mobile device. End user can log into SureMDM and can issue remote wipe command in case a device is lost, can try to locate the device or view the call-log among other information.

SureMDM is in private beta. If you are interested in a demo, drop us a line at techsupport@42gears.com.

What’s so special about number 42?

Onkar — Sat, 03 Jul 2010 11:01:59 +0000

Well take your pick...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/42_%28number%29

And that's not all. There is something for the future.

How much time to get up and running with SureLock?

Onkar — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 05:23:38 +0000

Well..just did a quick test. I was able lock down a "fresh" Windows Mobile device in less than a minute, 54 seconds to be precise. Following steps were taken (Note: SureLock Studio was already installed on the desktop):

Launched SureLock Studio
Clicked New button on the toolbar to create a new project
Added Internet Explorer as allowed application
Clicked Build button to generate the CAB file
Clicked Install button on the toolbar to transfer CAB file to the mobile device (connected with the desktop over ActiveSync) and installation was started automatically
Once CAB installation was completed, SureLock started on the device locking it down to just Internet Explorer

Project creation and CAB building took 15 secs whereas installation took remaining 39 seconds.

Once the CAB has been built, we just have to install it on other handhelds as long as there is no change in the kiosk configuration which will require building the CAB file again.

C# code to soft reset a Windows Mobile device

Onkar — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 11:15:06 +0000

Here is the C# code to soft reset a Windows Mobile device (using P/Invoke)
[DllImport("coredll.dll", SetLastError = true)] static extern int SetSystemPowerState(string psState, int StateFlags, int Options);


const int POWER_FORCE = 4096;

const int POWER_STATE_RESET = 0x00800000;

private void SoftReset() { SetSystemPowerState(null, POWER_STATE_RESET, POWER_FORCE); }

New SureLock Studio features

Onkar — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 13:46:43 +0000

Latest SureLock Studio release consists on the following new features:

1. Option to display WiFi Signal Strength icon on the kiosk launcher screen
2. Option to display IP address on the toolbox screen
3. Display current date and time on the kiosk launcher screen

If you don't know already what SureLock does, here is an intro. SureLock is a complete lock down tool for Windows Mobile based handheld devices. It controls what users of your devices can access on the handhelds. SureLock blocks unwanted programs, internet access, games, camera, phone calls, activesync, autorun etc on the device. For more information please visit SureLock page on our website.

Microsoft to continue support for Ruggedized Handheld market

Onkar — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 07:26:25 +0000

Ruggedized handhelds are a class of mobile devices that are designed to run mission critical applications while withstanding the harsh environments. Several OEM like Motorola/Symbol, Intermec, Psion Teklogix, Honeywell have been building ruggedized handhelds for several years now. Most of these devices are based on Micrsoft Windows CE and Windows Mobile operating systems. Recent whitepaper from VDC Research says that Microsoft has 87% share in this market. All these OEMs together shipped around 2.3 million devices in 2009, which is projected to reach 4.3 million by 2014. Besides that there already are around 12 million ruggedized devices in use.

Since Windows Phone 7 has been announced there was a growing concern among OEMs regarding future support from Microsoft for its existing Windows CE (latest version 6.0) and Windows Mobile (latest version 6.5) platforms. Note that Windows Phone 7 is a very different platform with almost no similarity with the CE and Windows Mobile and is targeted towards consumers and to lure back iPhone users :).

Enterprises and Consumers have different needs and both are important. Microsoft has started a new program Windows Embedded Handheld to protect the existing enterprise investments and to continue to releasing newer mobile platforms with minimum porting requirements.

Microsoft's commitment to the future of enteprise mobile devices will be a welcome news for OEMs, System Integrators, ISVs and Enterprise customers.

How to change file extensions in Windows Mobile?

Onkar — Sat, 05 Jun 2010 10:19:16 +0000

Ever wondered how to change file extensions on your Windows Mobile phone? One thing is for sure: you cannot use the builtin file explorer program. It does not even show the file extensions let alone change them.

Well. there are two solutions:

ActiveSync: Connect the device to the PC over ActiveSync and browse to the file and folder of your choice. Right-click on the file name and select Rename to modify the filename or its extension.
Use third-party freeware tool such as Total Commander. You can do much more than what the builtin file explorer provides. Other than changing file extensions, you can change file attributes (Readonly, Hidden, Archive, System) and file associations as well.

How to get information about softwares installed on Windows Mobile devices?

Onkar — Wed, 19 May 2010 11:30:58 +0000

Best method is to ask the configuration service provider (CSP).

Step 1: Add Reference to Microsoft.WindowsMobile.Configuration
Step 2: Add the following statements at the top of the c# code file.

using System.Xml;
using Microsoft.WindowsMobile.Configuration;

Step 3: Prepare a csp string (xml format) and pass it to ProcessConfiguration method of ConfigurationManager. Return value is the xml string which contains all currently installed softwares on the device.

private void ListInstalledSoftwares()
{
string cspString = "";
XmlDocument xmlResult = null;

// Use CSP to get list of installed applications
try
{
XmlDocument configDoc = new XmlDocument();
configDoc.LoadXml(cspString);
xmlResult = ConfigurationManager.ProcessConfiguration(configDoc, false);
Debug.WriteLine(xmlResult.InnerXml);
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
Debug.WriteLine("Failed to get list of installed applications. CSP failure. [Exception: " + ex.Message + "]");
}
}