[windows-mobile] How to connect a Windows Mobile PDA to Windows 10

Does anyone know how I can get a Windows Mobile 6.5 PDA to connect up to a Windows 10 PC?

Before upgrading the PC from Window 8.1 I was able to use Windows Mobile Device Center to link up to the PDA over USB. This allowed me to access files on the PDA via Windows Explorer, access the internet from the PDA over our network and deploy to the PDA via Visual Studio 2008.

I had to uninstall Windows Mobile Device Center as part of the Windows 10 installation, as it was flagged as incompatible with Windows 10. I can't seem to find an alternative for Windows 10?

I haven't managed to get WMDC working on Windows 10 (it hanged on splash screen upon start), so I've finally uninstalled it. But now I have a Portable Devices / Compact device in the Device Manager and I can browse my Windows Compact 7 device within Windows Explorer. All my apps using RAPI also work. Maybe this is the result of installing/uninstalling WMDC, or probably this functionality was already presented on Windows 10 and I've just overlooked it initially.

Here is the answer: Download the "Windows Mobile Device Center" for your machine type, likely 64bit.
http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=3182

Before you run the install, change the compatibility settings to 'Windows 7'. Then install it... Then run it: You'll find it under 'WMDC'.. Your device should now recognize, when plugged in, mine did!

1. Install

   • Windows Mobile 6 Professional SDK Refresh
   • Windows Mobile 6 Standard SDK Refresh
   • Windows Mobile 6.5 Professional Developer Tool Kit (USA)
   • Windows Mobile 6.5 Standard Developer Tool Kit (USA)

2. Control Panel > Programs and Features > Add or remove a Windows component

   • NET Framework 3.5
   • Check HTTP and non HTTP

3. Reinstall WMDC observing your platform x64/x86

4. Services.msc > Windows Mobile 2003-based device connectivity

   • Logon > Local System
   • Allow service to interact with desktop

5. Restart your PC

Install Windows Mobile Device Center for your architecture. (It will install older versions of .NET if needed.) In USB to PC settings on device uncheck Enable advanced network and tap OK. This worked for me on 2 different Windows 10 PCs.

Unfortunately the Windows Mobile Device Center stopped working out of the box after the Creators Update for Windows 10. The application won't open and therefore it's impossible to get the sync working. In order to get it running now we need to modify the ActiveSync registry settings. Create a BAT file with the following contents and run it as administrator:

REG ADD HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\RapiMgr /v SvcHostSplitDisable /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f
REG ADD HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\WcesComm /v SvcHostSplitDisable /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f

Restart the computer and everything should work.

Had the same problem. Came across an article from Zebra with the fix that worked for me:

1. Open services.msc
2. Go to Windows Mobile-2003-based device connectivity
3. Right click Windows Mobile-2003-based device connectivity and click Properties
4. Go to Log On Tab
5. Choose Local System Account

6. Click Apply
7. Go to General Tab
8. Press Stop and wait
9. Once stopped, press Start
10. Press OK
11. Restart your PC
12. Retry the Windows Mobile Device Center

Original article can be found here