Re: CF Service Packs impacting registry auto start functionality?

From: Chris Tacke, eMVP (ctacke[at]Open_NET_CF[dot]org)
Date: 04/28/04 

Date: Tue, 27 Apr 2004 22:17:53 -0400

If you follow that path, I'd not auto-lauch the CF app, but instead write a
C shim app that calls IsAPIReady then CreateProcess on the CF app.

-Chris

"Paul G. Tobey [eMVP]" <ptobey_no_spam@instrument_no_spam.com> wrote in
message news:O7GGG1KLEHA.3052@TK2MSFTNGP12.phx.gbl...
> At a guess, what is probably going on is that something in the startup
code
> for SP2 is counting on an OS capability being up-and-running, but, at the
> time when you are being launched, it's not yet there. As to what that
> capability (or API), that might be, I have no idea. If it were me, I'd
> adjust the list of dependencies in the Init keys to load your program as
> late during startup as possible, in hopes that the API will be ready by
> then. Are you absolutely sure that *none* of the parts of your program
that
> you wrote is being executed? If your main routine is being run, you could
> P/Invoke the IsAPIReady() call to wait for the right thing to be running,
> assuming we can figure out what that right thing is...
>
> Paul T.
>
> "Tristan Leonard" <trisco2001@hotmail.com> wrote in message
> news:5f7bc8aa.0404271449.3722025c@posting.google.com...
> > This is a question I posed to Jon Box, someone some of you might
> > recognize. He then suggested I post my question on this group (which
> > he refers to as "The Newsgroup") which I had been previously unaware
> > of!
> >
> > My problem, in a nutshell, is this: After installing CF SP2 to fix one
> > problem another problem has arisen that I cannot effeciently get
> > around.
> >
> > To go slightly further, the new problem is about the registry loosing
> > the ability to auto-start my application upon soft reset in order to
> > keep the user from interacting with the operating system normally.
> >
> > Now, to go beyond the nutshell, I am trying to develop a Kiosk Mode
> > system for mobile applications and part of its functionality was to
> > add a path to itself in the registry (specifically, the Init key
> > within HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE) so that it would start automatically upon a
> > soft reset. Under Service Pack 1 of the Compact Framework, this method
> > worked wonderfully; the application would start itself even before the
> > Start Menu and the 'desktop' (i.e. the Today Screen) was shown. But
> > there was a problem: the button control did not support KeyDown,
> > KeyPress or KeyUp events which another class of mine that handles key
> > configuration used to handle input from the device's hardware buttons.
> > Thankfully, this issue was solved in the Compact Framework's Service
> > Pack 2; now all controls carry the key events and buttons can receive
> > the focus and still process events from the hardware keys such as
> > Calendar or Tasks (when the messages have been intercepted using the
> > Game API).
> >
> > But another problem cropped up afterward: now the entry into the
> > registry which specifies when my software loads during startup is
> > being completely ignored; our software fails to load at all. I have
> > tried this on the HP iPAQ running Windows Mobile 2003 and on an
> > Intermec i700 running Pocket PC 2002. I have hard reset both of them
> > and noticed that, upon deployment, the program will load but input
> > will cease to work once a button control has received focus but, at
> > this point, the program will load on startup. Then I will install the
> > SP2 patch for the Compact Framework and input will work after a button
> > control has received focus but the program will not load on soft
> > reset. I will then uninstall SP2 and redeploy (the original version of
> > the CF will load during deployment) and the original behavior returns.
> >
> > I am a little curious as to why the Service Pack of the Compact
> > Framework would change the behavior of something which seems to be
> > operating system specific rather than software development specific. I
> > am able to confirm that my edit to the registry is made in both cases;
> > it appears that under SP2 the registry is simply being ignored. Has
> > anyone else had this problem? Are there any other solutions besides
> > HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Init that could help me here? We are aware that we
> > may put the application or a shortcut to it inside the
> > \Windows\Startup folder but, for that to work, the shell must load
> > first and that reveals the start bar to the user (if only for a
> > moment) and that's a drawback we would prefer to avoid.
> >
> > Any information would be helpful, and I'm glad to have found this
> > place. Thanks a lot.
> >
> > Tristan Leonard
>
>