How do you make an application start when the device starts up in Windows Mobile?

Question

As the title says. I'd like for my application to start when the Windows Mobile device is turned on? I'm developing this app using the .NET Compact Framework 3.5 in C#. Thanks!

Answer 1

To get your app to start, first we need to define "On".

There is "On soft reset": Here there are a couple choices. By far the easiest is to just put a shrtcut in the \Windows\Startup folder.

There is "On resume from sleep." This is a bit more complicated because you have to run something before that happens. The simplest mechanism here is to register your app with CeRunAppAtEvent with the NOTIFICATION_EVENT_WAKEUP event. You'll have to P/Invoke it, as there is no built-in managed method for it.

Edit: There is also "After hard reset". Some OEMs provide a mechanism to run an app or do some form of logic from a cold boot (Symbol for example). You'll have to check with the device OEM's docs for how this would work.

Answer 2

While the Startup folder certainly works, you might encounter problems depending on your configuration when your application requires other items (applications, drivers, hardware, ..) to be started and up and running first. I have developed for devices with a CF storage card where the CF card needed a couple of seconds after bootup to mount and be available, so one can not autostart an application sitting on that CF card immediately after a reset, thus the Startup folder solution failed. In that case you might want to look into the Launchxx entries in the registry that allow you more control about the starting order: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa915408.aspx