How to get started with Windows 7 Embedded?

[hvakrg]

Hi, I'm really interested in HTPCs and when Microsoft recently released Windows 7 embedded which has a "Media Center" mode that boots up straight into Windows Media Center I wanted to see if it was possible to do the same with other front ends such as Mediaportal, Meedios and XBMC, but searching the web I can't really find any information on where to start and what to do. Are there any guides or books on the subject, or is such a project simply too big for a person to begin with?

[Tripredacus]

Which WE are you using WEE (Windows Embedded Enterprise) or WES (Windows Embedded Standard) ?

[cluberti]

I haven't looked at these yet, but I think Standard can do WMC mode. My guess is the default shell registry is changed to point to the Media Center binary ehshell.exe so as to launch it, but I'd have to dig deep to see exactly what it's doing.

[hvakrg]

I currently have the WE Standard.

[Tripredacus]

You aren't going to find a whole lot of info about WES7 online because most of it is behind passwords. If you downloaded this from your Partner account, you should contact your rep to see if they can find some documentation or other sites to get help from. There may also be a section on MSDN Social, but I'm not sure since I don't use that site. Microsoft does have an Embedded specific site, however if you are asking about it here you probably won't be able to access it. Also, MS doesn't typically handle Embedded support directly, they farm that out to licensed Embedded Partners.

[hvakrg]

I got my trial copy from here.

And it seems as if they've gotten some more info on their sites now:

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsembedded/en-us/community/spark/default.mspx

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/windowsembedded/standard/default.aspx

So I guess I'll start there.

But have any of you had any experience with Windows Embedded and know wether or not it's possible for someone without any experience and dive in an do what I want?

[Tripredacus]

Ah ok, I have that one installed too because the buying the regular toolkit costs something like $900 so I can play with the trial for 180 days.

So far, WE7 is a lot different than XPe but in a good way. At first it seems a lot more complicated, but I like the idea you can just boot the media on the target appliance and create the image on the fly without pre-creating the answer file. That being said, if you have any experience with any other componentized building app (like WSIM) its a bit easier. Once you figure it out then it should be good.

It is also good it has some templates built in. I only used it for 1 day so far, but the smallest you can make it is ~500MB and I wanted to make one that just enabled 3D acceleration and the smallest it could be is 1GB. I was trying to see if it could be a good thin client OS but I haven't put enough time into it to determine if WE7 is the way to go, or using a WinPE based thin client.

[hvakrg]

I have absolutely no experience what so ever so it's all sort of confusing as most of the info I can fins is for Windows Embedded XP. I asked in the MSDN forum aswell and it should be possible, here is the anser I got there:

Mediaportal is just an application like any other. You can make Mediaportal the shell to the WES7 image.

You can start out with Command shell with custom shell support booting to a command window. Next install Mediaportal on the system, and then using the regsitry to swtich the shell - http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms838576(WinEmbedded.5).aspx.

But then I found this:

Custom Shell in Windows Embedded Standard 7

Which mentions a separate tool called "shell launcher" that looks like something that should make the job even easier.

But I have no idea how to access that tool. As I said I'm completely new to embedded, so I have not yet figgured out how it works compared to normal Windows when it comes to installation of programs and deployment.

Edited July 7, 2010 by hvakrg

[Tripredacus]

Custom Shell in Windows Embedded Standard 7

Which mentions a separate tool called "shell launcher" that looks like something that should make the job even easier.

The website is misleading. It is not a separate tool but a feature. To start making a custom shell, open ICE and then open the help file. Go to the Index tab and look at the article for Command Prompt Shell with Custom Shell Support.

PS: moving to 7 Unattend

Edited July 7, 2010 by Tripredacus

[hvakrg]

Ah ok thank you. I also found this site, looks like they're explaining alot of stuff about W7E (Contextual Related Posts under the article). Looks helpfull to beginners like myself.

http://www.ditii.com/2009/09/10/windows-embedded-standard-2011-toolkit-introducing-image-configuration-editor-ice-and-image-builder-wizard-ibw/

Haven't started looking at the videos yet since I'm currently watching Germany - Spain, but will take a closer look later on.