The update provides some new features together with "greatly improved performance," according to Microsoft. New features of the Device Emulator are said to include:

• High-resolution input:
  • on TabletPCs, Tablet Ink is passed into the guest OS at high resolution (1024 x 1024)
    
  • input resolution doubles when Zoom 2x is enabled
  
  
• Additional emulator options can be changed on-the-fly:
  • NE2000 emulator binding to a host network adapter
    
  • /funckey value
    
  • open and close serial port 0 console window
    
  • eXdi driver support for Platform Builder 4.2 and 5.0
  
  
• DeviceEmulator COM interface and DMA sample application code

Microsoft has also included its "Customer Experience Improvement Program," an opt-in method of providing anonymous customer feedback. This feature gathers metrics about DeviceEmulator use such as what configuration options are used, data about unsuccessful launches, information about error conditions,and so on. The company says the data will help the Visual Studio team tune the emulator and provide new features better suited to developers' needs.

About the Device Emulator

According to Microsoft, "The Device Emulator is designed specifically for Visual Studio 2005 device projects. It runs applications compiled for the ARM instruction set and runs as a user-mode process. Visual Studio now provides a Direct Memory Access (DMA) transport to communicate with the emulator. Surpassing the traditional TCP/IP transport, the DMA transport is faster, does not rely on network connectivity or other external factors, and provides deterministic connection and disconnection."

"Visual Studio 2005 includes emulator images for Pocket PC 2003 SE, Pocket PC 2003 SE Square, Pocket PC 2003 SE Square VGA, Pocket PC 2003 VGA, Smartphone 2003 SE, and Smartphone 2003 SE QVGA."

2.0 beta availability

This release is designated 2.0 beta. The RTM (release to manufacturing) version will be released with the upcoming Windows CE 6.0 release, according to Microsoft.

The Microsoft Device Emulator 2.0 Beta, designated a "community technology preview," is available for download here.

---

Related stories:

• Come and get it: stand-alone emulator for Windows CE 5.0
  
• Microsoft frees "express" Visual Studio tools
  
• Reviewer praises Visual Studio 2005 Pro
  
• Online tutorials cover Windows Embedded development topics
  
• How to create .NET CF custom controls with Visual Studio 2005
  
• Ballmer launches Microsoft's latest development tools
  
• VS 2005 gets RT Windows XP/XPe extension plug-in