Database Users

CE6 on the Wizard

Anyone know if CE6 can run on the wizard and if so where can we get a rom for it?

dragonedge said:
Anyone know if CE6 can run on the wizard and if so where can we get a rom for it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is this crossbow what u r talking about ?

M$ has Launched Windows CE6 Today, I was wondering if anyone has got their hands on it and been able to play around with device compatibility.

Here's a link to the article:
http://msmobiles.com/news.php/5716.html
And here's a link to the trial:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/embedded/eval/trial.mspx

Thanks for the links. I'm going to download now

dragonedge,
Please post your results, I would be very interested to know if it will run on my wizard.
Thanks,
Clay

dude...
1) you cross posted
2) again, this is released to the manufactuers, it'll be at LEAST 4 to 6 months before we even hear of a device testing this OS
3) what you posted is an evaluation environment for Visual Studio... lol. You're not going to get your hands on something like that that easily.
Windows Embedded CE 6.0 (plug-in for Visual Studio 2005)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

awwww too bad but shouldn't you be able to create some type of Rom with this? Or is this literally just a developer tool released for a software that hasn't been released or won't be for a long time?

Overview
Windows® Embedded CE 6.0 is a componentized operating system designed from the ground up to power small footprint devices and help developers get them to market fast. Choosing from a wide variety of technology components and pre-existing templates, you can quickly build hard real-time commercial and consumer electronics devices, such as:
Set-top boxes
Thin clients
Digital media adapters
Voice-over-IP (VoIP) phones
Navigation devices
Medical devices
Portable media players
Home gateways
Digital cameras
Networked digital televisions
PDAs
Features
Along with its portfolio of hundreds of carefully tested, easily selectable OS components, Windows Embedded CE 6.0 includes innovative features designed to help promote performance, security, compatibility, and flexibility.
Robust Architecture
Unified Kernel. The redesigned Windows Embedded CE 6.0 kernel now handles more than 32,000 simultaneous processes, each with 2 GB of virtual memory space. The new file system supports larger storage media and file sizes (up to 4 GB), and removable media encryption.
Drivers. Production-quality device drivers help decrease the amount of modification needed for drivers to work with custom hardware, and enhanced driver support in CE 6.0 helps ensure easy portability. Drivers can be run in kernel mode for performance or in user mode for robustness.
Security. The redesigned one-tier security model is SDL compliant and helps ensure that only trusted applications can run on your embedded device.
Compatibility. CE 6.0 works with key processor architectures (x86, ARM, SH4, and MIPS) and, through its compatibility testing tool, has features to help port existing Win32 applications.
Device Performance. Improvements to the kernel architecture have greatly reduced the overhead of system calls between base OS services, resulting in improved operating system performance.
New Media and Communication Components
Windows Embedded CE 6.0 opens up new opportunities to develop compelling products for home and business.
Network Media Devices. You now have the ability to build networked media devices that can consume pictures, videos, and music from a Windows PC via a home network.
Digital Video Recorders. The DVR engine in CE 6.0 empowers you to build devices that can record multiple video streams to a hard drive for later playback
Cellular Networks. The new Cellcore components help enable your CE 6.0 powered devices to easily make data connections and initiate voice calls through cellular networks.
Windows Network Projectors. Users can now connect their Windows Vista™ laptop to a CE 6.0-based projector wirelessly or over any IP network.
Powerful Development Environment
By adding Platform Builder to Visual Studio 2005, Windows Embedded CE 6.0 helps deliver a superior unified embedded developer experience. Developers can now use one common familiar environment to develop both application and operating system software. Development advantages include:
Visual Studio 2005. Platform Builder for Windows Embedded CE 6.0 has been created as a plug-in for Visual Studio 2005 and is customized for developing embedded operating systems and components.
Application Development Options. You can go native or managed by choosing your preferred Microsoft development technology—Win32, MFC, or the .NET Compact Framework (C#, VB).
Device Emulation. The new ARM-based device emulator included with Platform Builder makes it easy to configure, build, and test operating system images.
Editors. Coding and building are faster. Windows Embedded CE 6.0 editors now incorporate Intellisense technology, syntax highlighting, and graphical bib and registry file editors.
Improved Compilers. Based on Visual Studio 2005, the latest compilers increase C++ language conformance; provide better libraries; support CRT, ATL, and MFC; and offer improved run-time security checks (/GS).
Source Code Access. Access to CE 6.0 source code helps developers debug, test, and make changes to an OS image. It also allows you to modify the operating system software to create differentiated features while maintaining control over your intellectual property.
Price
Development Tools: $995.00 USD
Runtime License Cost: (per runtime shipped):
$3.00 USD for Core SKU*
(The Core SKU is a subset of the Windows Embedded CE Core operating system features.)
$16.00 USD for Professional SKU*
(The Professional SKU is a higher-end license that is ideal for devices that require rich multimedia and graphics.)
* Run-time pricing is based on purchase volume of one unit (except Windows CE Core based on 1000 units). Volume discounts are available. Local taxes, tariffs and other costs may apply. Contact a Windows Embedded Authorized Distributor for details.
A complete list of the components included in Windows Embedded CE Core and Windows Embedded CE Pro is available at the Microsoft Download Center.
Details on each component are available at the MSDN Library.
For complete pricing and licensing information, please contact a Microsoft Windows Embedded Authorized Distributor.
In conclusion, this is for manufacturers/developers only. It is of no use to us.

Sounds this is just for developers

Windows Mobile 6 Kernel Open Source (also drivers)

I am writing from my pocket pc:
http://www.windowsfordevices.com/news/NS2632317407.html
"Microsoft officially launched the sixth generation of its flagship device software "platform, today. "Windows Embedded CE 6.0" boasts kernel architecture enhancements, new software stacks targeting three high-volume device categories, enhanced development tools, and, for the first time, 100 percent availability of Windows CE's kernel source code. "
Doesn't this mean we can port to any device?

This is for links:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/embedded/community/community/communityprojects/
http://www.codeplex.com/
---
Develop now, pay later
A free 180-day evaluation version of Windows Embedded CE 6.0 is available for download, here. The kit includes the operating system, the standard shared source components described above, and Visual Studio 2005 Professional.
http://www.windowsembeddedkit.com/

sorry to burst your bubble, but CE6.0 is NOT WM6
WM6 is BASED on CE5.2
WM7 will be BASED on CE6.0
Neither will be creatable/editable using the CE shared source as windowsmobile is not shared source.

True hehe
forgot Windows Mobile 6.0 is based on CE 5.2
Was a quick read and post on my pocket pc
Apologies

Might still be useful,
If we can get Windows CE 6.0 to run on a device...
It may be possible to get Windows Mobile 6 to run using a CE 6 core?
Windows CE 6 should be backward compatible with Windows CE 5.2 (although new drivers will probably be needed)
Long shot, but just might work...
(isn't Windows Mobile just a pretty shell for Windows CE?)
Problems:
*Probably against the Microsoft license. (Donations? Maybe can even buy Windows CE 5.2 Tool Suite)
*Windows CE 6 Core needed for Windows Mobile might be significantly bigger than Windows CE 5.2 Core.
*Need to know everything Windows Mobile uses in Windows CE to build a working core.
*Device Drivers may have to be rewritten depending on how much Windows CE 6 differs form Windows CE 5.2 (Will be easier with source code)
*Getting it to work will require quite a bit of development and research

basically, it's not impossible, just highly unlikely.

hehe any volunteers
I know its crazy, but there are huge benefits in getting this to work.
(Far less limitations in what we can do)
I would investigate myself but it looks like I am about to be computerless for the next 4 weeks!

OK, I hate to burst your bubble even further, but I don't think it will be possible at all.
Why?
1) They are only publishing the Kernel, and there is a lot more to the OS than that.
2) Because of the different kernel architecture the drivers will defiantly need to be rewritten and for that they will have to be reverse engineered first. Just look a the state of various Linux projects to see how long and hard something like that would be.
3) M$ is notorious for making OSs that are not forward compatible - namely although the difference between WM 6 and 5 is almost non existent compiling a simple "Hello word" app with WM 6 SDK will prevent it from running on a WM 5 device (bad exe error).
Also, the fact that they are "releasing" the code does not make it open source. It will still require a ton of paper work to get and you will probably have to be a real company or at least an academic establishment to get it.
M$ already gives out a lot of code for previous embedded OSs under special license.
So by the time someone leaks the code, figures out a way to patch together new kernel and additional required components from previous OS, plus reverse engineers and rewrite drivers for a given device not only that device will become obsolete but the whole CE line.
My guess is, a few years from now phone size devices will be powerful enough to run a normal OS like UMPCs do today.

levenum said:
1) They are only publishing the Kernel, and there is a lot more to the OS than that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't want to compile the whole of Windows Mobile 6, just the parts that don't allow it to be run on older devices (or newer) e.g. nk.exe
(I haven't downloaded the kit yet so I don't know if this is possible or not, could be, could not be)
levenum said:
2) Because of the different kernel architecture the drivers will defiantly need to be rewritten and for that they will have to be reverse engineered first. Just look a the state of various Linux projects to see how long and hard something like that would be.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Many Windows CE 4 (Windows Mobile 2003 SE) drivers are used on a Windows CE 5.2 (Windows Mobile 5) platform. So there is a slight chance they may work in Windows CE 6.
levenum said:
3) M$ is notorious for making OSs that are not forward compatible - namely although the difference between WM 6 and 5 is almost non existent compiling a simple "Hello word" app with WM 6 SDK will prevent it from running on a WM 5 device (bad exe error).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
An application written in a new operating system will not work in the old operating system.
but an application written in the old operating system usually works in the new operating system.
Otherwise microsoft would have many very unhappy customers.
Windows Mobile (non core parts) are basically old applications...
levenum said:
Also, the fact that they are "releasing" the code does not make it open source. It will still require a ton of paper work to get and you will probably have to be a real company or at least an academic establishment to get it.
M$ already gives out a lot of code for previous embedded OSs under special license.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can already download it
http://www.windowsembeddedkit.com/
levenum said:
So by the time someone leaks the code, figures out a way to patch together new kernel and additional required components from previous OS, plus reverse engineers and rewrite drivers for a given device not only that device will become obsolete but the whole CE line.
My guess is, a few years from now phone size devices will be powerful enough to run a normal OS like UMPCs do today.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This thing runs WINDOWS VISTA
http://www.htc.com/product/03-product_HTC_Shift.htm
Heres another one, running windows XP
http://www.sonystyle.com/is-bin/INT...AIONotebookComputers_UX_Series&Dept=computers
We will not know the true amount of work needed until someone tries.
And if it is not a lot of work it will make a few people quite happy.

Well...
Me, i can not see the point in a project like this... Why would you even want to re-do microsofts sh--t.
Use the manpower and resources for the UNI Linux project.. They are allmost done... Just a few glitches now...
I wanna get away from MS asap... but i like this HW...

[Q] Windows 8 on ARM

As this is a developers forum - lets share here information on WoA (Windows on ARM) architecture.
What is known for now from different sources:
- WoA 8 would require UEFI to boot (instead of BIOS on x86), ACPI is required too. So no WoA to existing devices (they don't have UEFI/ACPI and I don't think that anyone would waste his time on emulating them).
- No native support for x86 apps on ARM, nor ARM apps on x86. Only .NET apps would work in both worlds.
But it is possible to create an emulator similar to DosBox that would run native x86 programs on WoA and, for example, I'm currently working in this direction.
- Though existing C++ apps can be recompiled for ARM from sources, it is not a 100% working solution. Current VS11 contains a rather limited set of ARM libraries - no DirectX libs earlier than 11, no import libraries for NtDll.Dll and similar DLLs.
I don't have access to any WoA builds, so I can't check whether these features are completely removed from ARM, or those LIBs are just not present in current VS11 build. But at least now we can compile test apps for ARM and analyze the code (though we don't have where to execute them yet).
- Native WoA programs use THUMB2 instruction set (ARMv7 and above). Though ARM instruction set would be supported too.
- According to "Microsoft Portable Executable and Common Object File Format Specification v8.2" WoA machine type in PE files would be 0x1c4, and some new relocations types are added (for example IMAGE_REL_BASED_ARM_MOV32T = 7). IDA understands such EXE files, though complains on relocs.
- SEH is implemented in a different way than on x86 (similar to x64, google for RtlAddFunctionTable to get the idea).
- WoA is more secure by default. For example TPM can be rarely found on x86, but it would be required on ARM.
- Most of existing drivers are source-code compatible with ARM (of cause if not using x86-specific stuff). But ARM would never allow to load unsigned drivers (unlike x86 Win7/8).
- As platform is completely new - all ARM drivers would be added to windows update site to simplify our life. Some obsolete hardware like 1394 is not implemented at all, so there would not be so many drivers for ARM llike for x86.
- All binaries would be the same for all SoC providers.
- No "native" ARM VisualStudio - developer tools are x86 only.
WoA requirements from different sources:
- 10.1” display with 1366x768 min resolution (though smaller screens may be supported with reduced functionality)
- Volume Control, Windows, Rotation, Lock power buttons
- Dual core CPU with hardware accelerated GPU
- at least 1 Gb RAM
- min 16 Gb fixed storage
- 100mW idle power in standby
- there are rumors that there would be standart "Phone call API" ("Apollo" UI)
Does anyone have access to ARM WDK? It would definitely contain a complete set of import libraries and would provide lots of info on WoA internals in headers/documentation. Seems that Windows 8 WDK on MSDN does not have ARM tools

so your bottom line says: no w8 on arm (ever)?

I'm not quite sure where you found that it requires ACPI. I didn't turn anything up.
The UEFI requirement is expected, and I doubt will be that much of a hurdle. UEFI is all open, and it should be pretty trivial to chainload a UEFI-compatible environment on top of the existing firmwares, provided that nvidia doesn't provide us with an implementation to start with, which I suspect they'll do.
For the emulator, I believe the best thing to do would be to provide something opposite of WINE, something that'd emulate the instructions, but pass API calls and translate between the two. A full Windows SDK will likely come out for ARM processors once it's finalized, if it's not already out. Have you checked in the Ultimate build of VS2011, or the express build?
Everything I could find relating to the TPM says that it's optional, but will be automatically utilized if available.
The rest is pretty inconsequental, at least to what I think most people here are interested in.
nvidia started a windows 8 development program for ARM (Clickey here), but I haven't seen anything else from it, has anyone else gotten anything?

mamaich said:
As this is a developers forum - lets share here information on WoA (Windows on ARM) architecture.
What is known for now from different sources:
- WoA 8 would require UEFI to boot (instead of BIOS on x86), ACPI is required too. So no WoA to existing devices (they don't have UEFI/ACPI and I don't think that anyone would waste his time on emulating them).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually they said it would continue to support BIOS for older devices.
See: Current machines dual-booting Windows 7 and Linux should be able to upgrade to Windows 8 without wiping out the Linux install. As Microsoft notes in the Building Windows 8 blog, “We will continue to support the legacy BIOS interface.” However, machines using UEFI instead of BIOS “will have significantly richer capabilities” including faster boot times and greater security. (from Arstechnica)

That's for x86. ARM was said to require UEFI. Besides, there is no real bios on Android tablets, at least not a common platform.

netham45 said:
I'm not quite sure where you found that it requires ACPI. I didn't turn anything up.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've got it in one of the "windows-on-arm" non-public documents dated the first half of this year. While UEFI,ACPI,TPM are an option for x86, they are required for ARM hosts.
So no custom WM8 bootloaders, drivers, patched kernel on ARM hosts (like "windows activators" do) until sign keys would be leaked or some backdoors would be found. Of cause this is good as this would make rootkit creation more difficult, and require device drivers signed by MS (so we'd get more stable OS) but I really don't think that this "protection" would last more than 1-2 months after WoA would be released.
For the emulator, I believe the best thing to do would be to provide something opposite of WINE, something that'd emulate the instructions, but pass API calls and translate between the two.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm already working on such tool. It emulates x86 instruction set with dosbox or bochs CPU emulation library (I'm using both of them for debugging purposes, while working on my own one that would be much more simple->faster), translates x86 WinAPI to "native" host WinAPI + emulates API that is not present or differently implemented on WoA. It is designed to be truly cross-platform, so just a recompilation + creating several thunks/stubs would be necessary when I'll get my hands to an ARM host running windows8.
Of cause programs that use heavy anti-debugging, self-modifying code, undocumented features and SEH tricks would not work. Currently it is rather far from being finished (I have to implement&debug WinAPI and COM thunks that cannot be automatically generated) but old games like "heroes of might and magic" are already working fine in a test environment.
A full Windows SDK will likely come out for ARM processors once it's finalized, if it's not already out. Have you checked in the Ultimate build of VS2011, or the express build?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Of cause I'm talking about "ultimate" VS11, as express is designed to target mostly .NET (though ARM compiler is present there too).
And WDK that it published on MSDN does not allow creation of ARM drivers. I'm currently in a process of renewing my company's MSDN subscription, so I can't prove that myself, but I've read that on OSR forums.

I am waiting to hack my iPad and put win8 on it

I would hope touchpad would be the next viable option. Hp could still make more and just dump W8 on it. Thanks all of you for working this thread. I will be reading your progress as it unfolds. Good Luck devs and if I can find anything you will be the first to know.
Sent from my mwp6985 / Trophy using XDA Windows Phone 7 App

Some information on Win8 "Apollo" is available. Apollo - is a name for a new "windows phone" OS from MS.
- Apollo is based on the same "desktop" code as Windows 8. No Windows CE at last!
- Apollo would provide the same user experience as old Windows Phone 7.x - Metro UI, People hub, builtin office apps, etc. Seems that software compatibility with WinPhone 7.x apps would be preserved, but this is just my own guess.
- All applications on Apollo are required to be signed, similar to Windows Phone 7.
- Device drivers can be written only by IHVs, MS and OEMs, not by ISVs. This would be a problem for antivirus vendors or tools like daemon-tools.
- There would be a "built-in" eMMC card with OS and vendor partitions, and maximum one SD card. eMMC supports NTFS, SD-card supports only FAT/exFAT.
Build-in eMMC would have C:\ drive letter, SD-card would be D:\ if present.
eMMC contains several partitions. Some of them would be made readonly during boot.
- Near Field Communication is built in.
- The same list of sensors as in WP7 Mango is supported.
- There would be BSOD like in a desktop OS
- Unproven, but it seems that only .NET ("Splash UI framework" and "Silverlight") APIs would be available to independent developers. So no native code again.
- Seems that x86 architecture is supported for Apollo too.

Windows Phone SDK 8.0 Download

The Windows Phone Software Development Kit (SDK) 8.0 provides you with the tools that you need to develop apps and games for Windows Phone 8 and Windows Phone 7.5.
Overview
The Windows Phone SDK 8.0 is a full-featured development environment to use for building apps and games for Windows Phone 8.0 and Windows Phone 7.5. The Windows Phone SDK provides a stand-alone Visual Studio Express 2012 edition for Windows Phone or works as an add-in to Visual Studio 2012 Professional, Premium or Ultimate editions. With the SDK, you can use your existing programming skills and code to build managed or native code apps. In addition, the SDK includes multiple emulators and additional tools for profiling and testing your Windows Phone app under real-world conditions.
System requirements
Supported operating systems: Windows 8, Windows 8 Pro
Windows 8 64-bit (x64) client versions
Hardware:
4 GB of free hard disk space
4 GB RAM
64-bit (x64) CPU
Windows Phone 8 Emulator:
Windows 8 Pro edition or greater
Requires a processor that supports Second Level Address Translation (SLAT)
If your computer meets the hardware and operating system requirements, but does meet the requirements for the Windows Phone 8 Emulator, the Windows Phone SDK 8.0 will install and run. However, the Windows Phone 8 Emulator will not function and you will not be able to deploy or test apps on the Windows Phone 8 Emulator.
Instructions
Choose the language version you want to install and click the Download button for the WPexpress_full.exe file. Follow the instructions to install the SDK. Note that each localized version of Windows Phone SDK 8.0 is designed to function with the corresponding localized operating system and localized version of Visual Studio 2012.
Note - Windows Phone SDK 8.0 installs side-by-side with previous versions of the Windows Phone SDK. You don't need to uninstall previous versions before beginning this installation.
Download the release notes which are in a separate file. For Windows Phone SDK 8.0 documentation and samples, see the Windows Phone Dev Center.
To start VS Express for Windows Phone, click the application in the Apps list. If you have Visual Studio Professional, Premium or Ultimate installed on the computer, the VS Express for Windows Phone shortcut won't appear. Instead, start your Visual Studio instance as usual and then create Windows Phone SDK 8.0 projects using the installed Windows Phone templates.
If you try to run a project in Windows Phone Emulator and Hyper-V is not enabled, you will be prompted to turn on Hyper-V. Turning on Hyper-V requires you to restart your computer.
Note: this release is also available in .iso format. Choose one of the following options for handling downloaded ISO images:
(Recommended) Write the image file to a blank DVD.
(Alternative) Mount the image file virtually as DVD devices.
Download WebSite: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=35471

So how do you learn how to use an SDK? I've always had an interest but there is never any obvious guide of how to program. I picked up UE3 SDK quickly but that is because there was like 30GB of tutorials on it, where can I do the same for this SDK?
Thanx.

You learn visual C#/B/C++. You do not directly use the SDK, you use the development tools in it

Venekor said:
So how do you learn how to use an SDK? I've always had an interest but there is never any obvious guide of how to program. I picked up UE3 SDK quickly but that is because there was like 30GB of tutorials on it, where can I do the same for this SDK?
Thanx.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
First learn Silverlight/C# and then read the SDK documentation,
To put it in simple words SDK just gives all the functions that u can use on Windows Phone.

Typically, if you learn any C# API (other than windows forms) you will learn all the others. They are very similar to each other, only some few twinks here and there due to platform differences.
---------- Post added at 11:46 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:28 PM ----------
The SDk is bugged, emulator does not work. Says it wants virtualization and my PC doesn't have it, when it clearly does. Both Android and Windows Phone 7.5 emulators work fine.
Kinda failish...from Microsoft.
oh well...the SDK system requirements are pretty damned huge. My CPU does not support SLAT apparently...

So I can just go to the Visual Studio website and follow the tutorials there? I have bad eye sight so I learn better from videos and listening instead of reading lots of text which takes me far longer to do. Luckily typing is easier as you know what you're typing on the keyboard so you don't have to pay as much attention on reading the text on screen.

Your processor needs SLAT support (extended Virtualization) also called VT-x by Intel. It is available from the Core i3/i5/i7 processors or newer AMD processors. This is due to the fact that the WP8 Emulator relies on Hyper-V instead of VirtualPC which was used for WP7. So if you have a Core 2 processor your hardware does lack required features. This is not a bug in the SDK.
On learning development of WP Apps there are series that take you around the SDK like this one: http://www.jeffblankenburg.com/2010/09/30/31-days-of-windows-phone-7/ It's still for WP7 but almost everything said there still applies for WP8, although in WP8 it was much extended. There are also Development Webcasts and Hands-On Labs you can try out. You can Google for those - there is lots of content on the topic.
But as was said before - it would be beneficial to know some C# beforehand.

I keep installing the SDK but visual studio express 2012 for windows phone doesnt appear in my start menu, says everything is installed fine, Any ideas?
Edit:btw using windows 8 x64 Evaluation Version

Do you have a regular version of Visual Studio 2012 installed? In that case the SDK integrates itself with the regular version and just adds the project type there.

StevieBallz said:
Do you have a regular version of Visual Studio 2012 installed? In that case the SDK integrates itself with the regular version and just adds the project type there.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That will be the one,, Cheers for reply.

Since no college near me teaches any programming and I have to work, I better start teaching myself.
Can any one tell me where to start?
Thanx.

Venekor said:
Since no college near me teaches any programming and I have to work, I better start teaching myself.
Can any one tell me where to start?
Thanx.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
https://dev.windowsphone.com/en-us
http://www.windowsphonegeek.com/Resources
http://www.freebookspot.es/Comments.aspx?Element_ID=259285 (book)

Does WP8 have any new ringtones/notifications or wallpapers?
I dunno if that stuff would be in the SDK, but it'd be cool to have a dump of those files.

Weird Visual Studio basically does everything for you, I was expecting you'd have to make everything from scratch. Not what I wish'd for really as I did want that experience, those guides don't teach you how to understand the language, just how to create something quickly. Kinda like when you were at school reading from a text book and they never taught you the foundations of how to create your own sentences, always taught pre existing ones.

You can look for manuals for Visual C# around the web, there are a couple of free ones created by Microsoft, but you won't find any videos.
Once you understand the basics, it will be pretty easy to get started on creating complex apps. This is the beauty of C#

can anyone give me MD5 or SHA-1 hash of the iso? thx.

If you want to learn programming from the ground up I guess it would be best to start with a regular book on programming with Visual C# 2010 or something along those lines (2012 books are still rare I guess).
The problem with starting out on Smartphone platforms is simply that there is nothing like Console programs that allow you to easily experiment with language features without having to care a lot about more complex concepts like asynchronicity, Event-models, data-binding, etc.
While I can do a simple:
public static void main(String[] args) {
Console.WriteLine("Hello World!");
}
on the Desktop to arrive at a program that outputs those famous words to the screen on the phone it is more like with a PCs GUI programming.
There you have to instantiate a Window (or Page on the Phone), place a Label control (both of which are classes) and assign a property of the label to the text. Algorithmically a lot of information is hidden in those classes. This is mainly due to the fact that during actual development people don't want to and don't need to care about the details behind those things but for learning how to do things the effect is pretty devastating.
So my suggestion would be: Take a book on C# development and work through the basic concepts of Methods, Classes, Properties, EventHandlers and then before diving into the details of WinForms development switch over to the Phone SDK and acquaint yourself with the workings of the according UI Toolkit.

how can i tell if my computer has a processor that supports Second Level Address Translation (SLAT)
my laptp is intell pentum and my desktop is amd phantom x4?

Your laptop won;t support it.
I am not entirely sure about the AMD though.
There is a tool for that in the SDK download page.

Allow 512Bit Certificates

Hello,
I have been searching high and low for a way to force my shiny new HTC 8x to accept a 512-bit Self-Signed Certificate. Our work email server is Lotus/IBM Domino. We have an EAS server (Notes Traveler) set up for our portable devices. MIcrosoft is the only OS that forces 1024-bit or greater certs. As a result, I cannot connect ot our EAS server.
More info can be found at support.microsoft.com/kb/2661254?wa=wsignin1.0
Through all the research I have been doing, I think it is possible to do this, since you can make it work with WIndows 8 by doing one of two things:
1.Add following in the registry:
reg add "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Cryptography\OID\EncodingType 0\CertDllCreateCertificateChainEngine\Config" /v minRSAPubKeyBitLength /t REG_DWORD /d 0x00000200 /f
2. use the built-in certutil to modify the registry:
certutil -setreg chain\minRSAPubKeyBitLength 512
Any thoughts on how I can do this with Windows Phone 8? I am in the process of developer-unlocking my device. I just need to wait for the SDK to finish installing into my VM.

As far as I know, there's no way to edit the registry with developer unlock.
You need more elevated privileges (Interop Unlock) and, at this moment, there's no way to obtain that on Windows Phone 8.

I know this isn't the response you are looking for, but recommend to your company to update their SSL certificate to 1024 or 2048 bits. The reason your phone won't support the 512 bit certificate is simply because it is not secure, which Microsoft finally stopped allowing last year..
Since your company is using a self-signed certificate, it should only take them a few minutes to create and install a new one that modern operating systems would support.

klamation said:
I know this isn't the response you are looking for, but recommend to your company to update their SSL certificate to 1024 or 2048 bits. The reason your phone won't support the 512 bit certificate is simply because it is not secure, which Microsoft finally stopped allowing last year..
Since your company is using a self-signed certificate, it should only take them a few minutes to create and install a new one that modern operating systems would support.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My IT department was surprisingly open to this, once they realized all the Windows PCs couldn't log into the web interface anymore. It might take a couple of weeks/months of planning to put it into their maintenance cycle, though. Oh the joys of working for a large corporation!
Something else I discovered earlier:
In order to write Windows Phone apps, you need the Windows Phone 8 SDK. To Install the Windows Phone 8 SDK, you need Windows 8. When I have time to set up another DEV box with Windows 8 on it, I might revisit this.

Any thoughts on how the OEM apps always seem to get "enhanced" access? (The HTC Carrier Settings tool, for example). I haven't used Windows Phone since 6.0. Back then, we could do ANYTHING! lol

I didn't even notice the Win8 requirement for the SDK, since I was anxious to upgrade to Win8 once it came out. Hmm. But, I think you could use the older 7.x SDK on older versions of Windows, if you want to get used to dev for Windows Phone (as WP7 Apps should still work on WP8).
About why the OEM can do special things to the device, I think it's a simple matter of, they have the OS code, so they can modify it or access things we can't.

OEM Apps are given additional permissions. They request these using some entries in the App-manifest but even if we were able to set these the system would reject their deployment unless they had a proper certificate. It has been that way on WP7 as well.
As for developing on Win7 and deploying to a WP8 device: it won't work. You can run WP7 Apps on WP8 devices but the deployment tools of the WP7 SDK can't handle WP8 devices. So to deploy anything onto a WP8 device you need the WP8 SDK which in turn requires Windows 8 Pro.