How start/stop applications on ActiveSync cradled device

Question

Is is it possible to, from a desktop program, start or stop an application or send commands to a cradled Windows Mobile device attached via a USB cradle to the PC?

Scenario: I would like to automate a process that involves closing a (poorly-designed0 application the handheld so that I can backup and remove some of its files which are locked while its running, change some things, and then start a different program on the handheld which automatically recreates some of the files.

Any thoughts on this would be appreciated. Thanks!

Answer 1

You can use RAPI to manipulate the connected device from a Windows desktop application. There is a managed C# wrapper available for managed development. You can use C API or a COM interface to program RAPI in the native world.

To start a program on the device using the C API, you would call CeCreateProcess. To kill a process from the desktop you have two options: 1) write a RAPI dll, or 2) write a simple mobile app that closes the process and call this program via CeCreateProcess. See this answer for more information.

Answer 2

you can use the dll OpenNetCF.Desktop.Communication to perform this procedure, but I'm not sure that this library has the ability to close the application, take a look at the website: http://rapi.codeplex.com/

I checked quickly, and have not found a method to finalize the function, but the CreateProcess method has an output parameter ProcessInfo and this struct has a handle, you can verify that with this information you could terminate the application via CloseHandle.