In case you hadn’t noticed, the final release of the Windows Embedded Standard 7 Toolkit is now available to those who have a MSDN Embedded Subscription.
If you need a MSDN Embedded subscription you can purchase on-line here.
A frequent question is “what are the differences between the two flavours of WES 7?”
Fortunately there is a definitive list of differences on the Microsoft site.
I don’t think the lack of ability to be an RDP Host, the omission of “Consumer” or “Advanced Enterprise” features are too important across the broad spectrum of embedded devices. The 3 omissions from the lower-cost WS7E SKU (Stock Keeping Unit) that really matter are:
- single image multi-language support
- touch
- security features including BitLocker and AppLocker
All highly desirable features in kiosk, POS, and other interactive application types such as industrial automation which means that most of our customers will be needing WS7P.
In considering the differences between Windows Embedded Standard 7 and 2009, in the main, we’re talking about the differences between Windows 7 and Windows XP on which the two are based, which are considerable. Windows 7 brings various new features, which may hold value depending on the nature of the embedded product under consideration.
Let’s look at some of the features of Windows 7 which are most relevant to the embedded situation:
Most noticeable are Internet Explorer 8, Windows Media Player 12, Remote Desktop Protocol 7, Silverlight 3, .NET Framework 3.5 SP1. Any of these could prove decisively useful for the right product type, however the last two bring the greatest general embedded appeal. All with the possible exception of Windows Media Player 12 can run on XP, and therefore on Windows Embedded Standard 2009 – but of course it’s what is included out of the box that is critical, and all those features are in with the base configuration of Standard 7.
AppLocker and BitLocker are brand new features in Windows 7 which should be particularly useful in completely securing an embedded device, and making it virus-proof.
UI features such as Windows Touch and Aero which provide the opportunity to create the “immersive” user experience seem to be a key driver for those considering taking up Standard 7.
And let’s not forget 64-bit operation. Faster boot times and improved power management are mentioned, and will be the subject of a future post when we have more experience.
Image size is much larger for Windows Embedded Standard 7, typically occupying 3GB vs 500MB for 2009. I’m not sure how much this matters these days. Either way, booting from a flash device is the likely scenario.
Standard 7 is not available for deployment until June, and pricing of the two versions (of which more in a later post) have not been announced. You would logically expect the higher end WS7P version which includes Touch, AppLocker/Bitlocker, multi-language support and Media Center to be significantly more expensive than Standard 2009.
Note that development process is fundamentally different, with the Standard 7 image being built on a target (or more accurately a “reference device”), while the Windows Embedded Standard 2009 image is built on the development system. The tools are completely different for the two systems. Standard 7 tools include the interactive Image Builder Wizard (IBW), which gives an easy path to image creation on its own, and Image Configuration Editor (ICE).
Deployment and servicing of an image is also completely changed (not covered in this post).
An MSDN Embedded Subscription gives access to development tools for both operating systems, however the Standard 7 tools are currently only available in evaluation form, with the official release for outright purchase and MSDN subscribers set to appear in early June.
What is it?: It’s Windows 7 sliced and diced and, indeed, a little spiced up for use in embedded devices
And it differs from Windows 7 how, exactly?: It’s componentized, so it’s smaller and can be booted from a solid state device. It has “embedded enabling features”, plus its own tools to create and deploy an image.
Why is it significant?: Since Standard 7 is based on Windows 7, this means that all the sexy UI features of the desktop are coming to an embedded device near you soon – whether it be a kiosk, an ATM, an industrial controller, a mixing desk or whatever. So that’s multi-touch and gesture based GUI, Windows Media Player 12, Silverlight 3, Aero and all the rest of it.
What hardware does it run on?: Like Windows 7, any x86, including 64-bit, that is suitably capable (min 512MB RAM, 1GHz x86). The interesting possibilities in embedded are Atom (and Moorestown etc. beyond) for handheld-ish devices, and big multicore devices which can do the heavy lifting that some industrial or signal processing apps need.
What do you mean by “smaller”?: We’re seeing typical image sizes from 1 – 3GB. That compares with 16GB for Windows 7, and 300-500MB for Standard 2009. Not quite as small as the best-case figures that Microsoft is giving out, but small enough for the job.
“Embedded Enabling Features???”: There’s HORM (Hibernate Once Resume Many) so that you can speed up boot by resuming from a known good image, giving an “on time” of 10-15 seconds, write filters so that you can constrain the ability of apps to overwrite the image, USB Boot, Custom shell – because it’s not supposed to be a PC and need not look like one, and other stuff – look at the Windows Embedded Standard 7 webpage.
Any more interesting features?: Well, think of Windows 7, and all those features are there. AppLocker is particularly promising for embedded use as you can secure your device by explicitly controlling what applications can be executed. Deployment of updates is very slick – you can even update live systems.
What about the tools?: The old tools associated with XPe and Windows Embedded Standard 2009 have disappeared to be replaced by IGW (Image Generator Wizard) – a quick and easy way to create an image, and ICE (Image Configuration Editor) which gives you full control. There are now two ways to get the tools, you can buy a toolkit (and there is still a 180-day free evaluation which does everything up to the point of deployment/licensing), or you can get an MSDN Embedded Subscription which gives you all embedded toolkits (XPe, Standard 2009, Standard 7, CE 6.0,, CE future. Visual Studio 2005/2008/2010 – basically everything that has been and everything that comes up in the next 12 months), plus the advantage of “developer updates” so that, as with the desktop, you get to see and download all the patches and upgrades as they arrive.
When is it available?: Right now, the product is announced, and the 180-day evaluation toolkit is available to download. Later this month (May 2010) pricing of the two versions of the product will be announced. From June, full toolkits will be available (including via MSDN Subscription), and you’ll be able to buy licences.
That’s all for now. I’ll blog about the different versions of Standard 7 later this week…
We are now delighted to be running Microsoft’s official 2-dayhands-on training course Building Embedded Devices with Windows Embedded Standard 7. Dates on the Windows Embedded training index page.
The first two classes are at Microsoft, Reading – we hope to see you there…
A regular question we still get asked, “What Microsoft Windows Embedded CE License do we require?”
Well presently in Windows Embedded CE 6.0 R3 there are 4 variants. These being Core, Core Plus, CID (C6G) and Professional.
Obviously which one you need to purchase will depend on the components included as part of the Platform Builder Workspace. The list of what is included in each variant can be found on the Microsoft web page:-
You can find the information on the Microsoft Embedded web here.
Then to check the image you’ve built is what you think you’ll need to use the VS2005 Platform Builder built in tool. To use the Run-Time License Assessment Tool
1. From the Tools menu, select Platform Builder for CE 6.0, and then select Run-time License Assessment Tool.
2. To continue, view the Terms of Use for the Run-Time License Assessment Tool and then click Accept. Otherwise, click Decline to close the dialog box and cancel the operation.
3. In the Run-time License Assessment Tool dialog box, in the Current CE Run-Time Image field, click Open and then navigate to the directory where the run-time image file that you want to license is located.
4. To save the report in HTML format for future reference, from the File menu, select Save Report.
Hope this is of help.
The new Power-over-Ethernet standard IEEE 802.3at-2009, doubling the available power to 25W is interesting in that it greatly increases the number and type of in-premises applications that can be powered in this way.
An Atom-powered processor board takes about 4W, which with the old system only left 9W max for a screen. Now that figure is increased to 21W, it opens the way for wired digital signeage and kiosk apps to be wall-wart-free.
This new technology is up and running and proving popular with our Atom-based Cinnamon Bay boards, and we’re also expecting to implement this latest type of PoE with our latest Cortex-A8-based ARM solutions where a 1W board can drive an HD screen.
A support incident today reminded me that many people who have installed and use Platform Builder CE 6.0 forget you can enable Multiprocessor Build support.
This will reduce the overall time it takes to build a platform workspace and it can be autodetected. But it seems that this is not the default. The default is a Manual selected number of processors = 1
The selection is accessed via “Tools” / “Options” with the selection options as captured below.
There’s now an MSDN subscription for users of Windows CE and Windows Embedded Standard. It’s officially called “Visual Studio 2008 Professional Edition with MSDN Embedded Subscription”.
It’s an alternative way to acquire the required development tools (Platform Builder, Target Designer, etc), and a good deal for many users because you get absolutely everything. The toolkits for both Windows CE (including Platform Builder and VS2005) as well as for XPe and Windows Embedded Standard are there. As well as all previous versions, you get all new versions for a year, so in a year where both WES and CE will change version that has to be a good deal.
Where do I buy it? From us if you like…,