WindowsCE:History

lastmod 2018-08-17created 2015-11-042 edits

The history of Windows CE is summarized below.

Windows CE 1.0

Released November 18, 1996. Codename "Alder". The devices were named HPC (handheld PC).

Codename Birch, released September 29, 1997. Additions are as follows.
Support for 256-color or 16-gray monochrome screens
Support for screens up to 640x240 resolution
The devices were named PPC (Palm-Sized PC).
Pocket PowerPoint included by default
Improved sync performance of Pocket Outlook
Support for TrueType fonts
Support for Print functionality
2.11 and 2.12 were released, fixing bugs in 2.0 and so on. (The difference between 2.11 and 2.12 is CPU support.)

Released June 15, 2000. Codename Cedar; improved kernel functionality and expanded thread priority to 256 levels. It comes in three versions.
Built on Pocket PC 2002.
eMbedded
HPC 2000 - business-oriented, so it includes Excel, Access, Word, and PowerPoint.
PPC 2000

Windows CE 4.0, released January 7, 2001, has the following key features. Codename "Talisker"
Adopts Internet Explorer 5.5.
Built-in Windows Media Player 8.5.
Built-in MSN Instant Messenger.
Better power management than 3.0.
Optimization for newer CPUs (ARMV4i or higher, such as the Intel PXA series).
Later, PPC 2002, the successor to PPC 2000, was built on Windows CE 4.0.

Windows CE 4.1 came out in October 2002. About a year later, in September 2003, Windows CE 4.2 came out. It is known to have high compatibility with PPC. It has the following features. Codename "Jameson/McKendric"
Internet Explorer 6 compatible
Built-in Media Player 9
Compatibility with PPC

Windows CE 5.0, released in August 2004, has the following features. Codename "Macallan"
Support for Media Player version 10
Networking improvements
Enhanced entertainment through the addition of DirectX libraries
Uses the same code and libraries as Windows Mobile, with many libraries added
Support for Remote Desktop Protocol

Windows 6.0, released in September 2006, has the following features. Codename "Yamazaki"
Maximum number of processes increased from 32 to 32,768
Device.exe, filesys.exe, and GWES.exe moved to kernel mode

Windows CE 7.0, released in March 2011, has the following features.
Dual-core CPU support (SMP, ARMv7)
DRM technology support
Built-in Internet Explorer 7 including Windows Phone 7's Adobe Flash Player 10.1
Support for 3GB of physical RAM and ARMv7 assembly
Improved touch and gesture recognition
Bluetooth 3.0 + HS support

A mobile device operating system built on Windows CE. There are Windows Mobile 4.5.6, and currently Windows Phone 7 (= Windows Embedded Compact 7) is available. Windows Phone is not compatible with previous operating systems and has improved design and performance.