Windows Embedded Standard Download

[Yogprasad Moneta]

imbuilding an interactive portable ad campaign device (x86 platform) with touchscreen and stuffs. which is better OS for the device, Win CE or Win embedded standard (XPE). i need to provide support for multimedia platform such as Flash for easy ad development.

Both XP embedded and Windows CE can be built using tools that allow you to add/remove components from med OS making it possible to trim it to your requirements. Most developer probably never does this but rather use what is "factory default" delivered with the hardware, or let the hardware guys make a custom made image for you.

If you get Windows Embedded Standard, I can tell you from experience that it is easy to set up as a more-or-less full-featured Windows XP installation. This means that you'll be able to install pretty much anything that would run on a normal WinXP desktop - and if it can't run, you usually can just get it to run by figuring out which component you haven't installed yet. This would be a very good feature to have if you need things like Flash.

As far as licensing goes, you're looking at a thousand dollars for the WES license, plus $90 for each WinXP license. Getting all the licensing stuff set up is a hassle because you have to go through distributors for both the WES software and the keys, and there's only 4 distributors in the US. You can get a WES demo that's good for 4 months, and you can generate an unlimited number of "demo" XP installs that last 90-180 days (their numbers, not mine). That's a very gracious amount of time for testing out whether WES suits your needs or not.

If you have a fully fledged x86 system without limitation, low power requirements or interfacing with embedded hardware as I seem to understand from your application then WinXP would win hands-down for me. WinXP has the horrible boot sequence and more venerable to security attacks but as this is not a hand-held consumable product I think I'd live without WinCE's finesse.

Your application, and the ad campaign in particular, are more important than many of the features of the OS, so I'd pick the most straightforward OS to develop on where the development OS is very similar to the target OS.

I would suggest a slight alternative to WinXP Embedded Standard. I would suggest "WinXP for Embedded Systems" (WinXP FES) which is marketed as "Windows Embedded Enterprise". This is the full version of WinXP (as you used to have on your desktop) fully supported to 2016!

The reason I'd suggest WinXP FES is for reduced upfront costs in development tools and development time, faster time to market and with the likely number of units the few extra dollars per system is not likely to be of an issue.

WinXP FES is not available through normal retail distribution (as WinXP has been discontinued), but is available though the embedded channel, the same place as you'd get WinCE and Windows XP Embedded Standard.

For those that do not know you'd need to fill out a declaration that the embedded device will not be used as a normal desktop computer doing office type functions. As long as you can demonstrate that the embedded device is not packaged as such then you'll typically be allowed to license WinXP FES.

Follow the registry hacks in this presentation to set the boot logo image, booting without the "Desktop" into your application (Kiosk Mode), suppressing pop-up messages etc. to make WinXP look more like an embedded OS.

Just to add my 2 cents:

I've been working with Windows CE for 2 years now and haven't found a free solution for Flash. Not even an open source library. I am not sure how many companies out there sell Flash solutions for Windows CE and what the price is. (The only company that I know of and saw that have a solution for Flash is BSQUARE, but I don't know the price)

Bottom line is that XPE will give you way faster time to market. And it might result in a plus minus same price if you put into the equation the time and license for the Flash you will need for Windows CE (Not sure about that...).

Why have you narrowed down to those choices? WinCE typically runs on much more highly constrained (and less expensive) hardware, and will run on multiple architectures. XPe on the other hand runs on x86/PC hardware only.

Windows CE Although it offers a "limited" version of the Win32 API and run the Compact Framework version of .Net, it is a reasonably complete development environment. If you start development targeting the platform you should not run into many problems. Licensing is very reasonable (about $10/copy). It is available for a number of different CPUs.

Windows XPe The promise of Windows XPe is that you get full Windows in a smaller package. The trick is that the smaller package involves leaving some part of Windows behind. Many people find that they end up with essentially all of XP in order to support the parts of XP they want to use. Windows XPe only runs on x86 processors. Licensing is similar to desktop Windows (about $100). On the plus side desktop applications should run on it without changes.

As a note, neither of these are regular Windows and despite Microsofts marketing champaign's, you should be prepared to spend some time to learn about the OS you choose. Better yet look into a consulting company in your area that can walk you through the first deployment.

Finally, a comment on Linux. We looked at Linux as well. We did end up choosing Windows Embedded CE, but it was close. We had several people on staff that were already familiar with Linux (while others were already familiar with CE). Initially we had better performance with Linux, though we were able to get comparable performance from Windows Embedded CE. Our product is shipping now and performing very well.

1 - My first idea was to get the Application Builder license to create an exe file, install the Labview 2013 Run-Time Engine on my touch panel and run the exe. But I discovered that embedded OS doesn't support exe file. What is the missing piece of my puzzle here to make that work?

2 - My second idea was to get the Touch Panel Module license instead of the Application Builder. The Touch Panel Module developing tools are not interesting for me in that case because my HMI is already developped using LabVIEW Base Development System only. However the TPC service to link my host computer to my embedded touch panel via TCP/IP is interesting. So I guess I have to install the Labview 2013 Run-Time Engine and the TPC Service on my embedded touch panel and I'm ready to go. After my application is launched from my host, can I disconnect it and let the embedded touch panel run on its own? Or even better : can I launch the application directly in my embedded touch panel without an host?

You will need either the Touch Panel Module or the Datalogging and Supervisory Control Module (DSC). Either of these modules will allow you to deploy and install NI software to your touch panel. They also include many other features for developing those applications. You will also need a deployment license for any non-NI touch panel that you plan on deploying the applications to. The other software needed on the touch panel itself will include the LabVIEW Run-Time Engine and the NI TPC Service. The following link has some information on this:

Once deployed, the program will run as a stand-alone application that can be started from the HMI itself. Of course this depends on the functionality you create within the application, just like you would for any standard LabVIEW application.

Now, let's forget about embedded touch panel. If I build a stand-alone application (*.exe) with the Application Builder feature, can I run it on any computer with the LabVIEW Runtime Engine installed. Otherwise, like the embedded touch panel, do i need to acquire a deployment license for every computer I want to run stand-alone application on?

Some NI products and services require additional deployment licenses (see link below). If these are included in the build, or being deployed directly, then they will need to be licensed. If you are just using a licensed version of LabVIEW along with Application Builder, then you do not need any additional deployment licenses for the application or the Run-Time Engine.

Let's go back to my embedded touch panel. I noticed that those deployment licenses seem to be made for hardware. For example, the deployment license #779708-01 from your paper includes a NI Touch Panel. If I run an application built exclusively with the LabVIEW Development System and containing no hardware, do I still need a deployment license for every non-NI touch panel I want my applications running on?

This license is included with the purchase of a NI Touch Panel. Otherwise, you can purchase one for a 3rd party touch panel if you plan on running the TPC Service on that device. If you just want to run a LabVIEW application on the device as-is then you shouldn't need a license. However, you will have to manually get it installed and running properly. You might be limited on support at that point.

According to this paper ( -paper/13048/en/) on section 1, NI can provide WES7 image for NI hardware. Could NI also provide an image containing all the requirements to make a built LabVIEW application (along with Application Builder) work? Or at least, a list of necessary packages so I can build the WES7 image myself?

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Windows Embedded Compact 7 provides resources for designers, developers and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to bring high-performing, reliable and differentiated devices to market more quickly with the latest tools and technology including Internet Explorer with Adobe Flash 10.1 integrated; and integrated development tools such as Platform Builder, Visual Studio, Expression Blend, and Silverlight for Windows Embedded user interface framework.

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