Share via

Troubleshooting the Application Manager

  • Article

4/19/2010

The following tips may help if you are having trouble installing your application with the Application Manager.

Make sure that when you call CEAppMgr.exe to register an application, you use the full path for the location of the CEAppMgr .ini file.

If you are experiencing problems registering your application with the Application Manager, ensure that you have set the following desktop registry values to receive simple debugging messages:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows CE Services\AppMgr
    ReportErrors = (DWORD) 1

If installation appears to complete successfully, but the application is not properly installed on the device, in the CEAppMgr .ini file, verify that the string list in the CabFiles key contains no unnecessary spaces and matches the actual .cab file name and relative path. Alternatively, ensure that the string value in the Component key does not exist elsewhere in the .ini file. Last, verify that the setup application for the desktop computer is calling the correct CEAppMgr .ini file, using the full directory path.

Various third-party desktop setup applications do not correctly update the actual file sizes when overwriting existing files. Because the Application Manager verifies the actual file size with the embedded file size of the .cab file, be sure that the installed .cab file sizes are correct. To ensure this for future upgrade scenarios, delete the known existing .cab files when you reinstall an application.

See Also

Concepts

The Application Manager
Application Manager .ini File Format
Registering with Application Manager
Application Manager Registry Settings