another question regarding QFEs

[Ten]

Hi,

On the QFE page, there are three headings: XPe with SP1, XPe with SP1 and
XPe without SP1, and XPe without SP1. Each heading contains several QFEs.

It seems to me that the QFEs should be mutually exclusive between SP1 and
non-SP1 installations. Although the page implies that the QFEs under the
heading "with and without SP1" are OK to apply to an SP1 installation, I am
suspicious because elsewhere on the site, it implies that once you use a SP1
component you must change all components to be SP1 (or something to that
effect). Seems like you should just install them all and get it over with.

1. Why is there a "XPe with SP1 and without SP1"?

-----------------------------------------

My development environment is set up with two development stations (XPe
Developer Tools) connected to SQL Server running on a W2K Server.

Dev1 <--> 2KServer (SQL Server) <--> Dev2

I have run all the QFEs on Dev1.

Most of the QFE's update/add a component in/to the database. I'm wary of
each developer going out and discovering that there are QFEs to install and
end up updating the server twice. That is, the guy on dev 2 doing exactly
what I did. I don't think this will be a problem but you never know. Seems
like one the components in the component database are updated, they don't
need to be updated again.

2. Is it OK to run the QFEs from both development machines?

Some of the QFEs contain updates to the binaries for the development
machines.

3. Is there a list of which QFEs are for development tool updates (like the
one for SDI) and which are for database content updates?

Thanks,
Nick.

 

[Jon Fincher (MS)]

Hi,

On the QFE page, there are three headings: XPe with SP1, XPe with SP1
and XPe without SP1, and XPe without SP1. Each heading contains several
QFEs.

It seems to me that the QFEs should be mutually exclusive between SP1
and non-SP1 installations. Although the page implies that the QFEs
under the heading "with and without SP1" are OK to apply to an SP1
installation, I am suspicious because elsewhere on the site, it implies
that once you use a SP1 component you must change all components to be
SP1 (or something to that effect). Seems like you should just install
them all and get it over with.

1. Why is there a "XPe with SP1 and without SP1"?

OK, I know the web page is a bit confusing, but it's as clear as it can be
without launching into a complete discussion of our build process.

We first released XPE two years ago, and started building QFE's for it.
We refer to that release as "XPE without SP1", and the QFE's that apply to
it are under the link "Windows XP Embedded (without Service Pack 1)".

When we released XPE with SP1, we included the QFE's we made for the
original release. However, because of the delay between our final build
and the release of XPE with SP1, there were some QFE's we made for the
original version that didn't make it into the SP1 release. Those QFE's
that are applicable to RTM configuration, but not available in the SP1
release are under the label "Windows XP Embedded with Service Pack 1 and
Windows XP Embedded". They exist because you can build SLX's that were
made with the original version in the SP1 version.

After we released XPE with SP1, we stopped making QFE's for the original
version and only made QFE's for the most recent version - those are the
QFE's that are specific to XPE with SP1. They live under the label
"Windows XP Embedded with Service Pack 1".

So, if you have XPE with SP1, and are only building SP1 runtimes, you only
need to worry about the "Windows XP Embedded with Service Pack 1" QFE's -
the rest are either already in your product, not applicable to your
situation, or both. If you're building original SLX's in SP1, then you
need to worry about the "Windows XP Embedded with Service Pack 1 and
Windows XP Embedded" as well. If you still don't have SP1, then you need
to worry about the "Windows XP Embedded with Service Pack 1 and Windows XP
Embedded" and "Windows XP Embedded (without Service Pack 1)" sections.

Clear as mud?

-----------------------------------------

My development environment is set up with two development stations (XPe
Developer Tools) connected to SQL Server running on a W2K Server.

Dev1 <--> 2KServer (SQL Server) <--> Dev2

I have run all the QFEs on Dev1.

Most of the QFE's update/add a component in/to the database. I'm wary
of each developer going out and discovering that there are QFEs to
install and end up updating the server twice. That is, the guy on dev 2
doing exactly what I did. I don't think this will be a problem but you
never know. Seems like one the components in the component database are
updated, they don't need to be updated again.

2. Is it OK to run the QFEs from both development machines?

Yes, you can install XPE QFE's multiple times from different machines -
you won't do anything but kill a few cycles.

Some of the QFEs contain updates to the binaries for the development
machines.

3. Is there a list of which QFEs are for development tool updates (like
the one for SDI) and which are for database content updates?

We don't break the QFE's down like that, but the instructions for each QFE
should tell you what the QFE fixes and how to install it.

 

[Gordon Smith \(eMVP\)]

Jon, that's a great description and should be helpful to many people.
However, there are still people that don't use the newsgroups but instead
rely upon the clarity of the website. Could you, or some softie, could
create a cliff notes version of what you wrote and put it on the website
with the QFE list?

--Gordon Smith (eMVP)

 

[Ravi [MS]]

Point taken, thanks for the feedback. Will incorporate
this into our website.

Thanks,
Ravi, MS
Embedded Devices Group
Disclaimer: This posting is provided *AS IS* with no
warranties, and confers no rights.

 

[Ten]

Jon,

Thanks for the explanation. I understand.

With the clarification of the time line, the information on the web site
indeed reflects what is needed to know. The part that I was missing was
whether or not support for the older SLX files was something to be added to
the project (sort of like a library) or if it was something else.

I think my confusion was because I am relatively green with respect to XPe
and still forming a frame of reference for the concept of building the OS
image first then building an application to run on the OS.

When building the XPe image, condsider the XPe image as the "application"
and the hardware it will run on as the "target OS". Once this step is
complete, switch back to the "normal" mode of thinking and develop apps for
XPe as you would for regular XP.

Thanks,
Nick.