Explanation of Handheld Devices:

Handheld devices follow many different rules than regular computers or tablet computers. The handheld computers (and fork truck units) typically have two types of storage; volatile and non-volatile. All of the running files, such as the operating system files or custom software, are stored in volatile RAM. This RAM will not erase as long as there is power available in the backup battery. The non-volatile ROM is what stores the operating system files and any configuration settings. When the handheld completely looses power, (including the backup battery) this is a condition called "cold booting". When a handheld cold boots it will start with a Power On Self Test, and proceed to copy all of the files from the /platform/ directory (in non-volatile RAM) to the appropriate locations. After the fresh operating system is initialized, the handheld will auto merge the registry files (.reg) located in the /application/ and /platform/ folders. Then handheld will then search the /application/ and platform directories for copy files (.cpy). These copy files generally will copy files from non-volatile locations to volatile locations, like the /windows/ directory.

Explanation of Deployment

There were several deliverables that needed to be achieved in order to claim success on this project. First was stability. By nature, the handhelds will delete the installation files after the installation. This enables the handhelds to keep the overall image small. Deleting the installation files creates a problem on multiple cold boots. The first installation will be successful, but the second will break. This issue was resolved by the installation program that Brent Blawat made for the company. It initially checks to see if the installation cabs are available for installation. If the files are, it will proceed with the installation. If the files aren't, it will copy the required files from a non-volatile location. All of the installations were rigorously tested to ensure the stability of the deployment.

The second deliverable was remote deployment. For the remote deployment, we chose a software named Wavelink Avalanche. Brent Blawat was responsible for developing the remote deployment strategy. The deployment was implemented by segregating each of the elements of the custom software solution into separate packages. Each of these packages were deployed to the handheld. An installation package was then deployed to the handhelds after all of the "core" elements were deployed to the handhelds. This package would install all of the software and setup the gun as if it were being setup via Microsoft ActiveSync.

One of the last deliverables was the tweaking of the handheld devices. There were several registry changes that were made to the handhelds. These changes needed to be deployed via Wavelink Avalanche and had to be automatically merged into the registry. Custom packages were developed for this operation and each of these registry files.