Can’t Get Microsoft ActiveSync to Work in Windows Vista?

On January 20, 2007

If you have been using Microsoft ActiveSync to synchronize your Windows Mobile powered devices in Windows XP and now are planning to upgrade your PC to Windows Vista, this blog entry is for you.

I recently did a fresh install of Windows Vista on a client laptop that was previously running Windows XP SP2. I wanted to make sure that Microsoft Outlook will synchronize with the Pocket PC Phone, just like it did in Windows XP. I assumed that the support for mobile devices is better on Windows Vista so that should be a no brainer. It turned out that I was completely wrong. Microsoft ActiveSync 4.2, which is the latest version of ActiveSync synchronization software for Windows Mobile powered devices, doesn’t work on Windows Vista. It only supports Windows XP and earlier versions. There is a Microsoft ActiveSync 4.5 Beta 2, which is also not supported on Windows Vista.

On Windows XP, you can use ActiveSync 4.2 to synchronize your PC via USB cable, Bluetooth, or infrared connection. According to Microsoft “If you have Windows Vista, your synchronization settings will be managed through the Windows Mobile Device Center. Windows Mobile Device Center is available through Windows Update and the Windows Mobile Device Center page.” I am sure there are good reasons, which I don’t know, for not including Windows Mobile Device Center in Windows Vista.

Although you can download the Windows Mobile Device Center (Beta 3 release) from Microsoft’s Web site, it is only meant for Windows Vista RC1. In addition, Microsoft recommends that you do not use this beta software on your production computer. To summarize, Windows Vista doesn’t support ActiveSync and Windows Mobile Device Center is still in Beta and is only supported on Windows Vista RC1. Just out of curiosity, I downloaded and installed the Microsoft Windows Mobile Device Center Beta 3 for Windows Vista (published on 10/6/06), only to find out that it didn’t do the job.

After a lot of Googling, I discovered a solution that involved hacking the registry to include a WHOS key. This solution posted on microsoftweblog.com finally solved the problem and showed me the update that was missing after running Windows Update. Here’s the solution.

1. Start the registry editor (regedit.exe).
2. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software/Microsoft.
3. Right-click the Microsoft key and then select New, Key and add a key called WHOS.
4. Reboot your computer (some people have been able to get this to work without rebooting but I had to reboot to see the results).
5. Run Windows Update. You will notice a new update that will allow you to configure and synchronize using Windows Mobile Device Center. You should reboot again after the update.
6. Configure your mobile device and synchronize with your Windows Vista PC.

Needless to say, there are some questions as to how well Windows Vista supports mobile devices. Windows Vista was RTM’d in November and as of today there is still no official replacement for Microsoft ActiveSync. In addition, you can only add one mobile device at a time in Windows Vista, which is not Microsoft’s intent but perhaps this is an issue because the Windows Mobile Device Center is still in beta. And there is still no support for podcasting.

Despite all these hassles with ActiveSync, do I still recommend that people upgrade their Windows XP computers to Windows Vista, the answer is ABSOLUTELY! The advantages of upgrading to Windows Vista far outweigh the disadvantages.

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