Windows Embedded Compact 7 (formerly known as Windows Embedded CE 7.0) is the seventh major release of the Windows Embedded CE

operating system An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware and software resources, and provides common daemon (computing), services for computer programs. Time-sharing operating systems scheduler (computing), schedule tasks for ...

, released on March 1, 2011. Windows Embedded Compact 7 is a real-time OS, separate from the

Windows NT Windows NT is a Proprietary software, proprietary Graphical user interface, graphical operating system produced by Microsoft as part of its Windows product line, the first version of which, Windows NT 3.1, was released on July 27, 1993. Original ...

line, and is designed to target enterprise specific tools such as industrial controllers and consumer electronics devices such as

digital cameras A digital camera, also called a digicam, is a camera that captures photographs in digital memory. Most cameras produced today are digital, largely replacing those that capture images on photographic film or film stock. Digital cameras are now ...

, GPS systems and also automotive infotainment systems. Windows Embedded Compact is designed to run on multiple CPU architectures and supports

x86 x86 (also known as 80x86 or the 8086 family) is a family of complex instruction set computer (CISC) instruction set architectures initially developed by Intel, based on the 8086 microprocessor and its 8-bit-external-bus variant, the 8088. Th ...

, SH (automotive only) and ARM. During development, a Microsoft employee working in this division claimed that Microsoft was working hard on this release and that it shares the underlying kernel with

Windows Phone Windows Phone (WP) is a discontinued mobile operating system developed by Microsoft Mobile for smartphones as the replacement successor to Windows Mobile and Zune. Windows Phone featured a new user interface derived from the Metro design languag ...

. Microsoft officially confirmed this and said that Windows Phone 7 is based on Windows Embedded CE 6.0 R3 with some features borrowed from Windows Embedded Compact 7, thus making it a hybrid solution. As with Windows Embedded CE 6.0, the platform builder for Windows Embedded Compact 7 is not a stand-alone product, but is implemented as plug-in for Microsoft Visual Studio - the version required is Visual Studio 2008 with Service Pack 1 installed.

New features

Windows Embedded Compact 7 contains these features: *Silverlight for Windows Embedded: Allows developers to develop application and user interfaces in

Silverlight Microsoft Silverlight is a discontinued application framework designed for writing and running rich internet applications, similar to Adobe's runtime, Adobe Flash. While early versions of Silverlight focused on streaming media, later version ...

using Microsoft Expression Blend *Internet Explorer for Windows Embedded: A

web browser A web browser, often shortened to browser, is an application for accessing websites. When a user requests a web page from a particular website, the browser retrieves its files from a web server and then displays the page on the user's scr ...

similar to that of

Windows Phone 7 Windows Phone 7 (WP7) is the first release of the Windows Phone mobile client operating system, released worldwide on October 21, 2010, and in the United States on November 8, 2010. It runs on the Windows CE 6.0 kernel. It serves as the successo ...

with integrated

Adobe Flash Adobe Flash (formerly Macromedia Flash and FutureSplash) is a mostly discontinuedAlthough it is discontinued by Adobe Inc., for the Chinese market it is developed by Zhongcheng and for the international enterprise market it is developed by Ha ...

v10.1 support *Touch support: Windows Embedded Compact 7 recognizes

touch The somatosensory system, or somatic sensory system is a subset of the sensory nervous system. The main functions of the somatosensory system are the perception of external stimuli, the perception of internal stimuli, and the regulation of bo ...

and

gesture A gesture is a form of nonverbal communication or non-vocal communication in which visible bodily actions communicate particular messages, either in place of, or in conjunction with, speech. Gestures include movement of the hands, face, or othe ...

input types * CPU support: Works on dual core CPUs in

symmetric multiprocessing Symmetric multiprocessing or shared-memory multiprocessing (SMP) involves a multiprocessor computer hardware and software architecture where two or more identical processors are connected to a single, shared main memory, have full access to all ...

mode *Platform support: Runs on

, SH4 (automotive only) MIPS and

ARMv7 ARM (stylised in lowercase as arm, formerly an acronym for Advanced RISC Machines and originally Acorn RISC Machine) is a family of reduced instruction set computer, RISC instruction set architectures (ISAs) for central processing unit, com ...

platforms *Media playback: Supports Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA) and

Media Transfer Protocol The Media Transfer Protocol (MTP) is an extension to the Picture Transfer Protocol (PTP) communications protocol that allows media files to be transferred automatically to and from portable devices. While technically "available" on Windows 10, ...

(MTP) *Networking: Now includes NDIS 6.1 and supports

Bluetooth Bluetooth is a short-range wireless technology standard that is used for exchanging data between fixed and mobile devices over short distances and building personal area networks (PANs). In the most widely used mode, transmission power is li ...

2.1 EDR

References

Windows CE Real-time operating systems Embedded Compact 7 {{windows-stub