If you've been hanging onto a Windows Mobile phone or PDA you bought 4 years ago because it still does the job, odds are you haven't been able to install cool new programs like the Iris or NetFront web Browsers, MSN Direct, or the Last.fm player for Windows Mobile. But how can you know if it's worth buying a newer device that runs Windows Mobile 5.0 or 6? Why not take the newer operating systems for a test drive using Microsoft Device Emulator?

Just so you know, installing Windows Mobile 5.0 or 6 in an emulator is easy. Getting it to interact with your desktop so you can copy and install files takes a bit more work. And you'll need a fairly fast computer to run the emulator. On our system it ate up to 340MB of RAM and used a fair bit of CPU cycles.
First you need to select the operating system you want to emulate. Microsoft offers ROM images for Windows Mobile 6, Windows Mobile 5.0, and Windows Mobile 2003SE. Download and install your OS of choice. You may be prompted to install a virtual machine network driver. This used to be offered as a standalone download, but it's now part of Microsoft's Virtual PC application. Don't worry if you get a message saying you're installing Virtual PC on an unsupported operating system. It should work just fine on Windows XP SP2 or Windows Vista.

Once you've installed your emulator, you should be able to start up a virtual Windows Mobile device by choosing the version of the operating system you want to run from Start Menu->Programs->Windows Mobile 6 SDK->Standalone Emulator Images->US English. This of course, assumes you've chosen to install Windows Mobile 6.

OK, so now you've got Windows Mobile 6 up and running. But what if you want to install files or check out the web browsing experience? First thing you need to do is find the Device Emulator Manager. You should be able to pull this up from the Start Menu->Programs->Windows Mobile 6 SDK->Tools menu.

As long as your virtual machine is running, you should notice one entry, probably under "other." Right-click on that entry, and select "Cradle." Now your virtual device should try to connect with your host computer using Microsoft ActiveSync, assuming you've already got ActiveSync installed. This will let you install applications or copy files to your device using ActiveSync. You should also be able to share your desktop's internet connection this way.

If you'd rather pretend that you're using a wireless network, go to the emulator window (not the device manager window) and select "configure" from the File menu. Under Network, check the box next to the option that asks if you'd like to enable the PCMCIA network adapter. Note that some of these options may differ depending on which version of Windows Mobile you're attempting to emulate.

[via NS Basic]