Overview of the Windows CE Operating System

Microsoft® Windows® CE is a compact, highly efficient, multiplatform operating system. It is not a reduced version of Microsoft® Windows® 95, but was designed from the ground up as a multithreaded, fully preemptive, multitasking operating system for platforms with limited resources. Its modular design allows it to be customized for products ranging from consumer electronic devices to specialized industrial controllers.

General Features of Windows CE

• Provides you with a modular operating system that you can customize for specific products. The basic core of the operating system requires less than 200 KB of ROM.
• Provides interrupt delivery, prioritizing, and servicing.
• Runs on a wide variety of platforms.
• Supports more than 1,000 of the most frequently used Microsoft® Win32® functions, along with familiar development models and tools.
• Supports a variety of user-interface hardware, including touch screen and color displays with up to 32-bits-per-pixel color depth.
• Supports a variety of serial and network communication technologies.
• Supports Mobile Channels to provide Web services for Windows CE users.
• Supports COM/OLE, Automation, and other advanced methods of interprocess communication.

Windows CE has four primary modules or groups of modules.

• The kernel supports basic services, such as process and thread handling and memory management.
• The file system supports persistent storage of information.
• The graphics windowing and events subsystem (GWES) controls graphics and window-related features.
• The communications interface supports the exchange of information with other devices.

The Windows CE operating system also contains a number of additional modules that support such tasks as managing installable device drivers and supporting COM/OLE. The following illustration describes how these features fit into the overall structure of the Windows CE operating system.

Windows CE operating system structure